Rebel Highway: Roadracers

Rebel Highway (1994)
Episode 1: Roadracers
Original Airdate: July 22, 1994

Jeff and Cheryl cruise down Rebel Highway with the first episode, Roadracers.

Written by Robert Rodriguez and Tommy Nix
Directed by Robert Rodriguez 

Cast: 
David Arquette as Dude Delaney
John Hawkes as Nixer
Salma Hayek as Donna
Jason Wiles as Teddy Leather
William Sadler as Sarge
O'Neal Compton as J.T.
Christian Klemash as Crony 1
Aaron Vaughn as Crony 2
Tammy Brady Conrad as Julie
Mark Lowenthal as Rookie
Karen Landry as Donna's Mom
Lance Le Gault as Donna's Dad
Tommy Nix as Drummer
Gina Mari as Wanda
Boti Bliss as Julie's Friend
Johnny Reno as Rock n' Roller
Kevin McCarthy as Miles 

An Arkoff / Hill / Kutner Production 

View the Road Racers trailer here. 

You can stream Road Racers on Fubo or rent it on Prime Video, Fandango at Home, or Apple TV+. 
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Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
These kids ain't the same anymore.

(00:02):
And you know what's behind it all?
Rock 'n' roll.
That music is turning the kids into a bunch of sex-hungrey,
beer-drinkin’, road-racin' werewolves...
I can't do it!
An outlaw teen...
Bad!
On a fast track to nowhere.
The world's not really accommodating to the people we want to do things differently.

(00:24):
In a town where you play by the rules.
Nobody makes their own rules at my time.
Or you're playing with fire.
Are you sure you're gonna be going out with someone like Dude?
Yes.
I'll be sure to get her back. Just leave so can't.

(00:50):
From Robert Rodriguez, director of the acclaimed El Mariachi.
Join David Arquette, Helen Schafer and William Sadler.
As 50s cool.
Meet 90s style in a small town.
Heading for a big showdown.

(01:13):
Roadracers.
We're not talking about actors.
We mean a real monster. I brought her back.
She'll live and I'll get her another body.
I know that's gonna catch me but don't let anyone see me like that! Please, doctor! Help me!
Biologically speaking, it's of primary importance that man should want to mate.

(01:34):
Hey, that's right!
You don't get all your kicks from surfing, do you?
We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man.
And we want to get loaded.
You think you're gonna make a slave of the world?
I'll see you in Hell first!
The American International Podcast.
Are you ready?

(01:56):
This is the American International Podcast. I'm Jeff Markin.
I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And we're your American International Podcasters.
And we're starting a new series this week.
We're going to be looking at the Rebel Highway series that aired on Showtime in 1994,
starting with episode one, Road Racers.
The Rebel Highway series was commissioned by Showtime and titles from 10 American International Pictures movies

(02:18):
were selected.
Ten directors were selected and they were given free reign to do whatever they wanted with the movie.
They didn't have to follow a plot.
They just had to do something that went with the title.
And they would all be period films that took place in the times that the original films were released.
So, think late 1950s.
The first episode, Roadracers, was directed by Robert Rodriguez,

(02:39):
written by him and his friend Tommy Nick's, and produced by Lou Arkoff, son of Sam.
David Geiler, Deborah Hill, and Willie Kutner.
Roadracers, stars, David Arquette as Dude, Salma Hayek as Donna, John Hawkes as Nixer, Jason Wiles as Teddy,
William Sadler as Sarge, O'Neal Compton as JT,
Tammy Brady Conrad as Julie, Mark Lowenthal as Rookie.

(03:03):
It also stars Christian Klemash as Crony #1, Aaron Vaughn as Crony # 2,
Karen Landry as Donna's mom, Lance LeGault as Donna's dad,
Boti Bliss as Julie's friend, Tommy Nix as drummer, Gina Mari as Wanda,
Johnny Reno as Rock n' Roller and Kevin McCarthy as Miles.
The movie opens with a police chase.

(03:25):
David Arquette as Dude is on the run.
This is set to Rockabilly music, which provides the tempo for the entire movie.
It's not just the soundtrack, it's the pacing as well.
It's fast, it's urgent, and there are a lot of quick cuts in this movie.
Everything just happens one after another.
There's not a lot of time to sit around and think about it.
Best and furious, you might say.
You could say that, yeah.
As the car chase continues, we find ourselves in a club where a band is playing.

(03:50):
Samahayek as Donna is there, and she's looking a little annoyed.
This isn't her kind of music.
Also, she's checking her watch.
Dude is late, but he is on the way.
He's got to elude that police car first.
So what he does is he turns around on the highway, turns off his lights and waits.
As the police car approaches him, he turns on his lights,
and they veer off the road to avoid hitting him and drive right into a billboard that says,

(04:13):
"You're in God's country, don't drive like hell through it."
Very apt.
We read a little bit of Robert Rodriguez' commentary on how he made this movie.
That's an actual sign he saw somewhere when he was driving to New Mexico.
So they crashed into the sign having eluded the cops,
dude, pulls into the parking lot of the club and goes inside.
Danah tells him he's late.
She only came here because he likes this music, not her.

(04:34):
But I think they make up because they go and listen to the music.
They leave the barstools and go stand in the crowd with everybody else.
They seem to be enjoying it.
Well, Dude certainly is.
This is some pretty hardcore rockabilly that they're playing.
There's a guy on sax.
And the way that it's cut, it's more of fast and furious.
Yeah, we're going to see a lot of that in this movie.
That's just how Robert Rodriguez makes movies.

(04:55):
That's kind of his style, yeah.
He shoots with an editor's eye.
So he knows how he's going to edit it.
So he just shoots to accommodate that rather than worrying about all the extra stuff.
Getting all the coverage and all the setups.
He gets his coverage quickly.
He doesn't do multiple takes over and over and over again.
Exactly.
It's pretty amazing.
Actually, the way his mind works.
He was made to make movies.

(05:16):
Well, they make out a little bit on the dance floor.
And then they leave.
Danah needs to get home because she's been late home before.
And her parents gave her her time.
And she doesn't want to deal with that again.
So the climate of the car and they head back home.
Then we find ourselves at a movie theater.
In Beijing, the body snatchers is featured on the marquee.
But there's all supposed for a reform school girl and motorcycle gang.
And in the box office,

(05:38):
lobby cards for teenage caveman, all AIP films.
So there's that nod there except for invasion of the body snatchers, of course.
Well, no, but that movie comes up a lot during this movie.
It's an outdoor kiosk to sell tickets.
And there's a girl standing inside.
We'll later find out her name is Wanda.
And another character who is Nick sir sneaks up to the kiosk,
crouches down in front of it.
And then all of a sudden stands straight up and then licks the glass on the kiosk.

