Mother, Jugs & Speed
Essentially a full-length exercise in Getting Crap Past the Radar[1], this 1976 Black Comedy focuses on an independent ambulance company in competition with another independent ambulance company for a contract with the City of Los Angeles.
The cast includes:
- Bill Cosby as "Mother" Tucker, a long-time paramedic & driver known for harassing nuns and imbibing while on duty. He also keeps a revolver in his glove compartment.
- Raquel Welch as Jennifer, aka "Jugs"; what she is known for is rather obvious. She secretly wants to be a paramedic & driver.
- Harvey Keitel as Tony "Speed" Malatesta, a possibly Dirty Cop who is suspended from the force pending an investigation into selling cocaine to children, hence his nickname. His experience as an ambulance driver in Vietnam leads to being hired to fill in for an injured paramedic.
- Larry Hagman as John Murdoch, who attempts to rape an unconscious co-ed he and Speed are transporting.
- Dick Butkus as "Rodeo", a transplanted Texan.
- Allen Garfield as Harry "Doughnut" Fishbine, the company owner and boss of the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits. He is not above taking kickbacks so he can stay in business.
This film provides examples of
- Anti Hero: Mother.
- The Big Guy: Rodeo.
- Black Comedy
- Buxom Is Better: Jugs!
- The Casanova: Murdoch.
- The Chick: Jugs!
- Also Mrs. Fishbine, the naive sort.
- Cool Car: Mother's customized Chevrolet Sport Van ambulance.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Harry Fishbine, of the low-rent sort.
- Dirty Cop: Speed. Maybe.
- Drunk Driver: Mother. Probably.
- Dude She's Like in A Coma: Murdoch climbing in with an overdosed co-ed and getting undressed.
- Hey, It's That Girl!: The junkie is Toni Basil.
- The Lancer: Speed.
- Leroy, Mother's previous partner, also qualifies.
- The Medic: Speed was an ambulance driver in Vietnam.
- Modesty Bedsheet: likely several bedsheets with Speed and Jugs in the back of an ambulance.
- Mood Whiplash: quite a few. For example: Murdoch wanting to rape an unconscious co-ed, a desperate junkie killing Leroy then herself, and a woman giving birth in Mother's ambulance then dying.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
- Recycled the Series: The failed TV Pilot Mother, Juggs & Speed. The extra "g" is because her surname became "Juggston".
- Scary Black Man: Mother can be when he's drunk.
- The Stoner: Murdoch.
- Token Minority: Mother is the only person of color in his company.
- ↑ The filmmakers have explicitly stated that their intention was to see how far they could go while maintaining the PG rating.