Tonight's Movie: Deadman's Curve (1978) (and Concert in the Rocks)

I'm back from a wonderful few days traveling up and down Highway 395.

I spent last weekend in Lone Pine, where I attended the Concert in the Rocks for this first time. This annual event in the Alabama Hills benefits Lone Pine's Museum of Western Film History.

This year's concert featured Dean Torrence, formerly of Jan and Dean, backed by the Surf City AllStars. They sang a lively concert of "beach" music made popular by Jan and Dean, as well as the Beach Boys.

Dean is now 86, but I never would have guessed it from his lively 90-minute performance had I not been aware of how many decades had passed since the start of his music career!

More on the concert further down in this post, but first, a look at the TV-movie DEADMAN'S CURVE (1978), which I'd never seen before.

The film was shown twice on June 13th in the museum theater; I attended the 10:00 a.m. showing. The print wasn't particularly good but was chosen because better prints are incomplete, rather than the film's 96 minutes. I quickly adjusted to the slightly fuzzy way it looked, and the sound quality was solid.

Richard Hatch, who starred in BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA later that same year, stars as Jan, who is smart and talented but not a very nice person. He's mean to his friends and unfaithful to his girlfriend Susie (Denise DuBarry, BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON).

Jan's friend and singing partner Dean, played by Bruce Davison, is a mellower type and puts up with Jan's behavior; together they hit the music big time. Then one fateful day in 1966 Jan has a near-fatal car wreck, all the more eerie given the duo's hit song "Deadman's Curve."

Jan was in a coma for weeks and worked toward recovery for years. He was never again quite the same, but given how badly he was injured, the functionality he did regain seems miraculous.

The movie, directed by Richard Compton, costarred Pamela Bellwood (DYNASTY), Denise Floy Dean, Anne-Marie Martin, and Priscilla Cory.

I found it engrossing, and while some of the movie was fictionalized -- Jan's girlfriend Susie didn't exist but was a composite of women in his life -- it was also educational.

I especially loved seeing '70s Los Angeles in the film; I found a webpage which has photos of a number of the locations. A small theater seen in the movie still exists right around the corner from the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood!

One of the sequences features Dean doing some dangerous skateboarding maneuvers. The shots of Dean skateboarding from the back were actually of Davison's stunt double, Diamond Farnsworth. Farnsworth -- son of stuntman-actor Richard Farnsworth -- is himself a legendary stuntman who was a talented skateboarder. I've been fortunate to see him numerous times at past Lone Pine Film Festivals.

What made this screening extra-special was that both Davison and Farnsworth were there to discuss the film after it concluded, including taking some audience questions. Davison said when he worked with Richard Farnsworth on ULZANA'S RAID (1972) the senior Farnsworth told him that his son Diamond would be a perfect double for Davison, and with DEADMAN'S CURVE it finally came to pass.

Davison shared that Dean Torrence was on the DEADMAN'S CURVE set daily, making sure the film and characters were as authentic as possible, and indeed, Davison said that Torrence rewrote much of Dalene Young's screenplay on the fly; he would cross out dialogue he wanted removed and rewrite it on the back of the page.

The screenplay was inspired by a well-known Rolling Stone article written by Paul Morantz. An interesting tidbit heard at the screening is that Morantz authored a very good screenplay on Audie Murphy and PTSD, which has yet to be produced; Morantz died in 2022.

Richard Hatch sadly died of cancer in 2017. Davison said the last time he'd seen Hatch was at a reunion for the TV series THE WALTONS; he and Hatch had each appeared in an episode.

I'll insert here that, as it happens, I met Davison in Lone Pine in 2017, as I recounted here; when I was a teenager I saw him on stage in a production of AS YOU LIKE IT directed by Tony Richardson.

The movie provided some great background history for the evening's concert, which took place in a section of the Alabama Hills known for decades as Lone Ranger Canyon.

My husband, who volunteers for the fall film festival, was out in hot weather on Saturday morning helping set up these tables!

When the band started singing "Let's go surfin' now..." red, white, and blue beach balls started flying!  It was tremendous fun.

The evening provided some remarkable visuals to go with the great music:

It was especially memorable when Bruce Davison and Diamond Farnsworth came on stage to join in the last couple songs, including "Barbara Ann."  Diamond even played guitar! He's in the striped shirt to the right of Dean Torrence, with Davison on his other side at the microphone.

Another great time in Lone Pine!

DEADMAN'S CURVE can be seen digitally via Amazon. 

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