(06:01):
He runs his tongue up the window.
Who else has touched that glass?
That's really disgusting.
Causing Wanda to scream.
I want to.
And this is apparently his way of hitting on her because he asked her to a movie.
And she says no.
And then he asked her again.
And she says no.
And she says no five times.
And finally he gives up because dude and Donna drive by.
So he runs and jumps in their car.
He immediately starts telling them about the movie that he just saw in Beijing of the body snatchers.

(06:24):
This movie is kind of given Nick sir an existential crisis.
Yeah people they just go to sleep and they change and they're not who they were before.
How do you deal with that?
Could it be happening now?
While this is going on a car full of ruffians drives up next to them.
Also two girls sit on the back seat of the car.
They're not in the back seat.
They're sitting on the back of the car because everything's convertible.

(06:46):
Dude drives a convertible and these guys drive a convertible.
And their leader is Teddy leather.
I love that name.
There's five people in this new car.
They start looking at Donna, dude and Nick sir.
And then they start taunting them.
The girls in back are racist towards Donna.
She's Samahai, she's Mexican.
They're all white.
So they have to throw in some racist taunts there.

(07:08):
And then there's a bit of sexual retening harassment back and forth between the two of them.
And is it spoken that they're going to race?
It's just like an unspoken thing.
When you pull up to your rival at an intersection, you're going to race.
That's just what happened.
So dude lights a cigarette and then he flicks it over toward the car.
And it lands in the back of Julie's hair.
Julie is one of the girls sitting in the back and she doesn't notice it.

(07:29):
No, it kind of nestles in a curl on obviously she's wearing a wig.
So the light changes.
The cars take off and Julie's hair is very much a flame.
But she doesn't notice.
How does she not notice?
She doesn't notice.
And the girl next to her friend looks at her like two or three times before she notices.
She tries to put it out by slapping Julie's face.
She doesn't do anything to the hair.

(07:51):
And eventually she throws us.
Well, yeah, eventually she throws her sweater on Julie's face again.
It gets extinguished somehow.
Well, the guy's realized that there's a fire in their car.
So Teddy stops, which means dude wins the race.
And that's already one strike against him as far as Teddy's concerned.
But also he said his girls hair and fire.
Teddy is Julie's boyfriend.
Also her brother is one of the other guys who are just called cronies.

(08:13):
So they all are interrelated.
So dude won the race and Donna says this is really romantic.
She's not being totally honest here.
She's a little sarcastic.
Yeah, she expected a date with her boyfriend.
And now she's got threatened by some guys.
It's not really what she considers a fun date.
Back with Teddy and his group.
They now need to get even with dude for what he did to Julie's hair.

(08:34):
So Teddy peels out again.
So the girls are sitting on the back of the car.
And they both roll out backwards at the pavement.
So Teddy turns his car around.
They're feeling kind of bad for what they just did.
They look at the girls.
The girls look back at them and they grimly shake their heads and turn around to walk home without these idiot guys that they're with.
Well, Julie's walking home without much hair.

(08:56):
No patches of what's left of her hair cover her scalp.
So dude takes Donna home and her parents are there to meet her.
Well, they're there to bust them.
Well, we got meet her at the door because she's late.
She's late and you get the feeling they don't really approve of dude.
Well, they don't.
He's not wearing a tie.
I don't know how they know he's a thug if he's not wearing a suit jacket and a tie.

(09:17):
Wait, his kisses are goodbye.
With tongue and only tongue right in front of them.
I don't know if that changed their opinion of him at all.
He's trying to make an impression, I think.
Yeah, not a good one.
And she goes inside and he goes back out to where Nickster is waiting and Nickster says y'all hold hands.
They leave.
And then in the next scene we see that dude sleeps in his jeans and nothing else with his guitar and his chest.

(09:40):
He also lives in a garage.
But I've seen people who make an extra better amount of a garage.
I didn't say it was unusual.
I just said it was a note.
True.
And that's probably why he styles his hair with 10W30.
We see him getting ready for the day.
First thing he does is light a cigarette, of course.
He puts on a 45 of rockabilly.
Goes to the mirror, squirts some motor oil on his hair and makes it a pompadour.

(10:01):
And then he's good to go.
Now we're going to spend some time with those policemen who drove into the sign the night before.
There going to be dudes other nemesis in this movie.
We have Sarge and the rookie.
That's their names.
They are sitting there waiting for speeders.
Sarge is waxing rapsodic about pigs in a blanket.
He's got one in his pocket.
And he's got one for rookie's pocket as well.

(10:23):
Sarge explains that his mama makes one for him every day.
And it's perfection.
Rookie goes to take a bite and Sarge makes him wait.
He needs to smell it first.
He needs to use all of his senses.
You got to look at it.
You got to taste it.
You got to touch it.
Anyway, it's weird, but apparently again based on a real conversation that Robert Rodriguez had with Tommy when they were tooling around.

(10:44):
Sarge cautions rookie about these kids today and their love of rock and roll.
They're just not like kids used to be.
Just then dude drives by.
Proving his point.
So they pursue.
They recognize him as the guy who caused him to rec last night.
We'll also find out that they have a family history as well.
Dude's father.
We know nothing about it and we'll find out virtually nothing more.

(11:05):
Just that he wasn't a good dude.
This time dude immediately pulls over.
Sarge goes over to the driver's side and the rookie goes over to the passenger side.
Sarge says that was quite a stunt you pulled last night.
Dude turns to rookie and says what's he been eating?
Smells like a barnyard.
And the rookie is like, hey his mom made that for him.
Which is the wrong thing to say.
You don't cool somebody up by talking about how his mom makes some hot dogs.

(11:27):
But he does it again.
Don't mess with this guy's mama.
He's obviously a mama's boy.
Well, that's not going to win him any points with dude.
Anyway, this is where we find out that Sarge had run dude's father out of town.
And he plans to do the same thing with dude.
He's just waiting for the right opportunity.
It's also where we find out that Sarge is Teddy Leather's father.
Because dude tells him to look after his own son rather than harassing dude.

(11:50):
Before letting him go, Sarge warns him that this is his town
and nobody else makes the rules in his town.
Now, he punches him in the stomach a couple times and then tells him to have a good one.
Next location is JT's soda shop.

(12:11):
It's a diner.
The greasy spoon.
The jukebox is playing and kids are dancing.
Dude is at the counter having a cup of something.
Nick's here is there eating a sandwich and still talking about an invasion of the body snatchers.
Dude wants to know when it plays tonight.
Maybe he's going to go.
But then Nick's your spills his coffee all over dude.
So that conversation never goes anywhere.
They ask JT for a refill and he's going to oblige.

