C.C. & Company (1970)

(On Cable TV, September 2020) The more I explore the movies from earlier decades, the more I realize that while the best-known movies (the “classics”) have a timeless quality, you have to dig into the lesser-known one in order to get a better atmosphere of the times, its pet obsessions, fads and mood. Bikers were a big thing in 1970 with the rise of the Hells Angels, the success of Easy Rider and the free lifestyle that they pursued. It would be inevitable that cash-in pictures would follow, and that’s probably the best way of describing C.C. & Company. This one does have a few things going for it, though, the first of those being none other than Ann-Margret as a journalist who is seduced by our free-living protagonist and eventually kidnapped by his opponent. Much of the fun of the film is in its period detail, naïve-sounding approach to the subject matter, trying to be edgy and cool but today sounding a bit blunt and idealized. Still, considering the mood at the time, C.C. & Company was made to ruffle feathers: bad language and promiscuity abound, taking up the New Hollywood norms over traditional ones. It’s not a particularly good film: the script is not elegant, the shock effect is deployed in lieu of sophistication, and the climax hovers on the edge of ridiculousness. But it’s clearly a reflection of its times, and whose can be worth a look by themselves.