Electra Glide in Blue

A short-statured Arizona highway patrolman named John Wintergreen rides his motorcycle across the desert handing out speeding tickets and rousting hippies, but he wants nothing more than to work homicide. When he and his partner Zipper find a hermit shot through the chest, Wintergreen reads it as murder rather than the suicide it appears to be, and the autopsy proves him right. The case earns him a transfer and a place at the side of the veteran detective Harve Poole, first as his driver and then as his pupil. Close contact with Poole's methods forces Wintergreen to reconsider his image of himself and of the job he idealized, and the desert he came from pulls him back.

James William Guercio directed, produced and wrote the story, with Robert Boris credited for the screenplay; better known as a music producer, Guercio made this his first feature as director. Robert Blake leads as Wintergreen, with Billy Green Bush, Jeannine Riley, Elisha Cook Jr., Royal Dano and Mitchell Ryan among a credited cast of twenty-two.

Released in May 1973 and running 114 minutes, the film drew modest theatrical business. It holds a 7 out of 10 rating on IMDb from around 7,100 votes and a 6.9 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 108 votes.