A true oddity from the UK. TAKE AN EASY RIDE (1976), which lasts around 40 minutes, has been called the “British answer to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT,” but that’s not an entirely accurate description. Yes, TAKE AN EASY RIDE does evince a similar brand of violent sexploitation that was germane to the seventies, but it takes the form of an instructional drama.
As the film, shot on location in Kent, England, opens a narrator informs us that “The producers of this film wish to give you the opportunity to judge for yourselves whether hitchhiking should be banned.” Featured are several apparently genuine on-the-street interviews with various ordinary folk about their feelings on hitchhiking (most are opposed to it). The interviews bleed into the main plot in the form of intercuts, as we’re introduced to several young woman, among them Mary and Anne, two miniskirt wearing hotties who plan on hitchhiking their way to an outdoor rock concert, as well as two more (unnamed) young women who are clearly up to no good, and a statuesque beauty named Susanne who’s looking to visit her BF.
“The producers of this film wish to give you the opportunity to judge for yourselves whether hitchhiking should be banned.”
The intercut-happy director includes snippets of the aforementioned concert as Mary and Anne wind up in the car of a creep who rapes and brutalizes them. As for the other two young ladies, after stealing the loot from a restaurant tip jar—and a knife from behind the counter—they catch a ride and one of them stabs to death the young male driver with said knife, while Susanne gets picked up by some rich folk and involved in a threesome.
A well-intentioned (if sleazy) Public Service Announcement on the dangers of hitchhiking or a trash-fest?
A well-intentioned (if sleazy) PSA on the dangers of hitchhiking or a trash-fest? Perhaps the film’s most interesting aspect is that it never entirely tips its hand in either direction. The filmmaking showcases all the attributes of both genres, with the frank depictions of rape, bloodletting and softcore sex amply bolstering its sexploitation credentials, while the quasi-naturalistic atmosphere that tended to pervade 1970s PSAs (take it from one who was force-fed such fare from elementary school onward), and the expected bad acting, infuses the proceedings.
Also included is an extremely dull final ten minutes in which, in true PSA fashion, the parents of the murdered girls are informed of their daughters’ unfortunate fates and our noses are further rubbed in the overriding Important Message about the dangers of an “easy ride.” Yet the exploitation aspect is revived in the final scene, in which (SPOILER ALERT!) the homicidal drifters are seen climbing into the car of the rapist, a true match made in exploitation movie Hell.
Vital Statistics
TAKE AN EASY RIDE
Midas/Action Plus Productions Ltd./K.F.R. Productions
Director/Producer: Kenneth Rowles
Screenplay: Derrick Slater
Cinematography: Douglas Hill
Editing: K.F.R. Productions
Cast: Helen Bernat, Margaret Heald, Pauleen Bate, Christianne, Derrick Slater, Jeanne Field, Sam Avent, Tony Doonan, Charles Erskine, Jenny Nevinson, Stella Coley, Terry Francis, Frederick Hogarth, Sue Allen Carstairs, Ron Patric