The Sweet Ride is a 1968 American drama film with a few surfer / biker exploitation film elements. It stars Tony Franciosa , Michael Sarrazin and Jacqueline Bisset in an early starring role. The film also features Bob Denver in the role of Choo-Choo, a Beatnik piano-playing draft dodger . Sarrazin and Bisset were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer, Male and Female respectively.
23-469: The Sweet Ride was directed by Harvey Hart and written by Tom Mankiewicz , based on a 1967 novel of the same name by William Murray , author, fiction editor and a native of New York City , who had moved to southern California in 1966. The story, told in flashbacks, concerns a middle-aged tennis bum (Franciosa) who shares a beach house with Sarrazin and Denver. Their carefree life becomes complicated, and later turns tragic, after they become involved with
46-411: A 17-year-old, after he is sentenced to six months in a youth reformatory. His cellmates are Rocky, a "dangerous and unpredictable" 19-year-old serving time for stealing a car from his male lover; Mona, an 18- or 19-year-old who is sentenced for making a homosexual pass at a group of boys; and Queenie, a flamboyant homosexual serving time for robbing an old woman. The only other character who appears onstage
69-618: A copy of Fortune and Men's Eyes to renowned Canadian theatre critic Nathan Cohen , who replied, "I hope you understand that there's not a chance in the world of this getting a professional production in Canada. I've taken the liberty of sending it to a producer of my acquaintance in New York and, of course, promise nothing." Cohen recommended the play to Broadway press agent David Rothenberg, who in turn recommended it to Dustin Hoffman . Hoffman workshopped
92-554: A mysterious young woman (Bisset) and a biker gang. 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. Other famous Sunset Strip locations include Gazzarri's and Scandia , as well as location filming in Malibu , according to reviews of the film. Dusty Springfield sings "Sweet Ride" over
115-464: A similar treatment for him if he refuses. Smitty tries to make the best of his new situation, and he learns that Rocky knows a secret about the Guard taking a bribe and uses that secret to influence the guard as needed. Smitty also learns of further horrors to which uncooperative inmates can be subjected. Queenie encourages Smitty to beat up Rocky and spread the news so he can win a better protector from amongst
138-412: Is a corrections officer. Smitty, who asserts that he is heterosexual, seems to get along with his new cellmates quickly. Queenie, who has friends amongst the "politicians" of the prison, informs him of what to expect, and warns that Mona has been gang-raped because he did not have an "old man" looking out for him. Rocky later manipulates Smitty into becoming his sexual subordinate by threatening to arrange
161-551: The Canadian Screen Award for Best Director . In the mid 1970s Hart directed four episodes of Columbo : By Dawn's Early Light (1974), A Deadly State of Mind (1975), Forgotten Lady (1975), and Now You See Him (1976). He continued splitting his time between film work in Canada and television work in Los Angeles throughout the 1980s. He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film for
184-403: The "politicians" in the guard house; Queenie makes this suggestion for his own benefit rather than Smitty's. At Christmas time, the inmates prepare to perform in a pageant. Queenie has planned a drag act, and Mona intends to read Shakespeare. Mona's act is rejected at the last minute, and Smitty uses the information he knows to get the guard to leave him alone with Mona while everyone else attends
207-623: The CBC and moved to the United States , where, in the following years, he directed episodes for TV series such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Star Trek , as well as theatrical features, including Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) and The Sweet Ride (1968). He moved back to Toronto in 1970 where he directed several feature films, including Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971), The Pyx (1973), Shoot (1976) and Goldenrod (1976), for which he won
230-410: 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." Mankiewicz also says producer Joe Pasternak had suffered a stroke shortly before filming which impacted his effectiveness. Jacqueline Bisset said her nude scene in the ocean was 'miserable'. According to Fox records,
253-399: 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. 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. The Allmusic review by Tony Wilds noted: "Rugolo hits many of
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#1733105335196276-565: The film's opening credits. 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 starring Frank Sinatra and Bullitt starring Steve McQueen . Tom Mankiewicz, who wrote the screenplay, later said the problem with the film was "it tried to touch all
