Tracy Press from Tracy, California • 13

"Everyone back behind the blue pickup," yelled the assistant stunt director. "We're filming this cop car at high speed, and we don't want anyone hurt." He later yells, "Quiet. We're recording sound." After an hour's preparation to make sure every precaution against a possible accident has been taken, the most dangerous stunt scene of "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" is filmed, with stuntman Jerry SumVIA mers driving at top speed backwards into Beaver Slough near Thornton. Right, crew and stuntmen rescue Summers, lower right, after the crash, which left a demolished police car upside down in four feet of mud. For 'Dirty Mary Crazy Larry' cast Waiting, stunt filming, small talk Peter Fonda, Susan George and Adam dollars, 35 cast members, 55 behind-the- are actually used, so that's less than 10 per Roarke are living in Stockton, at least for an- scenes crewmen, 24 stuntmen and six to cent of what we shoot." other three weeks.

seven weeks to film. Why film near Stockton? The three movie actors are starring in the Contrary to the stereotyped version of "I first checked out Texas, but didn't like film "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry," to be re- Hollywood actors lounging between scenes the scenery," explains Herman. "The book leased by Academy Pictures May 27-if not with martinis in hand, Susan George ex- is written to occur entirely in corn fields, but earlier for Producer Norman Herman says, plains, "We're on call or on the filming scene I thought after the opening shot that would "NATO (National Association of Theater from 6 a.m. to 7 or 8 every night, six days a be enough corn fields so I've tried to vary the Owners) is impressed with the cast, so they week. Usually I'm so tired I go straight to scenery." may release it sooner." bed.

And he has. The screenplay, written by Leigh Chap- Even Herman, who has been producing 23 So far the team has filmed in Farmington, man, follows a simple plot: Peter years, adds that "once the filming is finally Sonora, Linden, Clements, Jamestown, Fonda, as a stock car racer in the done for the day, we start reviewing and Thornton and the Stockton Fairgrounds. midwest, and his "mechanic buddy" Adam editing it. By the time all the day's hassles One afternoon in late September Tracy Roarke extort $150,000 from a supermarket and tribulations have been dealt with, I'm found the filming crew at Grant Line Canal to buy a winning race car. Fonda's girl- lucky if I make the dining room by 10 filming a chase scene.

"That was the only friend, played by Susan George, finds his o'clock." draw bridge around that we knew of," says getaway car as he's robbing the market and "From one and a half months before Herman, who lives in L.A. "A stuntman for she refuses to leave when he jumps in the shooting starts until we're all done, I work 12 Peter Fonda races onto the bridge with the car, money in hand, to escape pursuing hours a day, six days a week solid," he police after him and he jumps across to the police. continues. "I'll take two or three months off other side while the draw bridge is five or six Based on the Richard Unekis novel in between, then it's working solid again on feet in the air." Chase," Herman admits, "We didn't realize another film, all the time wondering why." The opening scene with Fonda and Roarke so many car movies would be on the market He doesn't wonder too long, though. "I threatening to kill the supermarket when we chose this (which was originally used to be an accountant, and Ihated it." manager's wife if he doesn't give them termed "Pursuit" when filming started The movie may end up only two or two and 000 was filmed in Oakdale.

Sept. 18). Now we'll just have to make it a half hours long, but cameraman Michael Jennie Ornellas of 20909 S. Lammers Rd. bigger and better than the others." John Marguleis films about 4,000 feet on a busy was the only local extra in that scene "beHough is directing it.

day. In one minute 90 feet of film can be shot, cause they filmed it at my dad's market." "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" may have a and Herman, who produced "Legend of Hell Her father, Jack Deaderick, manages the simple plot. House" and wrote the original script for Don Quick store in Oakdale. But it's taking one and a half million "Dillinger," says, "Only 60 minutes of film "I was a checker stacking merchandise when Fonda enters the store to rob it," says Jennie, who has lived in Tracy about 20 years and is the wife of Leroy Ornellas. She worked Sept.

