Peter Viney's Blog

Little Fauss & Big Halsy

1970

Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Written by Charles Eastman

Music supervisor: Bob Johnston

CAST
Robert Redford – Halsy Knox
Michael J. Pollard – Little Fauss
Lauren Hutton – Rita Nebraska
Noah Beery – Seally Fauss
Lucille Benson – Mom Fauss
Erin O’Reilly- Sylvene McFall
Ray Ballard- The photographer
Linda Gaye Scott- Moneth

The 60s Retrospective series

Release dates: USA October 1970, but UK a full year later, September 1971

Unplanned. Well, the pregnancy in the film, but also us watching it. We often record Talking Pictures oldies on Sky QBox then browse and give them a go. Given Sky QBox, half of them fail with an alleged but non-existent “power cut” but not this one. Neither of us had ever heard of it, let alone seen it.

It took our attention because of one of the two leads: Michael J. Pollard. Then a soundtrack supervised by Dylan’s producer, Bob Johnston, sung by Johnny Cash. Phew. Oh, and Robert Redford’s the other lead, though less interesting as an actor than Michael J. Pollard.

It’s a two guys with transport on wheels movie. Easy Rider had bigger motor bikes. Two Lane Blacktop had fast cars. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid had bicycles in the classic music scene. This one has 250 cc trail / track bikes. The ones with a whining engine noise beloved of teenagers who can’t afford the full 650.

It came exactly a year after Butch Cassidy which would be the motivation to get Robert Redford on screen. On screen? His character, Halsy, had never found a need to enter premises with a sign saying NO SHIRTS NO SHOES NO SERVICE because he seems shirtless in every scene, showing off his suntanned six pack.

The appeal of the movie to Redford was presenting a rougher, tougher sleazy character for a change. Robert Redford’s attitude to the film has varied, as quoted on IMDB:

In Robert Redford’s biography, he called Little Fauss and Big Halsy “the best script of any film I’ve ever done.” He was, however, somewhat less than thrilled with the film when it did not live up to its expectations at the box-office. However, when the film premiered on television  in 1976 he said that he resented its television broadcast because, after years of successful films, he was less than enthusiastic about Little Fauss and Big Halsy, which he considered a stain on his filmography.  

It was filmed in 1969- Variety previewed it at the end of the year, nine months before it hit US screens and twenty-one months before it got to the UK. That indicates a lack of studio priority.

The plot

I hadn’t noticed the 1970 date so had not planned to review and put it in my Retrospective series so didn’t do my usual tracing of the plot with photos.

Halsy Knox is a professional motorcycle racer and a drifter. Looking at the crowds, this 250cc bike track racing is not big circuit pro-sport stuff. It’s the bottom end of motor racing, somewhere around stock car racing (i.e. demolition derby). He picks up women, lies and cheats to get his own way, and steals if he can’t persuade anyone otherwise. In basic English, the man is a total shit.

He runs into Little Fauss, an innocent  amateur racer, after a race in Arizona. Fauss is attracted to Halsy’s carefree lifestyle. Fauss’s dad, Noah, however, regards Halsy as a bad influence on his son and refuses to help Halsy when his truck breaks down. Michael J. Pollard … works in a repair shop, making friends with a stranger, his rural dad disapproves … echoes of Bonnie & Clyde. Or rather, just the same as Bonnie & Clyde.

When Halsy arrives later at the motorcycle repair shop, he tricks the admiring Fauss into repairing his motorcycle for free. This is the sort of intimate and revealing dialogue that friendship is based on:

Halsy:  Got any lube nipples for a 250 Yamaha?
Fauss: Don’t got.

Fauss breaks his leg, so Halsy, who has been barred from racing for drinking on the track, proposes that they form a partnership in which Halsy would race under Fauss’s name with Fauss serving as the mechanic … Michael J. Pollard was destined by his distinctive features to be the perennial sidekick. I always liked his quirky performances, though he was so distinctive that he tended to end up much the same.

