VIVA KNIEVEL!

The motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel stars as himself in this piece of the 1970s cheese. Drug lord Leslie Nielsen wants to arrange for Evel to suffer a fatal accident during a jump in Mexico so he can smuggle drugs across the border in Evel’s funeral trailer.

Like many athletes and showmen, whatever charisma Knievel may have displayed in his television specials vanishes when called upon to act a character, even himself.

Knievel seems an awfully square daredevil, an establishment hero, in red white and blue, promoting an anti-drug message, to push back against the counterculture. A real manly man, Knievel butts heads with feminist photographer played by Lauren Hutton, but she’s converted after a ride on his crotch rocket.

From 1978, directed by veteran Gordon Douglas; featuring Gene Kelly, Red Buttons, Cameron Mitchell, Dabney Coleman, Marjoe Gortner and Frank Gifford as himself. Some of the action in the climax is better executed than one would expect in a movie like this.