299-480: The mini-series East of Eden (1981) and a Gemini Award for Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for the television crime-drama film Passion and Paradise (1989). Harvey Hart died of a heart attack in 1989. Fortune and Men%27s Eyes Fortune and Men's Eyes is a 1967 play and 1971 film written by John Herbert about a young man's experience in prison, exploring themes of homosexuality and sexual slavery . The plot follows Smitty,
322-403: The pageant: Rocky and Queenie immediately begin to beat Mona, accusing him of making a sexual advance on Smitty. The Guard takes Mona away to be tortured, despite Smitty's pleas. Angrily, Smitty threatens both Queenie and Rocky, establishing himself as the new dominant male in the cell. The play ends with Smitty listening to Mona's punishment offstage and swearing to "pay them back". The title of
345-629: The play at the New York Actors Studio in 1966, taking the role of Rocky, while Jon Voight played Smitty. The play, produced by Rothenberg, premiered off-Broadway in New York City at the Actors Playhouse from February 23, 1967, to January 1968. Reviews were mixed, and many reviewers were shocked by the subject matter. Reviewer Herbert Whittaker wrote in The Globe and Mail that the play
368-545: The play comes from William Shakespeare 's Sonnet 29 , which begins with the line, "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes...". It has been translated into 40 languages and produced in over 100 countries. It is the most published Canadian play, and won the Dominion Drama Festival 's Massey Award in 1968 (an award which Herbert refused) and the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1975. Fortune and Men's Eyes
391-459: The play was produced and directed by Sal Mineo at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles . Don Johnson played the lead role of Smitty and Michael Greer played the role of Queenie, Smitty's cellmate. Mineo took the role of Rocky. This production garnered more critical approval, but included additional scenes which had not been approved by Herbert. A film adaptation of Fortune and Men's Eyes
414-589: The recommendation of Robertson Davies , who frequented the University Club at which Herbert worked as a waiter, sent the script to Douglas Campbell at the Stratford Festival . Campbell accepted the play for the festival's young actors workshop and assigned it to Bruno Gerussi to direct, but the Stratford Festival's board of directors forbade the production from being staged publicly. Herbert sent
437-423: 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.". All compositions by Pete Rugolo except where noted. Harvey Hart Harvey Hart (March 19, 1928 – November 22, 1989)
460-424: The show. Mona admits he was falsely accused of the crime for which he is serving time, and Smitty admits unhappiness that Queenie is now choosing his lovers for him. Smitty makes an offer to become Mona's "old man", which Mona refuses. Smitty becomes upset, but Mona comforts him with Shakespeare's poem When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes . The two are laughing and embracing when Rocky and Queenie return from
483-666: Was "the art of washing our dirty linen in the neighbor's yard." Cohen wrote in the Toronto Star that the play "lifts the carpet and shows what is underneath"; he added that it "asks deeply disturbing questions about long-established personal and social assumptions. It does not enrich our vision. It undermines it". Fortune and Men's Eyes inspired the creation of the Fortune Society, a New York City-based advocacy and support organization for former prisoners. The play toured to Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, and Toronto. In 1969,
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#1733105335196506-565: Was a Canadian television and film director and a television producer . Hart studied at the University of Toronto before being hired by the CBC in 1952. For them he created over 30 television productions, among them several episodes of an anthology series, Festival , like Home of the Brave (1961) and The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1961), adaptations of a 1946 play and 1960 novel . In 1963 he left
529-579: Was inspired in part by Herbert's own experience. In the 1940s, he was attacked outside a gay bar while dressed in drag and then convicted of indecency based on the testimony of his attackers. Following the conviction, he was imprisoned in the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph. The character of Queenie in the play is an authorial self-insertion . Herbert encountered difficulties in getting the play staged. After being rejected by several directors, Herbert, on
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