Ryan O’Neal drives a mean getaway car.

His talent for helping robbers and eluding the police creates a following on both sides of the law. Gangs want him to drive for them, while the LAPD, especially detective Bruce Dern, wants him to do time. In Walter Hill’s (The Long Riders, The Warriors) spare crime film, we see O’Neal, The Driver, as a professional who lives by a code of ethics. He chooses who to work with based on this code, then delivers. Dern, billed as The Detective, is his polar opposite. Arrogant and sleazy, Dern wil do anything to bust The Driver. To catch O’Neal, Dern proposes a deal with the leader of a second rate gang. In exchange for dropping the charges on a botched robbery, Dern wants the gang to rob a bank, hire O’Neal to drive, and then set him up to get busted. Unfortunately, the gang Dern chooses has a violent streak and as the bodies pile up we’re left wondering who the real bad guy is.

The Driver boasts some great car chases and Hill has fun panning from O’Neal’s deadpan expression back to his passengers’ panic stricken faces as he careens through the busy streets of Los Angeles. Stark and emotionless, The Driver shows an honorable man retaining that honor despite pressure to give in. It would be great paired with Michael Mann’s spare crime film, Thief. Both films pit loner crooks against the system and both feature good bad guys who break the law, but still have a moral compass.

The two female characters also fight temptation and threats to turn stoolie. Both Ronee Blakley, The Connection, who brokers The Driver’s gigs, and Isabelle Adjani, The Player, who refuses to identify The Driver in a line-up, are morally superior to Dern’s dishonest cop.

I like The Driver. It reminds me of good modern architecture. It has clean, simple lines but doesn’t look sterile.

In 1780, an African prince, Mamawalde of Abani (William Marshall) and his wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee) attend a dinner party at the home of the gracious Count Dracula. After the other guests have gone, Mamawalde and Luva remain for a private word with the count. After a brandy and some banter, the prince asks the count if he will side with him publicly in his mission to outlaw slavery in Europe. Instead of support or an argument, Prince Mamawalde gets laughter and a bite on the neck. The evil count imprisons the newly undead prince in a sealed coffin and his wife in an attic prison beside him.

Cut to the 1970s and a couple of flamboyantly and stereotypically gay antiques dealers buy the entire contents of Count Dracula’s castle and ship it to Los Angeles to sell in their shop. Of course they buy the coffin too and in doing so unleash Blacula on an unsuspecting Los Angeles.

Blacula cuts a swath of brutal murders across the city which prompts criminal psychologist Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) to investigate. Thomas’ lab assistant and girlfriend, Michelle (Denise Nicholas) also happens to be the sister of Tina who looks amazingly like Blacula’s long lost love, Luva. So there you have it. Blacula and Tina/Luva fall in love instantly and despite her friends’ suspicions that Mamawalde comes on a little strong and creepy, Tina launches into a passionate affair with him. All hell breaks loose and then you have cops chasing a vampire through the nightclubs and warehouses of 70s LA.

Blacula is a fun film and despite the blaxploitation label and rather obvious title, the film isn’t the racist mess I was expecting. The main characters have depth and don’t fall into Huggy Bear-like stereotypes. The story is compelling and the action scenes look great. William Crain, who directed this and the series The Mod Squad and Starsky and Hutch, knows how to move a story along and the cast, veterans of film and television, do a fine job in their roles. There’s some real chemistry between the two main couples and even though it’s an exploitation film, you care about the people in it. Elisha Cook, Jr. even makes an appearance as a mortuary worker with a hook hand. You heard me. Gene Page, who arranged some of Barry White’s biggest hits, composed the soundtrack and the Hues Corporation, famous for the hit song “Rock the Boat” perform in a few nightclub scenes. It’s a good time!