(12:32):
And some rag so that they can clean up.
They just need about 30 or so.
And Nick says he'd like a refill too and JT turns around and just tells him to shut up.
And then Teddy Leather comes in with his two cronies that go everywhere together.
Teddy is literally screaming at dude about what he did to his girlfriend.
You burnt my girlfriend's hair off. Now she's wearing a wig.
Dude offers to spit shine her dome and that really sets Teddy off.

(12:55):
They pull up knives. There's going to be a fight.
But JT puts a slap to that.
He grabs his cleaver and says, I don't care if you kill each other.
You're just not going to do it in my diner.
Dude sits back down and apologizes.
Teddy Leans over and tells dude to meet him at the bluff at nine o'clock.
But one of his cronies reminds Teddy that he was supposed to take Julie Roller skating at nine.
He has to make up for her hair getting burnt off.
Which never would have happened if he hadn't pulled up next to dude.

(13:18):
He's Julie's brother. So he's looking out for her.
So Teddy and his gang decide to leave.
But on the way out, Teddy spots a bottle of ketchup on another customer's table.
Fix it up and hurls it with full force at the back of dude's head.
Where it shatters.
Here's a big chunk of glass hanging out of his hair.
And I think now dude is pissed.
So what does he do? Apparently he calls Donna because we're with Donna when she answers the phone.

(13:41):
And it's due calling.
Well, she calls him duty.
Yeah, he says don't call me that.
And Donna has bad news.
Her parents went to invite dude over for dinner.
Uh oh.
She also wants to know when she's going to see him again.
He asked her if she wants to go roller skating tonight.
About nine o'clock. She loves this idea because she doesn't know why he's really going there.
So now it's after nine and we find ourselves in the restroom of the roller rink.

(14:03):
This is the men's room.
Dude is at the mirror slathering some more oily gunk into his hair.
More than you could possibly think one head of hair could hold.
I think it's soap.
No, it's got to be oily something.
Yeah, it's not liquid soap. They have the good soap in those days.
But it's green.
So I can see why you would think that.
Teddy and his cronies are in there as well.
They don't interact in there though.

(14:24):
Let me venture into the women's room where Julie is adjusting her new wig.
Oh man, it looks bad.
I don't feel bad for her because she was awful to Donna and she kind of deserves it.
And this is where Donna gets her revenge because she comes in.
Goes up to the mirror where they're standing and just starts brushing and flaunting her luxurious long real hair at them.
And you can tell that they aren't happy to see her.

(14:46):
But they have nothing to say to describe this wig.
I want you to go back and remember Mrs. Beasley on family affair.
Yeah, it's her hair.
She got her actual head of hair.
That was the doll that Buffy would carry around.
Yeah, I remember it's tight curls of an unnatural flax in color.
And this just looks terrible on Julie.

(15:08):
It doesn't even fit her head.
It's just sort of perched there.
So Donna goes back out to the rink and joins dude who's already skating.
Julie goes out there too.
She's skating.
So it's Teddy.
While they're skating, Donna has realized what dude is really there for.
And though she's not happy about it, she still tries to skate with him over the PA.
The announced that the next is a couple's dance.
He says the song is let me put your head on my wall by Hazel Atkins.

(15:32):
But it's actually called no more hot dogs.
I guess they had to make some sort of hair joke because Nick serve dedicates it to Julie.
So I guess there had to be something head related to the title.
And there's a lot of laughing in the song.
And every time Nick serve passes Julie on their rink,
it's at a point in the song where there's laughter and he laughs at her.
But anyways, it's time for the rumble on skates.
Yep.
Teddy and his boys start chasing dude during this time.

(15:55):
Julie takes a fall.
It's hard not to feel bad for her, but I don't.
Well, she doesn't get up right away.
So some of this she brought on herself.
Yeah, but I think she's just so despondent that she just lies there.
But anyway, the three guys are chasing dude.
Donna has gone her own way.
And dude gets a great idea.
Or maybe this is dude's idea all along.
And he bends over with his head between his legs and drags his greasy freaking hair on the rink creating an oil slick.

(16:21):
Teddy slides into it loses control grabs Julie's wig as he crashes into the side of the rink.
The other two crash as well.
But poor Julie is just sitting there with her weird sparse hair sticking out.
At the end of the scene, we see Nick serve swinging by Julie one more time to calculate her again.
This revenge is complete.
Next scene we have Sarge confronting Teddy.

(16:43):
Apparently Sarge is but Teddy up to harassing dude because Teddy is able to do things that Sarge has an officer to law can't necessarily do himself.
Oh, wow, I didn't catch that at all.
My take on the scene was Sarge is berating Teddy for letting dude get the better of him.
But I didn't realize that this was a plan on his part because it seems so coincidental that they just ended up next to each other, which is how this all began.

(17:07):
And then once that incident happened, it became personal.
So then Teddy had his own ventetta.
So it didn't matter that he was sent after him in the first place.
Well, Sarge is kind of scum because he's giving Teddy a hard time for getting humiliated by a dude.
But he himself got humiliated by dude.
Even though he says that he would never let anybody get one up on him.
So he's a liar.
And that's not something you want to say out loud in a movie.

(17:30):
What?
Nobody would ever get one up on me because.
Oh, no, you're setting up the finale.
Yeah.
And Teddy looks a bit weepy at his dad's harsh treatment of him, but his dad tells him to be a man for once.
Teddy vows that he's going to show his dad.
So dude drives Donna out past the city limits.
And the God's country signs.
And the God's country signs so they can make out.
But the radio isn't cooperating.

(17:52):
They're not playing any good songs.
Nope.
You can't get good songs on the radio these days.
It's all sock hop stuff.
So Donna has an inspiration.
Dude has a guitar in the back seat and she grabs it, hands it to him and tells him to play something.
And he does.
And he's pretty good.
He does.
He plays a pretty mean blues riff.
But he's just riffing away on his guitar.
Dude says that he likes Link Gray.

(18:13):
Donna asks if Link Gray is popular.
And dude says no.
And that's why he's cool.
But Donna thinks that if you're good, you're going to be popular.
So if you're not popular, you're not good.
Donna climbs on top of him.
Tells him to play something sweet.
Yes, put the guitar behind his head in order to make out what they're here.
But he keeps playing.
He cut away to see Sergeant Rookie, not that far away watching.

