C'mon Join the 'Joyride'

A young Melanie Griffith, Robert Carradine and Desi Arnaz Jr. starred as carefree rebels in Joyride (1977). Quitting their blue-collar jobs and heading for Alaska to start fresh wasn't as easy as they thought it would be. While the guys got drunk in the local bar, the girl wrangled jobs for them at the local pipeline. She refused to get a job there herself, knowing she would have to go the extra mile with the supervisor if she wanted a job, so waitressing paid the bills. Struggling to make ends meet, the trio took advantage of an in-progress store robbery committed by others to load their shopping cart with various cuts of meat and to make a getaway while the police apprehended the real criminals. Crime seemed to be the best option for the trio to make extra money, although none of them were a good shot with a gun. 'It must be the wind', Griffith said. 'There isn't any wind,' Carradine explained. The group were intimidated right out of their jobs by the locals, one of whom threatened 'it's really terrible what happens to tourists.' At their lowest, they were forced to eat 88 cent dog food out of the cans while freezing in an old shed and to engage in drunken pissing contests to earn a few hundred dollars. A pretty pipeline payroll philly (say that ten times fast) caught Scott's (Arnaz Jr.) eye and ended up as the group's hostage when they robbed the place. She wasn't your typical hostage, however, engaging in fun times with the law-breaking trio. The 'joyride' continued as the group grew tired of Alaska and set its sights on Canada as their new destination. This was an interesting late-70s crime movie, complete with nudity from both the female leads and minimal violence. I didn't think what was supposed to pass for Alaska looked much like that frozen state and I'm sure it probably wasn't filmed there, but who knows? An interesting piece of trivia is that all four of the film's main stars are the offspring of legendary Hollywood stars from the past: Melanie Griffith is the daughter of 'The Birds' star Tippi Hedren, Robert Carradine is the son of veteran horror film star John Carradine, Desi Arnaz Jr. is the son of comedians Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and Anne Lockhart (the pipeline payroll hostage) is the daughter of 'Lassie' and 'Lost in Space' star June Lockhart.