Robert Walker, Jr. Is travelling the titular road when he comes across a small gas station/café in the middle of nowhere. Desperate to seek shelter from the desert sun, he encounters Rita Hayworth, the owner, who declares that he's her son "Rocky".
Walker plays along mostly because he needs a place to stay, but becomes increasingly confused when family friend Ed Begley, and then his "sister" Mimsy Farmer don't question his identity. Investigation reveals that he looks nothing like Rocky, and when he confronts Farmer she initiates a sexual relationship.
Where is Rocky and why is everyone so committed to him being Rocky?
This Italian/French co-production was Georges Lautner's only English-language film. He was a very successful director of crime films that never really made sizeable inroads to North America, and this was clearly designed to address that. It feels nothing like any of his other films. It's a lightly existential, sun drenched noir that feels very much of a piece a certain kind of vaguely countercultural films coming out of Europe at the time. The presence of Farmer and the (really quite good) Pink Floyd-influenced score reminds me Barbet Schroeder's "More", even though the plot couldn't be less similar.
It's shot off the coast of Spain and has the Sunny, desolate look of most of the European films shot there in this period. It's an intriguing little film with good performances all around and prodigious nudity from both Walker and Farmer. My only real complaint is that the whole thing has a flashback structure that leads to an utterly pointless narration by Walker popping up periodically.