(18:34):
Rookie says that he's playing in half bad.
Sergeant doesn't want to hear that.
But they don't do anything.
Well, at least not in this scene.
Next day we see dude backing out of the driveway right into Sergeant's car.
Yeah, they had just pulled up right as he was leaving.
They weren't close enough to be hit by him.
Were they?
He backed into him.
Oh, okay.
He didn't get very far before they were right behind him.

(18:55):
So they didn't have to get that close to him.
I don't think.
But when I hit the car, Sergeant says you hit me.
No, sir.
When I hit you, you'll know it.
Sergeant lifts dudes wallet out of his pocket and opens it.
He looks at his driver's license.
And this is kind of fun looking into driver's license from the 50s.
They look nothing like they do today.
There's no photograph.
Dude's name is there in address.
And he scratched out his last name.

(19:16):
Apparently he's ashamed to be associated with his dad.
So he doesn't want to go by his last name.
But it's Delaney.
You can't tell that from what it looks like on the driver's license.
It looks like Diffusey.
Diffusey.
But that's what Sergeant calls him.
Dude Delaney.
So now we know his name.
So Sergeant is telling Dude about how he ran his father out of town.
He's going through the same.
He's emptying the contents of Dude's wallet and flicking it into his face.

(19:37):
But he keeps the cash.
He's going to hold onto that for him.
It looks like it's enough to make a difference.
And now we're at the bar where Dude is listening as Johnny Reno and his band are trying to play.
But they're having some problems.
They lost their guitar player.
And Johnny can play guitar.
But he's a saxophonist.
But he's convinced he could do both.
There's a funny scene where he tries to do just that.

(20:01):
He's trying to flip flop between the guitar and the sax.
And they both occupy the same space when you're playing them.
So he has their one on his back and pull the other one forward and then flip around.
And it just doesn't work.
But it looks like it does.
Yeah, but he says it doesn't.
It's difficult to do.
But it seems to be pulling it off.
It sounded fine.
Yeah, it did sound fine.
All the music in this movie sounds great.
Well, except for one song.

(20:22):
To me, it seemed like this was a setup to get Dude to go get his guitar and offer to join the band.
But that doesn't happen.
That's what I was expecting to happen.
Oh, he's too cool for that.
He can't do that.
We should mention this seems to be like late afternoon maybe.
So this is normal bar hours.
No, they're practicing.
And Dude is the only patron in there at the moment.
And we see Donna and Wanda walking down the street and talking.

(20:43):
Wanda is telling her about Nick's are coming by to the box office the other night.
Yeah, she makes the sound worse than it was.
So did they get together after I don't know kind of seem like maybe he tried and sent him on his way.
Doesn't matter because Teddy and his leather gang drive up.
His leather gang.
Teddy leather and the cronies.
Teddy and his gang immediately start harassing Donna and Wanda.

(21:04):
Wanda for being tall and Donna for being Mexican and for also having white parents, which they don't understand.
But they make very impolite comments about it.
And then they get out of the car and go up to Donna and it looks like some real trouble is going to happen.
We go back to the bar where the rock and roller decides that playing sax and guitar at the same time is just too difficult.
So he loses the sax for now.

(21:26):
Meanwhile, dude blows cigarette rings and sucks them back into his mouth to David our cat's special talent, I guess.
And then we come back to Donna and Wanda where Teddy has grabbed Donna and we'll find out later that he tries to kiss her.
And I guess he succeeds at it too against her well, of course.
Back at the bar, the band is still playing, but dude isn't going to sit for it anymore and he leaves.

(21:47):
And where he goes is back to JT's and he and Nick sir are sitting at the counter again.
Dude asks Nick sir about his misadventures the other night and then we find out why the director has him drinking tea in the scene so that he could make a crude tea bagging joke.
Referencing what Nick sir should do with Wanda just then Donna comes in says she needs to talk to dude, but Teddy comes in right behind her.
Teddy kicks the jukebox just at the end of the song and the music stops.

(22:10):
Donna turns to do it in wands if not to do anything stupid and he sends her away, but unfortunately Teddy grabs her and then Donna changes her mind.
Dude can get as stupid as he wants now and then she leaves.
Then Teddy is gang turned to face to and they've all got their knives out.
Yeah, they switch on their blades.
But JT comes on from the back to say the day and sergeant rookie walk in at the same time.

(22:32):
So Teddy and his cronies put their knives away.
Sergeant Teddy sure look and Teddy and his cronies leave.
Dude S.J.T. how much he owes him and JT tells him it's on the house.
Sergeant warns JT not to give away his business, but JT tells him to mind his own.
As dudes walking out, he notices rock and roll are sitting at a booth.
He says down across from him.
He says I just wanted to say I like what you do.

(22:53):
How did you do it?
The world isn't accommodating to people who are different.
Rock and roll are just shrugs and says I just started playing and then offers due to smoke.
He tells dude that they've signed with a record company and they're going to go on the road.
He knows that dude plays guitar and invites him to audition for the band.
If he gets picked, he's going to make good money.
And dude wants to know if it's enough for two people.

(23:14):
He reminds dude that the audition is too nice for him tonight at 9 o'clock.
The next scene, Nick's standing beside Dude's car,
dropping a knife into the ground between his feet.
He's talking about the potential record contract and the idea of fame and fortune.
While he's doing this, Dude is putting together a turntable on the back of his car.

(23:37):
Nick says that he better not say anything until all this is settled.
And does he need a manager?
He'd kind of like to go with him if he's leaving town.
Now right, Donna's house and her parents are trying to talk Donna out of attaching herself to Dude.
He's not going to be her future.
But she tells them that he's very talented and he's going to get a record contract and be rich and famous.
And if that happens, then they get her blessing.

(23:58):
But if it doesn't, she'd better be prepared to make other plans.
Then Dude goes to pick up Donna.
Listen to the music they want to hear since they have that turntable on the back now.
Yeah, Donna's standing up in the car, dancing along.
He asked her what she wants to do tonight and what she wants to do is go to the movies.
Yep, he finally lets her choose what to do.
And of course, there's only one movie to go to and that's invasion of the body snatchers.

(24:20):
And of course, Nick's there is there a few rows ahead of them.
It's his 15th time.
I thought he said 50th.
We get to see some of the important parts of the movie.
And we also see a special guest in the audience.
Well, Donna's fallen asleep on Dude's shoulder.
Dude looks at her and he looks a little paranoid.
And Nick's her looks a little paranoid.
And there's another person in the theater who looks a little paranoid.

