Citizens Band / Handle with Care (1977)

Citizens Band (aka- Handle with Care) (USA, 1977) 98 min color DIR: Jonathan Demme. PROD: Freddie Fields. SCR: Paul Brickman. MUSIC: Bill Conti. DOP: Jordan Cronenweth. CAST: Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Bruce McGill, Charles Napier, Marcia Rodd, Ann Wedgeworth, Roberts Blossom, Ed Begley Jr. (Paramount Pictures)

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Not all of our favourite films have to be titles that are whispered in hushed admiration on Cinematheque Ontario’s ten best lists. In fact, if a comet were to hurtle towards the Earth tomorrow, and we had to hurriedly grab pieces of our popped culture to take with us in the escape pod to another planet to preserve for future generations, Citizens Band (also known as Handle with Care) would be among those I’d ensure would be on the trip. This 1977 gem is one of the very few films I’ve seen more than 20 times, and also one of the very few in which every new viewing feels as fresh as the first. Conversely there aren’t many exalted chamber art house films that would continue to reward with as many viewings.

While Citizens Band (an early credit for director Jonathan Demme) was not a box-office bonanza upon release (despite its commercial potential with its liberal use of CB radios which were all the rage in its day), it is one of those darling titles that seems to pop up on lists of sadly-neglected films. It is an often hilarious and oddly touching slice of Americana, with rich and endearing characters, and has a pervasive charm and love of people. This rural mosaic has several story threads, where the majority of characters, right down to the supporting players, have second lives on the CB radio waves. 

Blaine (Paul Le Mat), AKA- Spider, runs a CB repair station out on his junkyard, and an ad hoc rescue team for whenever there’s an emergency on Channel 9. Spider is so fed up with the emergency channel being abused by such characters as The Hustler with their prattle, that he wages a war to shut down anyone who uses Channel 9 for anything other than a genuine emergency. Blaine lives on the junkyard with his estranged father (Roberts Blossom), who only ever utters one-word sentences to his son, except when he’s threatening to cook Ned the dog. However, on the radio, he is the engaging, motor-mouthed Papa Thermodyne.

Spider is still friendly with his ex-girlfriend Pam (Candy Clark), who broke up with him for not having the guts to leave the junkyard. Adding insult to injury, she is now dating his estranged brother Dean (Bruce McGill)!

In the opening of the film, Spider saves the life of a trucker (Charles Napier) who operates under the handle of Chrome Angel. He’s laid up in town for a few days with his friend Debbie, AKA- Hot Coffee (Alix Elias), a prostitute whose flagging business gets a boost when Chrome Angel helps her purchase a motor home, thereby bringing her business right to the rear fenders of her truckin’ customers! He then calls both of his homes to tell his wives (!) about the accident. Unexpectedly, both of his spouses, Dallas Angel (Ann Wedgeworth) and Portland Angel (Marcia Todd) travel to visit him. Only on the bus to town, when the two women strike up conversation and view each other’s photos do they first realize they’re married to the same man, and thus plan to divorce him.

Paul Brickman’s hilarious and touching screenplay refreshingly portrays rural people free of the beer-swilling redneck stereotypes that permeated the hick flicks of the time. Instead, every person is worth getting to know. Each major character is forced to confront their current lots in life, and must decide how to change them. Even the worst people in this film surprise us with their compassion.

It is certainly a plus to see this beautifully written ensemble realized by such a terrific cast. Paul Le Mat is perhaps the definitive 70s movie star- his well-intentioned, good-natured but under-achieving blue-collar characters, from American Graffiti to Melvin and Howard, epitomize the restlessness and aimlessness found in movie characters during the decade. It is a treat to see him paired with American Graffiti co-star Candy Clark, whose quirky energy is perfect for Pam’s confusion over her on-again, off-again relationship with Blaine, as she often frustratingly waits for the little boy in him to grow up.

Roberts Blossom, who often played old coots that would just as soon shoot you as look at you, arguably has his greatest role as Papa Thermodyne. He is a marvel in doing much with little. In the birthday party scene (shot in one single take, like many sequences in the film), when Spider reveals to his father that he plans to move out, Papa stares at the candles with a slight tremble in his jaw, and then utters a single word “Okay”- this deceptively simple moment is incredibly powerful.