Michael J. Pollard as Little Fauss, Robert redford as Big Halsy

Halsy reveals the huge scar from a racing accident down his spine (which scar is the star of the show) and points out that it allowed him to evade the draft to Vietnam. It’s said that Redford and Pollard loathed each other in reality on set, so it adds an edge.

Fauss joins Halsy on the motorcycle racing circuit despite Dad and Mom’s disapproval. Fauss is constantly made aware of his inferiority to Halsy, both on and off the racetrack. Would that be based on physical appearance?

Their partnership is broken when Rita Nebraska, a hippie drop-out with a silly surname, arrives at the racetrack and immediately attaches herself to Halsy, despite the puppy-like devotion of Fauss.

Fauss returns home. His father has died. He’s back out on his bike doing hill climbs on dust and getting to the top of the slope, where all the others have fallen off. Several months later, Halsy visits him and attempts to ditch Rita, who is now pregnant, suggesting the baby might be Fauss’s. It seems unlikely,

Fauss is not fooled. He tells Halsy that he is going to race again. The two men race against each other at the Sears Point International Raceway.  Before the race, Fauss announces he has his draft papers. Halsy’s motorcycle breaks down half-way when he’s in the lead. As he leaves the track, he hears the announcement that Fauss has taken the lead. The end.

Real race footage was used, and that’s exciting, especially a sequence with sidecar racing which looks terrifying.

Comments

An uneven, sluggish story of two motorcycle racers – Robert Redford playing a callous heel, and Michael J. Pollard as a put-upon sidekick who eventually (in modified finale) surpasses his fallen idol. Hampered by a thin screenplay, this film is padded further by often-pretentious direction by Sidney J. Furie against expansive physical values. What is very disappointing is the lack of strong dramatic development. Redford’s character is apparent in his very first scene; it never changes. 
Variety 31 December 1969

Two motorcycle track racers team up and have violent adventures around the country. Rather pointless capers in the wake of Easy Rider, neither interesting nor well-done.
Helliwell’s Film Guide

Overall

Helliwell pretty much sums it up, though the real footage is well-done.

SOUNDTRACK

The most interesting bit. The important song is Wanted Man, written by Bob Dylan, performed by Johnny Cash. The title track The Ballad of Little Fauss & Big Halsy was written by Carl Perkins, performed by Johnny Cash and was nominated for a Golden Globe. It didn’t win it.

Rollin Free (Johnny Cash) – Johnny Cash
Wanted Man (Bob Dylan) – Johnny Cash
Ballad of Little Fauss & Big Halsy (Carl Perkins) – Johnny Cash
Ballad of Little Fauss & Big Halsy (Carl Perkins) – instrumental
True Love Is Greater Than Friendship (Carl Perkins) – Johnny Cash
7.06 Union (Carl Perkins) – The Tennessee Three
The Little Man (Johnny Cash) – Johnny Cash
The Little Man (Johnny Cash)  – instrumental
Movin’ (Johnny Cash) – Johnny Cash

In theUK, there was EP release with the title by Johnny Cash with Wanted Man / Ballad of Little Fauss & Big Halsy on side one, and other stuff on side two. It was very late for EPs in the UK, but CBS had done the same with McCabe & Mrs Miller.

THE 60s REVISITED REVIEWS …

A Taste of Honey (1961)
Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963)
The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963)
Tom Jones (1963)
The Fast Lady (1963)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
Cat Ballou (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Darling (1965)
The Knack (1965)
Help! (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Morgan – A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966)
Alfie (1966)
Harper (aka The Moving Target) 1966
The Chase (1966)
The Trap (1966)
Georgy Girl (1966)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Nevada Smith (1966)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
The Family Way (1967)
Privilege (1967)
Blow-up (1967)
Accident (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name (1967)
How I Won The War (1967)
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
Poor Cow (1967)
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1968)
The Magus (1968)
If …. (1968)
Girl On A Motorcycle (1968)
The Bofors Gun (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride) (1968)
Work Is A Four Letter Word (1968)
The Party (1968)
Petulia (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
Deadfall (1968)
The Swimmer (1968)
Theorem (Teorema) (1968)
The Magic Christian (1969)
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970)
Performance (1970)