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The Sweet Ride

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sweet Ride
Film poster
Directed byHarvey Hart
Screenplay byTom Mankiewicz
Based on
The Sweet Ride
(1967 novel)
by William Murray
Produced byJoe Pasternak
StarringTony Franciosa
Michael Sarrazin
Jacqueline Bisset
Michele Carey
Bob Denver
CinematographyRobert B. Hauser
Edited byPhilip W. Anderson
Music byPete Rugolo
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • May 22, 1968 (1968-05-22) (San Francisco)[1]
  • June 12, 1968 (1968-06-12) (New York City)[1]
Running time
110 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,935,000[2]
Box office$1.5 million (US/ Canada)[3][4]

The Sweet Ride is a 1968 American drama film directed by Harvey Hart and starring Tony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin, Jacqueline Bisset, and Bob Denver. The screenplay by Tom Mankiewicz is based on the 1967 novel by William Murray, about the lives of various offbeat characters (including a tennis bum, a surfer, a beatnik, an actress, and a biker) in Malibu, California. The musical score was composed by Pete Rugolo, and features Dusty Springfield and Moby Grape.

The film was released by 20th Century Fox on May 22, 1968. Sarrazin and Bisset were both received Golden Globe nominations for New Star of the Year, for their performances.[5]

Plot

[edit]

A woman named Vicki Cartwright is found severely beaten along a Malibu highway. Police arrest her boyfriend, surfer Denny McGuire. An unfolding series of flashbacks reveals the nature of their relationship.

Denny lives in a Malibu beach house with Collie Ransom, a middle-aged tennis bum, and Choo-Choo Burns, a beatnik jazz pianist. Their carefree life as bachelors was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Vicki, an aspiring actress. Denny and Vicki began a relationship, but Vicki refused to marry him, being under the control of her possessive producer and lover Brady Caswell. Meanwhile, she took an interest in a outlaw biker nicknamed "Mr. Clean".

Eventually, Denny and Vicki bitterly breakup, and Vicki is found beaten two weeks later. After Denny and Collie are released, they learn that Vicki was savagely beaten by Caswell after she had masochistic sex with Mr. Clean. Denny assaults Caswell at his home, leaving him bleeding and unconscious. He resolves to leave Malibu, and relocates to Santa Monica.

Cast

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Production

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Jacqueline Bisset was cast on the basis of her short appearance in Two for the Road starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. By the time The Sweet Ride was released, she had been cast in The Detective and Bullitt.

Principal photography began in Malibu on July 17, 1967.[1] Other scenes were shot along the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, including Gazzarri's.

Tom Mankiewicz also says producer Joe Pasternak had suffered a stroke shortly before filming which impacted his effectiveness.[6]

Bisset said her nude scene in the ocean was 'miserable'.[7]

Reception

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According to Fox records, the film required $3,950,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $2,600,000 so made a loss.[8]

Tom Mankiewicz later said the problem with the film was "it tried to touch all the bases at once: drama, comedy, porn, dropouts, surfing, true love, a touch of perversion, and the general malaise of 1960s young people. Frankie and Annette it definitely wasn't."[9]

Accolades

[edit]
Ceremony Category Nominee Result Ref.
26th Golden Globes New Star of the Year – Actor Michael Sarrazin Nominated [5]
New Star of the Year – Actress Jacqueline Bisset Nominated

Soundtrack

[edit]
The Sweet Ride
Soundtrack album by
Pete Rugolo
Released1968
GenreJazz
Labels20th Century Fox
3198/S 4198
Pete Rugolo chronology
TV's Top Themes
(1962)		 The Sweet Ride
(1968)

The score was composed, arranged and conducted by Pete Rugolo except the main title written by Lee Hazlewood and performed by Dusty Springfield with the soundtrack album released on the 20th Century Fox label.[10]

The San Francisco rock and roll band Moby Grape contributed to the soundtrack, and appeared, credited, in the film, performing the song "Never Again" in a Sunset Strip nightclub called the Tarantula.

Reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllmusicStarStarStar[11]

The Allmusic review by Tony Wilds noted: "Rugolo hits many of the same areas that made several Lalo Schifrin soundtracks great, but unlike Schifrin, Rugolo lacks the killer pop instinct. It all sounds like soundtrack music (the average cut is only about two minutes long), and there's nothing here that hadn't been done better elsewhere, earlier.".[11]

Track listing

[edit]

All compositions by Pete Rugolo except where noted.

  1. "Sweet Ride (Main Title)" (Lee Hazlewood) - - 2:02
  2. "Vicky Meets Danny"- 2:30
  3. "Collier's Riff" - 1:35
  4. "Come Bossa With Me" - 1:53
  5. "Thumper" - 1:20
  6. "My Name Is Mr. Clean" - 2:09
  7. "Lost Wages Brash" - 1:50
  8. "Turn Me On" - 3:08
  9. "Sock Me Choo Choo (Sweet Ride Theme)" (Lee Hazlewood) - 1:50
  10. "Bedroom Time" - 3:08
  11. "Where's The Melody" - 1:00
  12. "Swing Me Lightly" - 2:31

Personnel

[edit]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
  2. ↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p255
  3. ↑ "Big Rental Films of 1968", Variety, 8 January 1969 p 15. Please note this figure is a rental accruing to distributors.
  4. ↑ Tom Lisanti, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969, McFarland 2005, p343
  5. 1 2 "Sweet Ride, The". Golden Globes. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
  6. ↑ Mankiewicz p 95
  7. ↑ "No Nudes Good News to Some Actresses". www.newspapers.com. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  8. ↑ Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 327. ISBN 9780818404856.
  9. ↑ Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Crane, My Life as a Mankiewicz, University Press of Kentucky 2012 p 94
  10. ↑ Edwards, D., Eyries, P. and Callahan, M. 20th Century Fox Album Discography, Part 2: TCM 3100/SFX 4100 Series Archived 2006-03-24 at the Wayback Machine accessed October 6, 2016
  11. 1 2 Wilds, Tony. The Sweet Ride (Original Soundtrack) – Review at AllMusic. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
[edit]
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