(24:42):
And that third person looks a lot like one of the people on the screen.
It sure does.
That's just a coincidence.
I think it's an orchestrated coincidence.
It's a Kevin McCarthy cameo.
That's great. That's a real coup for this movie.
Next day, dude and Donna are sitting on a bench in the park or something.
Dude says there's a lot about him, particularly about his father that she doesn't know.
But he doesn't want her to know.

(25:04):
And then of course, who else it's Teddy leather and his gang.
They come up and challenge due to a rumble tonight at nine o'clock.
This conflicts with another appointment on Dude's calendar.
Dude says he'll beat him later.
He's got a date tonight at nine with who her says Teddy.
Any grabs her.
He also comes back with the racial insults which are never far from his lips.
So dude agrees to the fight at nine.
Well, he threatens to burn Donna's hair.

(25:26):
He has a lighter and he's holding it right next to Donna's hair.
So it's a pretty serious threat.
And of course, dude responds.
He agrees to the fight at nine.
They leave just as Nick sir comes in.
He asked what that was all about.
And dude shrugs Teddy wants to dance.
So whenever I JT's again, Nick sir was telling JT about invasion of the body snatchers.
JT absorbs this lesson and he has one for dude and Nick sir timing is everything.

(25:51):
Don't wait until it's too late to do what you need to do.
Kevin McCarthy found out that that was a bad idea.
Now we're back at the park and there are lots of pigeons.
And they're there because Rookie is sharing crumbs from his picking a blanket with them.
Well, he can't be in the car because Sarge is using it to berate his son.
This is where they tell us that he's having Teddy take care of dude for him.
Is he doing that now or has that been the plan all along?

(26:12):
Because I thought he was just saying now I want you to take care of dude.
And that's why he gives him the gun.
Like really take care of him.
No, I think he was doing this all along because Teddy says that he's not doing this because his father has some people.
Because his father has some beef with dudes old man.
He's got his own reasons now.
I still think that my theory could apply under those circumstances because of everything that's happened before to lead up to this point.

(26:33):
It could but then he's just picking on him for no reason.
Where is he set he's on a mission.
I think he started picking on him for no reason because he's an asshole.
And now he's picking on him because he's got a mission.
That's not inconceivable.
He engineered this conflict and now he's going to see it through.
And his dad's involved because of the beef he has with dude and dudes old man.
And his dad is going to take it up to not 11 but like 29.

(26:55):
So the gist of the conversation is that whatever happens make sure that this gun that serge gives to his son goes into dudes cold dead hand.
Back at JT's Donna runs in to tell dude that she's heard that band that he likes so much is looking for a guitar player and they already have a record contract.
So this could be a good opportunity for dude.
He doesn't say that he knows already and also he doesn't act excited.

(27:17):
He makes some excuse about not being able to leave his mom and that doesn't really fly with Donna who begs him to skip the rumble tonight and go to the club to audition.
He tells her he will.
So now our back in dudes garage.
He's greasing up his hair again.
Nick sir comes in.
He's ready to go to the club but dude says he's going to the rumble.
He says his father never faced anything and was run out of town.
So dude isn't going to run from Teddy from his crooked father or from anybody.

(27:41):
We cut to the park where Teddy and his cronies are waiting for dude to arrive.
Then back to the garage.
Dude grabs a bottle of something from the refrigerator and Nick sir asks him to throw him one dude laughs you couldn't catch crabs in a whorehouse.
He throws it anyway and Nick sir ducks.
The bottle smashes against the wall and onto an amplifier.
It still works kind of dude tested out.

(28:02):
It's just now plays really really loud.
Also the clock on the wall says it's 1015.
Yeah, he's missed both nine o'clock appointments.
And Teddy is still waiting in the park but he's getting tired of waiting.
Since dude isn't no show they decide to go to him. They're going to drive around till they find him.
They're back in the garage and Nick sir points out that it's now 1045.
He says I know you hate this town. I know you hate Teddy.

(28:23):
I do too but you love your music.
So don't fight for what you hate. Fight for what you love.
So what are you going to do?
Dude says he's going to go to the club and kick some ass in that order.
So dude arrives at the club.
He's outside. He sees the poster for the ramblers.
That's the band he wants to join.
And he goes inside really excited.
We see that Donna's already there but dude's excitement immediately turns to order

(28:47):
as he hears the song that these guys are playing.
This isn't punk rockabilly.
This is mainstream sock hop music and they're dressed in suits.
It's kind of buddy howly-esque.
Yeah, but it's not dude-esque.
It's not he's repulsed.
But he sees Donna over there enjoying it.
She's melting the lyrics and clapping and dancing.
This is her music.

(29:08):
I don't think that goes over well with dude either.
It doesn't. He loses it.
He dives onto the stage and tackles rock and roller.
And the funny thing is the music keeps playing.
Wow. How does that happen?
Nick's are notices too.
He starts looking around.
He sees a closet.
He goes and kicks the door down and sure enough there's a record playing.
That's what they're melting along to.
Now Nick's is inflamed and he grabs a stand-up base.

(29:31):
And then he brings it down on the basis is back.
And all the while the drummer's playing like nothing bad has happened yet.
And that's Tommy Nick's the co-writer of the movie as the drummer.
It's a really funny scene.
Dude, it takes down outside and punches the wall.
And she starts to be raiding him.
That was our chance.
But dude doesn't see it that way.
When Donna says, "You've ruined my dreams."

(29:52):
Dude's mad because these are dude streams that just got trash.
Not Donna's.
He tells Donna she's to ride her own tide and then he takes off.
He stops at a light and takes the opportunity to lay a cigarette.
And Teddy Leather and the Cronies pull up next to him and start wailing him.
And they break beer bottles on his head and his scalp starts bleeding pretty heavily.
As it will do, scalp wounds are notoriously bloody.

(30:14):
Teddy speeds off but then his car crashes into something.
So he decides that he's going to take care of dude permanently
and start shooting at him.
And he actually wings him one time.
Yeah, he's dude in the shoulder.
And this kind of surprises the two Cronies.
Like, I didn't know Teddy was going to go this far.
Dude goes home and grabs a sawdust shotgun.
He had mentioned earlier that he had a BB gun but it's a little more serious than that.

(30:38):
We cut back to Teddy trying to start his car and his friends are laughing at him.
They're mocking him and also Julie is walking there for some reason.
She's coming up to them.
Teddy doesn't like being mocked so he shoots one of the Cronies,
the one that happens to be Julie's brother.
And then looks at the other one who starts running away, arms flapping.
And he gets to the end of the block and then Teddy shoots him as well and he goes down.