Citizens Band is perhaps the bridge between director Jonathan Demme’s drive-in exploitation fare (Caged Heat; Crazy Mama) and his subsequent mainstream works (Stop Making Sense; Married to the Mob). It carries the same twangy charm of the pictures he made back at the Roger Corman factory, yet it also has a maturity, depth and love of people that puts most Hollywood films to shame. When Demme went mainstream, he still retained that same quirky charm for years to come. Most interestingly, even when he was being established in 1980s Hollywood, he would still take risks with non-commercial fare like Swimming to Cambodia (1987). I am obviously biased, but I still don’t think he made a better film than Citizens Band. 

At the time, the lantern-jawed Charles Napier was mainly known for being part of drive-in king Russ Meyer’s stock company. This film showed mainstream audiences that he could be a formidable Hollywood leading man, and play comedy. He would eventually be part of Jonathan Demme’s stock company, appearing in his mainstream films Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and several others.

Many scenes (with woozy, flashy cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth) play in single takes. While this may seem like an economic consideration in order to shoot this small film quickly, it is in fact a testament to Demme’s control, and the expertise of his cast.

This film is full of priceless little scenes: where the two vengeful wives compare notes on how their husband seduces them; Blaine and the reluctant Dean choosing a birthday cake for their father- all deceptively simple in their execution, as the camera unobtrusively eavesdrops on their little dramas. It all feels very natural, unrehearsed.

Citizens Band has countless hilarious moments. The side-splitting subplot of the bigamist trucker culminates in a howler of a moment when Hot Coffee offers an unusual solution to the plight of the three spouses. The scenes where Blaine destroys the CB equipment of Channel 9 abusers (including a Nazi, a priest and a 10 year-old kid named The Hustler) are great sight gags. And of course, there is the sequence where Blaine convinces Pam to join him and Papa Thermodyne for dinner, and dad quips that the stew is made of dog meat. (“He did it, he really did it.”) Yet underneath all of the humour is a lot of truth. In the dinner scene, while Blaine is searching around the house to see whether or not Ned the dog really did end up in the pot, Papa Thermodyne confesses his cruel joke to Pam, which he did out of spite to make Blaine feel the misery that he feels for being stuck at this junkyard. (This is the only time we see Papa open up to another human being in the flesh.)

Blaine’s obsession with tearing down irresponsible CB transmitters is an excuse for him to avoid making any important decisions. During his mission, Spider is being threatened by a mysterious caller named Blood, whose motivations are also quite justifiable. 

Long before people were able to assume alternate identities on Facebook or Second Life, wayward souls had CB radios to create different worlds for themselves. Almost everyone here with an alter ego on the radio waves seeks solace with the surrogate friends on the bandwidth. Even the vignette where a horny teenager named Warlock who has “phone sex” on the CB radio with a girl named Electra, is oddly moving, as these virtual strangers try to work out each other’s problems. It would appear that everyone escapes to this imaginary aural world to escape what they can’t repair in their real lives. Along the way, director Demme and screenwriter Brickman help these characters find their lost souls.

While Citizens Band is the antithesis of other rural films being made in that era, it however is a product of that time when cinema was still making reverent films about the working class. Sadly, this movie (which was re-released with the title Handle with Care) never found a properly wide audience on the big screen, despite that it was timely, and funny enough to warrant commercial appeal. At a time when movies still celebrated the little people, this film should have been huge.

All of these story threads combine into a climax that is a little bizarre, but not without logic. When these disparate people join to track down Papa Thermodyne (after he has suddenly disappeared), it is revealed that not only has Papa found his true soul, but so have they.

This sweet film ends up being too moving for words. It is so touching to see these characters with the virtue that we knew existed, even in the souls of the unlikable ones. By the time the credits roll, when Larry Santos is singing “You Heard The Song” over the soundtrack, as a single pan shot connects all of the wayward characters one last time before they move on to their next journeys in life, I am weeping. 

Not only am I overcome with emotion for the honest portrayal of the people in this little epic, but also their genuine humanity. Also, one is melancholy over the passage of time; Citizens Band hails from a time when there used to be a new masterpiece in theatres every few weeks. It is a sad and beautiful reminder of how movies can be so entertaining and wise.

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Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #23. As of 2023, this movie still isn’t on DVD. Come on!