The California Kid

In 1958, two Navy sailors on leave (one portrayed by Sheen's younger brother, Joe Estevez) are speeding in a 1951 Ford Custom to get back to base on time. When driving through Clarksberg, a town infamous for speed traps, they are pursued at high speed by Sheriff Roy Childress (Vic Morrow), who pushes their car over the edge of a sharp mountain curve with his 1957 Plymouth Belvedere, killing them.

Soon after, a stranger—Michael McCord (Martin Sheen)—arrives in town driving a hot rodded black 1934 Ford three-window coupe, known as "The California Kid". McCord is pulled over by the sheriff for speeding and establishes himself with the sheriff as a hot rodder and potential speed maniac, boasting that his car can do 75 miles per hour (121 km/h) in 10 seconds. McCord pleads guilty in front of Judge J.A. Hooker (Frederic Downs) and pays the ticket.

McCord later gets coffee at a local diner where the sheriff and judge are also eating. As the sheriff and waitress Maggie (Michelle Phillips) look on, McCord clips a newspaper article, places it on the counter, and leaves the diner. The sheriff sees that the article was about the crash (its headline revealing that the sailors were the sixth and seventh victims of the mountainous curves that year), returns to the station, reviews the accident report, and realizes that McCord shares a last name with one of the sailors.

McCord finds the sailors' wrecked car at the impound yard and sees that its rear bumper was dented by pushbars, seemingly reinforcing his growing suspicion that the crash was not an accident. He also repeatedly drives through the curves at the scene of the crash to test his car's limits, tuning it to better handle the terrain, and learns from Maggie that the sheriff has not been the same since his wife and son were killed by a hit and run driver five years earlier.

Lyle Stafford (Gary Morgan), the younger brother of the town's auto mechanic Buzz Stafford (Nick Nolte), is killed and his girlfriend Sissy (Janit Baldwin) badly injured after the sheriff pursues their 1955 Mercury for speeding and runs it off the same curve as the sailors. Buzz wants to kill the sheriff in revenge, but McCord convinces him to hold off, revealing that one of the sailors was his younger brother. The sheriff, aware that McCord is on to him, orders McCord to leave town, setting the stage for the climactic duel.

On his way out of town, McCord finds the sheriff waiting for him and goads him into giving chase. The sheriff tries to run him off the road, but McCord is ready, having driven his car through the curves multiple times to find its limit. As Buzz and the sheriff's deputy look on, the sheriff loses control at the same curve as the earlier two crashes and plummets over the cliff, becoming a victim of his own obsession, while McCord slides to a safe stop on the sandy shoulder. Triumphant, McCord drives past the diner and waves at Maggie on his way out of town.

• Martin Sheen as Michael McCord
• Vic Morrow as Sheriff Roy Childress
• Michelle Philips as Maggie
• Stuart Margolin as Deputy
• Nick Nolte as Buzz Stafford
• Janit Baldwin as Sissy
• Gary Morgan as Lyle Stafford
• Frederic Downs as Judge J.A. Hooker
• Don Mantooth as Jack (as Donald Mantooth)
• Joe Estevez as Don McCord (as Joseph Estevez)
• Britt Leach as Johnny
• Norman Bartold as Howard
• Barbara Collentine as Edith
• Michael Richardson as Charley
• Gavan O'Herlihy as Tom
• Jack McCulloch as Pete
• Ken Johnson as Harlie
• Sandy Brown Wyeth as Leona
• Tren Dolan as Stranger
• Monika Henreid as Gerry

• List of American films of 1974

• The California Kid at IMDb
• The California Kid at AllMovie