(31:00):
And this is when dude drives up.
Dude stands in front of the car with a shotgun in his hand and Teddy pulls the trigger of his gun.
But he's on a bullet.
So he wasted both of them trying to shoot dude as he was driving away.
And then on his friends.
So dude pulls out that shotgun and shoots Teddy square in the chest.
Yeah, he blows a dinner plate size hole in the center of him.
He goes down and Julie's right there.

(31:22):
Dude turns to walk away.
Then we hear in the noise of Julie just clicking the empty chamber at dude over and over and over again.
And then he turns back and walks over to her.
He just takes her wig off her head and walks away with it.
He drops it in front of his car and then he leaves her looking shell shocked.
We cut back to JT's where the rookie is eating a corn dog and buying a chili dog for his partner.

(31:43):
And they talk about that for a good length of time.
Charge brushes in and tells rookie to get in the car.
They've got to get moving.
Apparently a call just came in about all the shooting that's been going on.
Well, he must know that it's his son at this point because he's serious and he's furious.
And rookie's just standing there, but your dog and it's difficult for Saras to convince him that this is urgent, but he does.

(32:05):
Back with dude.
He's driving around and Nixon runs up jumps into the back of the car, asking where he's going.
He says he's looking for Donna.
Nixon says that there was some trouble with Teddy.
Where it is he's dead.
Then he asked dude to take him with him or wherever he's going.
But dude tells him it's time for Nixon to start chasing his own tail.
And then dude spots Donna who's just sitting on the bumper of a car.
Donna sees that dude has a gun and she wants to know what she can do to help him with his vengeance.

(32:30):
But there's no one who can help dude.
And Donna tells him that she can't go with him.
Dude thinks it's better that she doesn't.
They share a kiss goodbye.
He drives off.
And Donna's just a fading image in his rearview mirror as he predicted.
He continues driving.
He continues smoking.
His head continues bleeding into his eyes.
And I guess there's one final nemesis to deal with here.

(32:51):
And Saras and rookie catch up to him and are chasing him.
They pull up next to him.
Saras pulls on a shotgun.
Dude grabs his and shoots out their tire.
And their car carines off the road.
And it almost hits that guy's country sign.
But instead they swerve into a huge oak tree.
And then the car emulates.
Dude changed the record in the backseat.
And then he drives into the next chapter of his life.

(33:13):
He's finally free from this bummer town.
And that's the end.
You're listening to the American International podcast where we're discussing Rebel Highway
Episode 1 road racers for 1994.
Road racers was filmed in Uptown, Whittier, California.

(33:34):
And I can't verify this, but apparently some place called Central Perk, but that's the
coffee shop in France.
So I don't know.
It reached the air July 22nd, 1994.
It was the first episode in the series.
And as far as taglines go, the only one I could find is from the director of Desperado and
from Duststill Dawn.
That's going to be a video title because both of those movies were made after this.

(33:54):
I know.
But they didn't have a special tagline for this like they did some of the other movies.
The only feature that Robert Rodriguez had made up to this time was his independent feature
El Mariacci, which was done in his very fast and furious style.
And he went into resistance with his Hollywood crew on road racers, most notably the director
of photography.
He discusses these conflicts in the now on print book road racers, the making of a degenerate

(34:16):
hydroplic.
We got a copy.
So we read some of that and we've been talking about some of the things that he did.
And there's an interesting co-feature to the movie where he does his 10 minute film school
and talks about how he would do very fast setups and try to get as many in per day.
He got 78 in one day.
And it's kind of an amazing thing that he does.
It's really impressive to watch him work.

(34:37):
Yeah, if you watch the behind the scenes video, he's always like on some sort of a track on
a skateboard or something.
We live with wheels and he's wheeling around on the ground so he can get from place to place
quickly and get these shots from these low angles.
And he shoots the way he's going to edit it.
And he knows just what he needs.
It's already in his head.
No slate.
He doesn't need slates.

(34:58):
He knows what it's going to look like when he's done.
He shoots what he needs to get the final product.
That is so cool.
And I can see how that could be frustrating to a director of photography because that's
basically his job.
He used the same crew that all the other directors used for these episodes.
So he didn't get to choose his crew.
And he's also using a Hollywood cast for the first time.
Whereas in El Mariathe, they were just friends of his.

(35:18):
He wrote the script with Tommy Nick's and they're saying the lines and he's thinking, "Oh,
these are real actors.
I've got to give them real lines."
I don't know.
He had to write the script really fast because he had to replace director Wes Craven,
who left the Rebel Highway Project when Wes Craven's new nightmare was Greenlit.
He went to Susan King of the LA Times who spoke with Rodriguez.
The producers called him in December to ask if he wanted to do the film.

(35:41):
And they said, "Could you write a script in 10 days?
We've got to start shooting in January."
Rodriguez says, "I thought this would be cool.
It's a hot Rod flick.
You have to write it in 10 days.
Otherwise, you're thinking too much."
But Rodriguez told the LA Times, "We shot this one Mariathe style.
The crew couldn't believe it.
We averaged about 50 setups a day.
One day we got like 78 setups in 12 hours.

(36:01):
I grabbed the camera and started shooting the shots I needed.
Unfortunately, I could operate the camera so they couldn't tell me to slow down."
And of the actors, he said, "They were always on set.
They didn't need 20 takes to warm up to get into character because they were always in
character on the first take."
Because the film is heavy on action, Rodriguez storyboarded all those scenes to save time
on the set.
We had 12 days and a million bucks.

(36:22):
I thought it was all the money in the world, he recalls.
I wrote all of these big action scenes.
I had all my actors on roller skates.
They weren't on roller skates all the time, but they were on roller skates definitely
for a big part of it, especially the skinning rink rumble.
And like you said, he was on wheels himself for most of it.
And you can tell this movie is very kinetic.
There's always something propelling it forward.
There are a few scenes where they just sit around and talk, but the action is very intense.

