Flash and the Firecat

"Flash and the Firecat" is an OK flick about a pair of dune buggy enthusiasts, who are also a couple, who cleverly rob a bank by faking a kidnapping with the bank manager's son (who had no idea what was going on). Getting their cash, they then make their getaway across the desert in their buggys.

Lots of familiar 70's faces abound here. Flash is a hot girl, and Firecat ("Cat" for short) is her boyfriend, who promises to take her to Wyoming with the loot to fulfill her dreams. Evidently to some, Wyoming is the place where dreams come true! Richard Keil enters the picture and things get a bit better, as Keil is a no-nonsense official who is hellbent on getting that cash back.

There's not really that much action, there's one chase after the robbery and another towards the end with the dune buggy and a helicopter with Keil in it, and that becomes kind of boring because it mainly consists of the copter trying to keep up with the swerving dune buggy in the desert. And I won't give anything away, but I will say I had no idea drag races were held on sand! The film also features the old Billy Preston hit "Nothing' From Nothing'" which is a decent song, if not seemingly out of place. I also don't believe "Firecat" was ever referred to as "THE Firecat", so why the "the" is in there is a mystery. "Flash and the Firecat" could be a lot better but also worse, you may want to see if you remember any of it if you watched it on 70's cable TV.

I found this video used, for $2.00 and it looked so incredibly cheesy, in a way that only a '70s film can be, I figured it'd be worth the money! And I guess it was. Tricia Sembera is pretty hot, in that '70's kinda way, as 'Flash', the blonde bombshell who loves to drive her dunebuggy in the sandy deserts of Southern California (or was it closer to Bakersfield? I can't be sure about that), while Roger Davis plays 'Firecat', her beau and partner in crime. It's his idea for her to pick up the son of a bank manager and ride him around, buy him a soda, etc. so that Firecat can threaten the banker to give him $30,000 in cash for his release. The boy was never kidnapped, but the manager thought that he had been, so all in all, Firecat walks out of the bank with $33 large, without using a gun and the boy tells his father he met a nice lady who showed him her fancy race-buggy and bought him an orange Fanta! ha ha - The sheriff is hilarious the way he cusses and spews invective to his pathetic underlings who can't seem to be able to catch these two dune-buggy bandits! It starts to resemble a California version of the Dukes of Hazzard after awhile! There's some wrecks & chases and then Richard "Jaws" Kiel shows up, 7 feet tall and really wanting to retrieve that $33,000 from those two, with or without the sheriff's help! Then it starts to get okay. Flash & Firecat find their way to a desert brothel, which operates out of a few trailers, and THIS was the best part of the movie, imo. The ladies are pretty, once again, in that '70's kind of way, and they're enthusiastic, unlike the way real prostitutes would be in real life....the Madam allows them to hole up there till morning light, but Richard Kiel shows up and almost pummels ole Firecat into a pulp, until he get's hit in the face with a stick & is knocked out. Anyway, I won't spoil the ending but I thought the brothel part was the best; there's an old coot there who get's rushed out of his trailer before he can go again twice, so he's mad as hell - it's one of the highlights of the movie! All in all, it's low-budget and the director & writing team (husband & wife?) only did a few other flops in their time; it's also sad to see that Tricia Sembera only did one other movie in 1980 and never made it to TV shows like Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Barnaby Jones, etc. just because she was just as attractive as Shelly Hack was, and SHE made it on Charlie's Angels! So, I'll give this one about a 3 1/2 stars. I doubt it will be out on DVD anytime soon, but you never know!

***1/2