The Wild Ride

The Wild Ride
Directed by Harvey Berman
Produced by Harvey Berman (producer)
Kinta Zertuche (executive producer)
Screenplay by Ann Porter
Marion Rothman
Story by Burt Topper
Starring Jack Nicholson
Georgianna Carter
Robert Bean
Cinematography Taylor Sloan
Edited by Monte Hellman
William Mayer
Distributed by Filmgroup
Release dates
  • June 17, 1960
Running time
 59 minutes
88 minutes (producer's cut)
Country United States
Language English

The Wild Ride is a 1960 American film directed by Harvey Berman and starring Jack Nicholson as a rebellious punk named Johnny, of the Beat generation, who spends his days as an amateur dirt track driver in between partying and troublemaking. The film has become part of the public domain and is considered by some to be a cult classic.

Plot

Re-cut version

The Wild Ride was re-edited with new footage that makes the original film a long flashback sequence. Running 88 minutes and titled Velocity, the new scenes feature Jack Nicholson impersonator Joe Richards playing an older version of the character originally played by Nicholson, as well as performances by Jorge Garcia, Jason Sudeikis, and Dick Miller.

Cast

Production

The executive producer on the film was Roger Corman. Harvey Berman was a high school drama teacher in northern California who had gone to the UCLA drama school with some friends of Corman. He decided to make a film during the summer using some of his high school drama class students in the cast and crew and sending a few Hollywood professionals to work with them. One of these was Jack Nicholson. Corman later wrote "this is one of the little pictures I remember with pleasure; it turned out very well."[1]

References

  1. ↑ Ed. J. Philip di Franco, The Movie World of Roger Corman, Chelsea House Publishers, 1979 p 138

External links