(36:47):
And we have a little information on what other people thought of this movie.
John J. O'Connor of The New York Times wrote, "From square parents to ominous rumbles, road
racers doesn't miss a cliche in the depiction of rebels without a cause."
Skillfully done though.
This woman of Los Angeles Times called it a giddly, shameless pay-on to miss spent youth.
The was black of the Austin Chronicle called it the perfect Roger Cormin movie as made by

(37:09):
Rodriguez.
Nathan Raven of the AV Club wrote, "Rodrigus is clearly a virtuoso working at the top
of his form, and the film's lured over the top histrionics suit his talents nicely."
And Richard Corlis of Time Magazine called Road Racers a hyper-canetic assault on good manners.
Can Tucker of Entertainment Weekly called Road Racers an oddly off-balanced teen film with

(37:29):
a terrific performance from David Arquette.
He's in the upcoming feature airheads.
As a sensitive hood, who wants to be a rock-a-billy star, most of the time, Road Racers plays
it straight as a variation on the James Dean classic Rebel without a cause.
Periodically though, it slips into loony surrealism.
Our Emmett Sweeney said, "The most stylized entry in the series, Rodriguez has no interest

(37:49):
in interrogating the period, only in refining his style."
Rodriguez institutes a rhythmic editing style, set up in the opening where it intercuts
a rock-a-billy band in a car chase, matching the downbeat with screeching turns.
This tempo is maintained throughout, accessorized by swaggering slow-motion and low-angle anti-hero
close-ups.
Patricia Brennan of The Washington Post called Road Racers a 50s story complete with

(38:10):
tight sweaters and leather jackets, skating rinks and hot rods, salon snares and greasy
kid stuff, and more cigarettes than a bogart flick.
It's about a kid named Dude who wants to play in a rock-and-roll band, the Mexican-born
girl who loves him, the gang leader who's jealous, and the vengeful cop who ran his father
out of town.
In short, it's a hoot.
Variety's Todd Everett wrote, "Rodrigas has a terrific visual sense and one of the fastest

(38:34):
editing knives in the business, punctuating the intentionally generic original story
with several striking set pieces, including a dazzler in a roller skating rink, script
has more than its share of good lines and soundtrack is rife with obscure old and old
sounding rock-and-roll records."
So, Cheryl, this is the first of 10 episodes of Rebel Highway Movie looking at on the podcast.

(39:01):
What did you think of this one?
Here's a little insider information.
It's based on an original AIP movie called Road Racers and we just did an episode for
that movie today.
So we watched the original Road Racers and this 1994 remake of Source on the same day.
I got to tell you, the original Road Racers disappointed both of us greatly, whereas I think
we both had a good time watching this movie.

(39:23):
It's a stark contrast.
It's nothing like the original movie, the story line's different.
That was about real race car drivers driving real races and a lot of family drama.
This one was just a fun O to 50's youth and I loved it.
It was a lot of fun and I think a lot of it is just because of the energy that it has
and a lot of it is just Robert Rodriguez and his style.

(39:44):
I've seen a bunch of his movies not as many as you have probably, but he's a very fun director
to watch and he definitely brings that here and we really needed it after watching the original
Road Racers.
We needed a good movie, "Pallet Clenser."
The only thing that I might see as a negative in this film is Teddy Leather's Hair.
Seems really long for the time.
He's got kind of a mullet.

(40:05):
Yeah, he's got a mullet.
His hair is about as long as mine and mine hits my shoulders.
It's very curly.
So I'm a little jealous.
He's got nicer hair than I do.
He's got nicer hair than Julie does, that's for sure.
That does seem extremely period.
We don't see a whole lot in this movie, but what we do see looks period authentic if you
don't think about it too hard.
If you don't think about it too hard, it might look a little cartoony when they first show

(40:27):
the girls in the back of the car.
They were in these really bright green and pink sweaters.
It's a little cliche, but the whole thing is cliche.
We've got David Arquette and his black leather jacket smoking all the time and driving around.
With an attitude.
Yeah.
I think if Fonzie was really a hood, I enjoyed everyone's performance in this movie.
It was fun seeing Kevin McCarthy do a little cameo as they were watching invasion of the body

(40:51):
snatchers, which is a terrific movie.
So we got to see a really good movie inside or another good movie.
They got to watch that movie sitting near Kevin McCarthy.
I said near Kevin McCarthy in a theater once, but I didn't get to watch invasion of the
body snatchers.
I said closer than they did though.
I watched an episode of the toilet.
It's on that he was in.
Did you talk to him?
Yes, I did.
In the closing credits, they do some cut scenes, outtakes, and then there's one scene where

(41:15):
Nick sir actually does go talk to Kevin McCarthy and Kevin McCarthy is just sort of like trying
to lead him into realizing that he's the guy from the movie.
And just as Nick sir does, he's gone.
Kevin McCarthy is gone.
The outtakes were really funny in this movie.
So if you do watch it, watch all the way to the end.
And this is the only episode from Rebel Highway that has had an HD release.

(41:36):
Miramax released a Blu-ray and all of the releases and streaming is in standard death.
Well, it might be streaming in high-deficence is available, but the other is only available
in standard death.
Well, in 1994, what are you going to do?
Well, you're shot in a film.
You can easily upgrade it, but there has to be a monetary reason to do that.
Yeah.
And I guess Robert Rodriguez was hot enough that it was worth the investment.
He's the only director for the series that was not old enough to have watched the movies

(42:01):
originally.
Everyone else is sort of the elder statesmen type directors.
Joe Dante is going to do one of these.
Whereas Robert Rodriguez was just this hot young director that nobody knew a whole lot
about.
And he got picked for this movie and it's really lucky they did pick him.
I don't know if everyone else is going to be able to bring the energy that he's bringing.
I don't know what they can today.

(42:22):
That's fair.
It's hard to find a movie that has the excitement of Shark Boy and Lavagirl.
Oh, come on.
I thought you were going to say it from Dust Tilt on.
That movie has vampires and bare feet.
I love the music in this.
I know that the music was really important to Rodriguez and in the book he does go on
about that a bit where he's looking for a certain tone.

(42:43):
He's not just picking 50s music.
He's picking this rebellious rockabilly stuff that wasn't on mainstream radio at the time.
Didn't sell a lot of records, but these guys were artists who went their own way regardless
of whether it was popular and they do mention that in the movie they talk about Link Ray.
And he's one of the inspirations that Rodriguez found for the music for this.
Right. Now it would be recurring because that song would also be used in from Dust Tilt on.

(43:07):
Well, like I said, it was really important to him.
Link Ray plays a song called The Shadow Knows in this.
A song called Genocide.
A song called Ace of Spades.
A song called Rumble.
So he is on the soundtrack a lot.
And then the one song that made it to the soundtrack for the entire Rebel Highway series
was Race with the Devil, Gene Vincent's song that was sung by Charlie Sexton here.

(43:28):
What do you think about casting David Arquette in this role?
Well, initially I was kind of worried about how he would be in this movie because I know
him as a real goofy guy.
He's dewy in the screen movies.
It's not someone I think of when I think of a Rebel and a Hoodlum and a tough guy, but
I think he pulls it off here.
He has that sort of greedy attitude.

(43:49):
He doesn't really have the look that you'd expect because he's got kind of this friendly
face, but I think he pulls it off attitude wise.
I think that David Arquette is unsung brilliant actor.
Oh, wow.
Actually, he's more of a performance artist.
So he can take a character and become that character.
So I think this was just natural for him because if you look at some of the things he's
done, it's also different.

