Tony Mastroianni Review Collection
"C.C. Si?" No!
Cleveland Press January 29, 1971
"C. C. and Company'' is playing at local theaters. Motorcycle melodrama; adults. In the cast are Joe Namath, Ann-Margret and William Smith. Running time: 94 minutes.
"C. C. and Company" arrives on the waves of such big budget ballyhoo that it seems a shame to dismiss it by simply calling it awful, which it is.
How about meretricious? That's a big budget word for awful and the fellows responsible for this picture needn't feel they've been short-changed in the adjective department.
"C. C." is a simple-minded movie for simple-minded audiences. There were times when it came close to being a fairly simple-hearted exercise in action melodramatics if it weren't so purposely and unrelievedly foul mouthed.
THE MOTORCYCLE move is trying very hard to be a type by itself but it remains basically a western with wheels instead of hooves.
This one is a variation on the old melodrama romance plot that at various times has been about an outlaw and a lady, a rustler and the rancher's daughter, a virgin and a gypsy, a princess and commoner and on and on.
Football player Joe Namath, who should have stuck to football, is, a halfway decent member of an otherwise pretty offensive motorcycle gang.
THEY TOOL AROUND the countryside, bullying people, making obscene gestures to everyone and particularly to the camera. When they need money they send out their girl friends, whom they share in common, to do a little highway prostitution.
Actress Ann Margret who should have taken up football or something else other than acting, is a high living fashion coordinator. Their paths cross, eyes, meet and, there is the expected flash of sparks.
He tries to become a legitimate motorcycle racer and she invites him to live with her. They dance and romance a lot before the nasty old gang moves in on the scene and kidnaps the heroine.
NAMATH GOES to her rescue and matters are settled with a race on motor bikes with Namath competing with the gang leader William Smith.
Smith offers a perfect picture of nastiness, especially with his whisper-soft voice. He should stick to acting.
In one scene a man points to Namath and says " . . . that's what gives motorcycling a bad name."
So do movies like this one.
