“Oh, boy, that was some trip.”

Drake’s rating: Y’know, I should’ve thrown this one on the swap pile

Drake’s review: “Young outlaws in love” was a fairly popular exploitation gimmick in the ‘70s, although it really kicked off in 1967 when Bonnie and Clyde became a hit. A smattering of films followed, but in the mid-70s the formula was in full swing as films when Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, and Aloha, Bobby and Rose hit the big screen, the latter cleaning up at the box office in 1975*, becoming the 7th-highest grossing film of the year.

Now numbers like that will certainly catch the eye of many a low-budget producer looking to make a quick buck, and the longtime schlockmeisters at American International Pictures were in no way immune to such a lure. So it was that they enlisted director Mark L. Lester, future director of Class of 1984 and Commando, to turn out Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw. This featured TV’s Wonder Woman and a former child preacher as hellraisers kicking dust and shooting up small Southwestern towns.

So Lyle Wheeler (Marjoe Gortner, the aforementioned former child preacher, who was the subject of the documentary Marjoe) is just a bad sort. Idolizing the notorious Billy the Kid (although Lyle himself is already a good decade older than Henry McCarty was when he was gunned down by Pat Garrett), Lyle steals a traveling salesman’s Mustang just minutes after the film opens and then uses the car to impress local waitress Bobbie Jo Baker (Lynda Carter, Sky High). Soon enough, Lyle draws both Bobbie Jo and her best friend Essie (Belinda Balski, Piranha) into his outlaw world. Then the trio becomes a quintet, as Bobbi Jo’s sister and her current beau, Slick Callahan (Jesse Vint, Macon County Line), join in on the fun.

And, as you might expect when someone named “Slick” enters the scene, things go from bad to much, much worse. Graduating from stealing cars and cheating at pinball machine matches to robbing banks and gunning down anyone in their way, the group swiftly puts themselves on a collision course with the law. And if you know your ‘70s exploitation cinema, then you can probably figure out how well that’s going to go for our protagonists.

Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw is a by-the-numbers drive-in flick. It has the requisite violence, nudity, and things going boom, but unfortunately it offers very little substance.

Lynda Carter initially plays her likable self, but her peppy personality puts her at odds with the movie itself because these characters are, top to bottom, an unsympathetic lot. Lyle, lacking motivation, is nothing more than a thief and a killer with delusions of grandeur. He dreams of the Old West, but lives in ignorance of the fact that the real West was a place of desperation and hardship and not just the backdrop of an old John Wayne movie. There’s even less depth to Slick, and the women are defined largely by the horrible relationship decisions that they make.

Again, this is drive-in fare, but it’s thin even for that. There’s no narrative drive to any of the characters’ actions. Instead, they steal a car, shoot up a town and then head off down the road to do it all over again. It’s not really a bad exploitation flick, and it benefits greatly from a unique cast and the direction of Lester, but the script itself just wanders from scene to scene without giving the characters any forward momentum. The action is above average, with car chases, gunfights and the occasional explosion keeping things moving, but it’s never quite enough to make up for the pedestrian story or the unlikable characters.

But, hey, watching Wonder Woman go aggro with an M-16 is something you don’t see every day.

*Making some $35 million on a budget of $600,000.

Intermission!

• No one will be seated during the pinball challenge scene!
• A car blew up! We’re well on the way to ‘70s exploitation movie bingo.
• As Joe Bob Briggs might say: Car antenna fu!
• Just hanging out in the pond, tripping on peyote.
• OK, a roadblock doesn’t work if you don’t stop for it.
• Pro tip: When you rob a gun store, be prepared for all-out urban combat.
• Be sure to give everyone your full names during the bank robbery. Maybe throw in your home address and phone number next time as well.
• Sure, just steal the safe and drive off with it.