(44:10):
You've got Dewy in the screen movies.
The entertainer weekly mentioned he was going to be in the upcoming airheads and he plays
a really goofy guy in that different than Dewy because this guy is just really a goofball.
And that's how I think of him.
I don't know why that is, but that is my impression of him is he's silly and he's fun.
I don't know that he's a bad actor or anything, but just the characters he plays are normally
tend to be on the lovable goof side.

(44:33):
And here he's the rebellious willing to kill a cop guy.
And I was pleasantly surprised by him here.
I was surprised.
I figured he could pull that off.
He was an eight-legged freaks.
Did he kill any cops in that movie?
Of course he was on friends in kind of Mr. Courtney Cox, at least he was for a while.
He was for a while.
The whole cast of friends was in Arquette for a day.

(44:54):
Yeah, a group wedding.
No, and Courtney Cox changed her willing to Courtney Cox Arquette.
They put our cat at the end of everybody's name in the opening of that episode.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
Well, he was in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
He's been in so many things.
So it really isn't fair to me to pigeonhole him as one thing or another.
I'm just going by what I've seen.
My point is he's done all these movies and they're all very, very different characters.

(45:17):
You don't see him do the same thing twice except when he's Dewy in five or six movies.
So like seven or eight now, isn't it?
Well, he died.
But that's what actors are supposed to do.
They're supposed to be so flexible that they can just inhabit a role.
Obviously, a lot of them can't run Reynolds, but David Arquette does fly under the radar
like that.
So I can see why you think that and you're right.

(45:38):
And this was Salmahayyx for movie.
I didn't realize that until we watched the commentary.
She had worked in Mexico.
She hadn't done anything English speaking.
And apparently Robert Rodriguez was using this to get material for her demo reel so
that he could cast her in something else or get her cast in something else.
He wanted her for Desparado, but they weren't going to approve her because she was an unproven

(45:58):
talent.
So he had to put her in this first so he could say, look what she can do.
He's really forward thinking he's already casting his next movie with this movie.
Well, I think it was in pre-production or something or it had already been approved, but he was
still obviously casting it.
In that book, he describes how he's working on five projects at once.
He's writing his part for the movie for rooms.
He's also working on a script for something else and then Desparado.

(46:23):
He's just all over the place.
I guess he said that he slept for about two weeks after getting done with this movie because
they had to just bang, bang, bang shoot it.
And it was even relieved because of the earthquake.
The North Ridge earthquake happened and gave them half a day off while they coped with
that.
We got some rest.
Well, all these episodes, because it was television, was done basically with the television

(46:43):
budget.
It was up to little because we were working within 90 minute runtime.
Yeah, I think that was like a million each and 1.3 million is what they had.
So they are under these constraints, but every director has final script approval on everything
they do, final cut.
So there was freedom and also a constraint that they had to work with.
So this is an interesting result as far as I'm concerned.

(47:03):
It was nice that there was little Easter egg in there at the movie theater with all the
posters that weren't from Republic studios and were from AIP.
It's a little nod.
I wonder if the other movies are going to do that.
I'll throw back to the AIP roots.
I hope so.
I love seeing that.
So Cheryl, are you ready to give a rating to this first episode of Rebel Highway using a
regular AIP scale where it is awesome.
I is intermediate and he is pathetic.

(47:25):
Yeah, sure.
I think it's pretty obvious that I enjoy this movie.
It's an easy A.
There's violence in it and I don't normally go for violence, but something about Rodriguez's
style of violence that really appeals to me.
It's kind of fun violence.
If that's a thing where you enjoy seeing people get their come-up and even when it's gruesome
and bloody or fiery even.

(47:46):
It's fun to watch and this movie was a hoot.
As a one-reveer said, I wasn't really sure how these episodes were going to be.
We normally do these older movies and now this is, yeah, it's 30 some years ago.
But for us, it's sort of a great leap forward to come from the 50, 60, 70s into 1994, which
is a year that I actually remember.

(48:08):
And I think my apprehension might have been misplaced because this actually was a really
fun movie and really enjoyable and I'm really glad that the AAP podcast got to watch something
from a more modern era.
Easy A.
What do you think?
I'm going to agree.
I think the Rebel Highway experiment, the idea of it is just so much fun.
Let's take these titles of these old movies.

(48:29):
Let's use what we know today, but do a throwback film.
I think it's a great idea.
It's been 30 years later.
I like to see somebody try that again.
Having seen many of those old movies, I don't know that Rodriguez is one that I particularly
would have been jumping out of the chance to remake, but this was in always superior to
the original.
And as we're going through these, we'll see that the directors that participated in the

(48:50):
Rebel Highway project were all established much more so than Robert Rodriguez was at this
time because he had just had done one feature.
Not even a major studio feature.
An independent feature shot in Mexico with a $7,000 budget.
So I can see why you'd be excited to play with 1.3 million.
And why it would be hard to adjust to working with the crew because he hadn't really done
that before.

(49:11):
His original book that he wrote on the experience is called Rebel Without a Crew.
I've long been an admirer of Robert Rodriguez's work, but this is one that eluded me.
I'd never seen it this one before.
And just knowing that it came so early in his career and how good it looks is just amazing.
It doesn't look like it's made for TV at all.
This looks like a movie.
Yeah, this is a film.
I think the acting's all very good.

(49:32):
Like I said, the one probably my hat was Teddy Lothers hair.
Not his name.
No, I think his name was fun.
I'm just sorry they didn't refer to Sergeant Leather.
That is a whole different village people character.
But I have to get this one in a two.
There's no other grade that I could possibly give it.
This is an awesome movie.
Very awesome.
Find it and watch it and find our website.

(49:53):
The American International Podcast website is aippod.com.
And there you can find out a little more about the Rebel Highway series and the episodes
that we cover on it as well as our previous 100 plus episodes.
There we've got trailers, posters, lobby cards, other movie paraphernalia.
That is visual and not audio related.
Links to all our episodes and a way to contact us and let us know what you think of Rebel Highway

(50:14):
and their various episodes are the other movies that we've covered or ask us questions
or make demands.
It's aippod.com.
I think that would be it until the next episode of Rebel Highway.
I'm Jeff Markin.
I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And we'll meet you at the drive-in.
Follow the American International podcast on Instagram and Letterbox @aip_pod and on

(50:35):
Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.
The American International Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Markin.
A man whose mind is distorted by hatred.
And Cheryl Lightfoot.
A girl hungry for too many things.

(51:02):
The American International Podcast is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
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