Director: Mark Rydell
Year Released: 1969
Rating: 3.0
Eleven-year-old Lucius (Mitch Vogel), along with scruffy Boon (Steve McQueen) and impulsive Ned (Rupert Crosse), steal a brand new Winton Flyer automobile (that was purchased by a wealthy man named Boss) and set out to Memphis so Boon can reunite with his prostitute girlfriend Miss Corrie (Sharon Farrell) ... and get into a bunch of adventures. It may be, as Nabokov once said about William Faulkner, a bit 'corncobby' - there are a few dopey brawls that break out sporadically, it's a little 'stereotypically Southern' (the mud and the chaw and the good-ol'-boy banter) - but I still think it's a charming coming-of-age story, in which a kid, in just a handful of days, lies to multiple people, gets into a knife fight defending a woman's honor, sleeps in a brothel and then wins a huge horse race ... and then has to face his family when it's over (experience always has a price). McQueen was usually so intense on screen, it's cool to see him 'loosen' up a smidge and show off his 'lighter side.' Side note: according to this movie, ladies of the night only cost a buck in the early 20th century - using an online inflation calculator, $1 in 1905 would cost roughly $27 today (2017) ... now those are some reasonable rates (and cheaper than actual dates!).
