Mother, Jugs & Speed
| Mother, Jugs & Speed | |
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Movie poster
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| Directed by | Peter Yates |
| Produced by | Peter Yates Tom Mankiewicz |
| Written by |
Stephen Manes Tom Mankiewicz |
| Starring |
Bill Cosby Raquel Welch Harvey Keitel |
| Cinematography | Ralph Woolsey |
| Edited by | Frank P. Keller |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,220,000 |
| Box office | $7,630,000 (US/ Canada) |
Mother, Jugs & Speed is a 1976 black comedy film directed by Peter Yates. It stars Bill Cosby (Mother), Raquel Welch (Jugs), Harvey Keitel (Speed), and Larry Hagman as employees of an independent ambulance service trying to survive in Los Angeles.
The F+B Ambulance Company is locked in an intense battle with the Unity Ambulance Company to win a city contract for providing ambulance service to a territory within Los Angeles. Their star driver is "Mother" Tucker (Bill Cosby), a talented antihero who drinks alcohol on duty, harasses nuns, and behaves brazenly towards practically everybody he meets, including his partner Leroy (Bruce Davison). Indeed, the entire company is a band of misfits, including the hypersexual John Murdoch (Larry Hagman), his partner Walker (Michael McManus), putative medical student Bliss (Allan Warnick), and brash Texan "Rodeo" Moxey (Dick Butkus). Handling calls at the switchboard is Jennifer (Raquel Welch), whom the drivers nickname "Jugs" for her ample bosom. Harry "Doughnut" Fishbine (Allen Garfield) runs the company, using occasionally underhanded means (such as kickbacks) to maintain an income stream.
When Walker is injured after falling through a staircase on a call, Harry Fishbine hires Tony Malatesta (Harvey Keitel), a disgraced sheriff's detective and former Vietnam War ambulance driver. Upon learning that Tony has been suspended from the sheriff force due to allegations that he sold cocaine to children, Mother nicknames him "Speed". Speed is initially paired with Murdoch, though their partnership is strained when Speed must stop Murdoch from raping an unconscious female college student who has overdosed on Seconal. On a false emergency call, Leroy is shot and killed by a junkie (Toni Basil) demanding drugs. When Mother pulls a gun on the junkie, the junkie commits suicide. Later that night, a drunken Mother assaults Murdoch for stating that Leroy's death "doesn't count"; though Murdoch states this in regard to the drivers' "dead body" pool, Mother perceives it as an attack on the character of his dead partner. Harry then partners Speed with Mother to alleviate his driver shortage.
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