Willa

Willa (Deborah Raffin) is a hash joint waitress who's always dreamed of being a trucker. When she finds out that a local produce distributor (John Amos) offers truck driving lessons in exchange for labor, she persuades him to take her on, convincing him that she can work just as hard as the men, and that she's serious about driving a truck.

So for the next several weeks she maintains the grueling schedule of waitressing during the day, loading produce at night, and training on the big trucks. This latter activity provides many moments of amusement, with Willa running over and backing into things, eliciting Amos's trademarked exasperation in response.

The movie's dramatic tension comes from the fact that Willa has two small children, with another on the way (the derelict father is nowhere to be found), an alcoholic mother (Diane Ladd) at home, and a welfare worker threatening to remove the kids from the home because their mother has the audacity to want to raise them by herself, without a man around.

Raffin gives Willa the appropriate degree of pluckiness and verve. The supporting performances are all good, particularly Clu Gulager as Willa's suitor, who respects her individuality enough to resist the urge to "take care of her," as he was raised to do. Cloris Leachman is a hoot as a buxom lady-trucker who takes Willa on as a co-driver. In addition, Hank Williams Jr. And Merle Kilgore have a cameo in the first few minutes, and Corey Feldman makes his movie debut as Willa's little boy.

This movie is a rarity in that it's one of the few trucking-themed films from the 1970s that doesn't have any chase scenes, or semis crashing through barricades and disposable cop cars. In that regard it's totally refreshing.