Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)

Competition between privately owned Los Angeles ambulance companies is played for humor.

Director:

Peter Yates

Writers:

Stephen Manes (story), Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay)

Stars:

Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, Harvey Keitel

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bill Cosby	...	Mother
Raquel Welch	...	Jugs
Harvey Keitel	...	Speed
Allen Garfield	...	Harry Fishbine
Larry Hagman	...	Murdoch
L.Q. Jones	...	Davey
Bruce Davison	...	Leroy
Dick Butkus	...	Rodeo
Milt Kamen	...	Barney
Barra Grant	...	Miss Crocker
Allan Warnick	...	Bliss
Valerie Curtin	...	Naomi Fishbine
Ric Carrott	...	Harvey
Severn Darden	...	Moran
Bill Henderson	...	Charles Taylor

Storyline

Los Angeles: A new law says that the first ambulance that arrives at an accident obtains the contract to transport the injured person. The result is ruthless competition between several companies.

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Plot Keywords:

ambulance | drugs | suicide | shot through the mouth | sexual harassment | 

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Taglines:

A black and blue comedy

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 May 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

C.R.A.S.H.

Filming Locations:

Mar Vista, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$20,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Allen Garfield (Harry Fishbine) was once called "the Lawrence Olivier of American sleaze" by a film critic.

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Goofs

When "Mother" injects the "hangover cure" into the massage parlor girl, you can see him flip the syringe around as he hits her behind.

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Quotes

Mother: [repeated line when about to drive off] Showbusiness!

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: It Lives by Night (1999)

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Soundtracks

Tijuana Taxi
(uncredited)
Performed by Herb Alpert
Written by Bud Coleman

User Reviews

Holds up well for a thirty year old film

'Mother' chronicles the adventures of a group of privatized ambulance drivers (in 1976?) working for the Fishbine Ambulance company. You get the usual assortment of stiffs for the mid-70s; the new guy, Speed (Harvey Keitel), the hot chick, Jugs (Raquel Welch), the lecherous loser, Murdoch (Larry Hagman), the overbearing boss, Fishbine (Allen Garfield), the nerdy effete guy, Bliss (Allan Warnick), and your resident smart-ass, Mother (Bill Cosby). Now, these days, you don't think of Bill Cosby when you think of smart-ass, but this was almost thirty years ago. Things were different.

'Mother' is a product of its time, very 70s, with a rant about inflation and how bad the economy is; Mother's partner Leroy (a very young Bruce Davison) gets high all the time, and there's a flap later on when Jugs earns her EMT certificate and wants to ride in the ambulance with the guys. Such a thing wouldn't even bat an eye now, but was an issue back then. But 'Mother' is also amusing. Some of the comedy is obvious – one extremely obese black woman is too heavy to carry and her gurney slips from their grip, taking a joyride down a hilly street. But a lot of it is surprisingly sharp, thanks mostly to Cosby's excellent timing and deadpan delivery. Mother has a one-liner for every situation, and, surprise, most of them are really funny.

While the rest of the cast is fine – Keitel portrays a slightly nicer version of the cool, collected guy he often plays, Welch is pleasant but her character isn't particularly deep, and Garfield is good as a sort of proto-Louie DePalma – the movie is really Cosby's show. From bribing the cops to drinking beer on the job, from ‘buzzing' the nuns with his siren to eating his hamburgers with peanut butter, onions, and mayonnaise on them, Mother is a real character in every good sense of the word. While the film does not always excel and in some places falls sort of flat, Cosby is always spot on here, and it's worth sitting through some of the slower stretches for him alone.

I was thinking as I was watching this film that it would be prime fodder for a remake. Bernie Mac would ace the Cosby role, you could find any number of women to play Jugs (I suggest Heather Graham), and it would be almost painfully easy to update the 70s-isms into modern day slang/events. You could even be topical and switch Bliss from metrosexual to full-out gay (which is implied but never said in the film anyway). In looking up this film on the IMDB, however, I discovered someone already did try to make this into a TV show, so apparently I wasn't the first one who thought this had potential (though TV is the wrong venue; much of the film's humor is ribald, and you sure as hell couldn't call any woman on TV ‘Jugs'). 'Mother' is an enjoyable film, not much more than your average summer filler, but still able to elicit several good chuckles almost thirty years later. It's certainly worth it to see Cosby play the bad boy with aplomb.