21 and 22 for $1.85 an hour, but it hardly encouraged her to seek an Press today's living much "extra" "Now work when career. I they watch put a into movie, making I'll it. know how "But I wouldn't like to sign up with the Stockton Chamber of Commerce like some girls do to be extras when movies are being filmed in the area. 1973 Tracy Press Page 13 "You have to sit on location all day and Wednesday, October 17, wait until they call you, if they call you at all." With eight to ten total stunt scenes in the. final movie, "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" has a stunt about every eight minutes.

"They had to build a trench behind Don Quick's," says Jennie, "for Fonda's escape. I enjoyed watching him race toward the trench and jump The producer doesn't share Jennie's enthusiasm for the stunt scenes. "I can't stand to watch them. I can on the screen, but in actual filming I'm scared someone will get hurt." Jerry Summers, who was a stuntman with Adam Roarke 13 years ago in a film with Alan Ladd, is the main stuntman for "Dirty Mary." Al Wyatt, as stunt coordinator, says that despite his faith in Summers' abilities "you'd rather do it yourself than sweat out someone else getting hurt." When Summers drove a police car full speed backwards off the road into Beaver Slough near Thornton-the most dangerous scene in the film, which the director contends "has never been done before in -Wyatt held his breath. And when the stuntman didn't surface the first few seconds, Wyatt started yelling, "Go get him, get him" while several crewmen jumped in the slough fully clothed to rescue Summers.

He appeared a bit winded but in much better shape than the police car, which had to later be pulled out of the mud with a huge crane. The man who directs stunts for the TV series "Streets of San Francisco" admits that "these situations actually aren't as dangerous as driving home on the freeway because everything is set to my specifications to prevent accidents." "Stuntmen dress the same, drive the same auto, and we take a long shot so viewers can't really tell at high speed if it's Fonda or Summers," explains Wyatt. "It's not that most actors can't do the stunt job but for insurance Fonda, who began acting 13 years ago at age 21, says he doesn't have life insurance "in real life because they want to charge me $28,000 a year." Susan George, did her own horse riding in a film she recently completed, to be released in January, called "'Sonny and Jed." "But that's because I have a horse at home in England, and one in L.A." What do the film stars think of San Joaquin County? "I absolutely love i it here," says Susan in her British accent. "All my friends told me "Look at it, blue sky, green fields, how could I not like this area?" remarks Peter Fonda. fill workdays I'd be so bored working around Stockton for six weeks that I'd be waiting for the garbage truck to make his rounds on Sunday.

"But it reminds me of my English green fields where my home is on a river. And boredom doesn't bother me because I love solitaire." Peter Fonda liked the area even before filming started four weeks ago. "I spent a week in Sonora Pass a couple years ago, just sitting on the rocks and taking in the fresh air. "Look at it, blue sky, green fields, how could I not like this area?" he adds. "The only thing that bothers me is my sinuses." Adam Roarke, whose acting career began during the 1960s in motorcycle films, likes San Joaquin Valley so well "I'd like to move to an area like this someday," he contends.

A native of New York, Roarke and his family now live in L.A., where he also has a horse. By the end of October cameramen and crew will no longer show up unexpectedly at local supermarkets and draw bridges. Roarke will return to his Los Angeles home, Susan George to her country home in England. And Peter Fonda will fly to Hawaii where his sailboat, which has served as his home the past three years, awaits him. "I'll have two to four weeks to relax in my backyard the Pacific Ocean -then I fly to Madrid in mid-November to start filming my next movie, 'The Shoot!" After just finishing roles in two unreleased films, "The Hired Hand" and "Idaho Transfer," Fonda will also return to continue his three writing projects.

Besides working jointly with his father, Henry Fonda, on a film involving drag racing, Fonda is completing a movie with Andy Warhol on trucks and "writing a large documentary on the state of life on planet earth." Producer Norman Herman will return to his home in L.A. for a month before "working solid" again on his next film. "I hope the stuntmen don't crack up one of the six cars we bought, so I can at least bring one home with me. "When I produced 'Hot Rod Girl' 18 years ago, a chase scene was simply one car chasing another car," adding: "But those days have changed." Photos and Story by Carolyn Hobbs Producer Norman Herman paces back and forth throughout the filming workday, pipe in mouth, alternating between the scene outskirts and mingling with cast and crew to break the monotony with a joke or small talk. "I don't have to say anything direct to the cameramen.

They know I want to film." Adam Roarke talks with Susan George.