Jan-Michael Vincent, at the peak of his charisma and movie stardom, registers strongly as good, honest young man Carrol Jo Hummer, fresh from a stint in the Air Force. He gets a loan, which he uses to pay for his own diesel truck, which he dubs The Blue Mule. Initially thinking of working for family friend Duane Haller (Slim Pickens), he ultimately decides to fight corruption in the transport business, making enemies out of slimy people like Buck Wessle (L.Q. Jones) and Cutler (Don Porter). Kay Lenz plays Jerri, the wife who stands by his side.
The prolific director Jonathan Kaplan, who at this time was firing off one entertaining B picture after another, wrote the script with Ken Friedman. Like so many other young directors during the 70s, he'd gotten his start working for Roger Corman, and was able to hone his craft. Here he creates an adequately paced, sometimes pretty serious (but never overly melodramatic), gritty little movie. It gets a lot of mileage out of its time honoured premise of one good man at war with a corrupt system.
Carrol Jo must do battle both on the road and off, and proves himself capable of handling himself in a number of scraps, which are often instigated by swaggering bully Clem (Martin Kove). The action in "White Line Fever" is well executed, and the photography, by Fred J. Koenekamp, is simply gorgeous. One sequence with Carrol Jo on the road as he makes his way to snowy Utah is breathtaking. This is overall very slickly made and engagingly written and performed.
A bright-eyed and earnest Vincent is extremely well supported by the lovable Lenz, ever amiable Pickens, and an effectively sleazy Jones. The cast features other familiar faces such as the ever reliable Dick Miller, and R.G. Armstrong as a prosecuting attorney. Sam Laws, Leigh French, and Kaplan regular Johnny Ray McGhee also appear. Cinematographer Jamie Anderson ("Piranha" '78) has a rare acting role here as Jamie, and Ann Dusenberry of "Jaws 2" is seen briefly as a barmaid.
David Nichtern does the flavourful score for this solid entry into the trucker cinema genre of the '70s. The ending is more low key than the viewer might expect, and may not be totally satisfying to some people.
Seven out of 10.
