Spare Parts

The opening scenes of this film are pure cheesecake with soul music, people frolicking through the street and dogs trying to grab wedding bouquets. There's some cheesy dubbing as well. It eventually settles down into a more serious affair after a sinister ambulance abducts one half of a honeymooning couple. The girl, Monica, gets away and eventually garners the help of trucker Bill and his trucking buddies in finding out where the ambulance took her husband.

This is a pretty good film which kept me on edge throughout, as the characters were really likable. Good cinematography and a moody score help it along, and the story here is intriguing... certainly a hell of a lot moreso than the somewhat similar 1980 piece of garbage, Cardiac Arrest. If you find a copy, give it a look.

This movie is centered on Roswell, New Mexico. Most folks know about Roswell including some folks in Germany.

A married couple make their way to Roswell for a honeymoon. The wife is a bit wiser than her husband and finds a dry creek waterway to elude capture.

Abductions is what this 1979 movie is about. Abductions and Roswell! The German actors speak in good American accents excepting the female who plays a foreigner.

She flags down a trucker who quickly fears her because of her wacky news yet she does the convincing!

From Roswell this movie goes to New York City where the foreigner continues her mistrust of people claiming to be the law.

If you have a DVD of this movie and use your computer to play it, you might encounter freezes and skips. That could be because this movie is a foreign movie.

To try and correct the play problem, right click on start then click device manager. Click DVD/CD-ROM drives.

A box will appear with tabs. Click DVD region. A list of nation's follow. You'll want to click Germany. If that doesn't correct the problem, it means you'll have to play the DVD on a DVR or DVD player. This movie is a German movie. Remember that Roswell is at issue! They give you hints at what might be going in there!

I was drawn to watch this movie in part because it was a foreign production filmed and set in America, and that promised that the movie would have a unique angle. The portrayal of America is surprisingly balanced - there is a deep and deadly conspiracy in the story, but the movie does give us plenty of innocent and helpful American characters at the same time. Unfortunately, this interesting balance is about the only good thing I can say about the movie. Certainly I can't blame the filmmakers for the atrocious dubbing, but they are guilty of other things. At 105 minutes, the movie is way too long (and slow) for its own good. Along this tedious journey are some real unbelievable plot elements like the fact the protagonists don't consider contacting the police until very late into the story. The movie is also directed with no sense of style, with no tension or any great feelings coming from the movie at any moment - it always feel flat. It's capped off with one of the worst opening/closing credits songs I have ever heard in a motion picture. There is the occasional hint of a decent (though not original) thriller here, but as a whole it simply does not work.

Drive-in 50-pack is where I got this film, under the name "Spare Parts". I didn't think I would like it but the movie actually pulled me in - got me interested fairly fast and held it to the end of the film - I was surprised.

It's a weird film! A couple gets married, goes on honeymoon, stays at the honeymoon motel, here comes the ambulance then complete strangeness of the film begins. The more of the film you watch, the stranger it gets.

The movie will have you asking questions: Why didn't she go to the police right from the start? Why did truck driver Bill help her (he never answered her nor the viewer's question)? Why did the truck drivers help her? When the police did get involved, why didn't she tell them there ARE other witnesses - the truck drivers? What happened to the ambulance drivers at the end of the film - were they caught?

Dr.Jackson is creepy - even when she decides to turn herself into the police and helps the girl she's just plain creepy!

This is not a great film but it is an interesting one. It takes some twists and turns that are unexpected - it's not a slasher film like I thought it was going to be. It's not perfect - it's got it's flaws - but it is worth watching for a 1970s made for TV horror-thriller.

6/10

An ambulance abducts the man from a honeymooning couple shortly after they checked into a cheap motel. His wife Monica follows the trace from the ambulance with the help of a friendly trucker named bill.

This production was released shortly after "Coma" (1978) and has a similar approach. This basic concept was picked up again with "The Island" (2005).

Filmed in the U. S. this is a suprisingly well produced TV movie, that could have been run in theaters at his time. Action, speed and pace are a slower than today, but it is still has suspense. A nude scene may be the reason for its rating, blood & violence are harmless.