Introduction
The Crazies (also known as Code Name: Trixie) is a 1973 American science fiction horror film written and directed by George A. Romero.
It stars Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, and Harold Wayne Jones as residents of a small American town that accidentally becomes afflicted by a military biological weapon.
Filmed in Pennsylvania, The Crazies was a box office failure upon release, but has since become a cult film.
A remake of the film was released in 2010.
Outline
In Evans City, Pennsylvania, a man kills his wife and burns down his farmhouse. Firefighters David, a Green Beret, and Clank, an infantryman, both having served in the Vietnam War, are called to the scene. The man who burned down his home is handcuffed in the back of a police car, ranting hysterically. Meanwhile, David’s pregnant girlfriend, a nurse named Judy, is called to the office of Dr. Brookmyre, where the two children of the arsonist are being treated for burns.
Heavily armed US troops in NBC suits and gas masks arrive in the town, and are being led by Major Ryder, who takes over Dr. Brookmyre’s office. Days earlier, an Army plane carrying a bioweapon had crash-landed near the town, infecting the water supply with a virus code-named “Trixie” which is highly contagious and causes victims to either die or become hysterical and homicidally insane.
In Washington D.C., government officials order Colonel Peckem to go to Evans City to help contain the virus, while scientist Dr. Watts is brought in to develop a cure. Martial law is declared in Evans City and a quarantine is placed on the town. Army soldiers forcibly move the townspeople into a high school, rousting many from their homes, and shoot anyone attempting to escape. Bombers armed with nuclear weapons are dispatched to destroy the town if necessary.
In one house, a soldier encounters an elderly woman who stabs him with her knitting needle. A group of soldiers are killed by a mob armed with guns and dynamite, after which an infected woman happily sweeps the blood-soaked grass. A local priest, upset at the soldiers rousting his flock, douses himself with gasoline and sets himself on fire.
David, Judy, Clank, teenager Kathy Fulton, her father Artie, and a sick man named Frank are confined to a large van by the soldiers. The van is attacked by infected people, and the soldiers try to fight them off. Frank wanders off, muttering, and is captured by the soldiers. Clank and David commandeer the van, and the five of them try to find a way to escape the town, spending the night hiding in a building of a country club.
The next day, the group attempts to escape by travelling through the nearby woods, fighting off soldiers both on the ground and in an overhead helicopter. Later that day, they come across a house occupied by a handful of soldiers and David and Clank kill the sentries outside the house and hold three of the soldiers inside the house at gunpoint. One of the soldiers discloses what he knows about the virus to David, but when one of the soldiers reaches for his gun, Clank opens fire and kills the soldiers. David confides in Judy what he knows about the virus and tells her that Kathy, Artie, and probably Clank are infected.
Going insane from the effects of virus, Artie attempts to rape Kathy. Discovering the pair, Clank beats Artie, who then apparently hangs himself and the next morning, a shaken Kathy wanders outside and is killed by soldiers. Believing himself to be infected, Clank kills several soldiers before being shot in the head, allowing David and Judy to escape.
That evening, Judy, now visibly infected, is killed by armed civilians. One of the civilians recognises David and identifies himself as a fellow firefighter, also uninfected and trying to escape. Angry and frightened, David surrenders to the military. After being taken into custody, David eventually realises that he is immune to the virus, but he keeps the knowledge to himself.
During all of this, the soldiers isolate Dr. Watts in the high school where the infected are being corralled, allowing him to use the simple chemistry lab inside. Watts insists that he might find a cure in a proper laboratory but is not granted access to one, and when Watts develops and goes to share a possible cure he is mistaken for one of the infected and forced into quarantine by the soldiers. The test tubes containing the possible vaccine are shattered after the doctor is pushed down a flight of stairs by a stampede of infected persons and is killed… along with the knowledge of a possible cure.
In the final scenes, a distraught Colonel Peckem is ordered to relocate to Louisville, where symptoms of the virus have been reported. After passing a medical test, he boards a helicopter and departs.
Cast
- Lane Carroll as Judy.
- Will McMillan as David.
- Harold Wayne Jones as Clank.
- Lloyd Hollar as Colonel Peckem.
- Lynn Lowry as Kathy.
- Richard Liberty as Artie.
- Richard France as Dr. Watts.
- Harry Spillman as Major Ryder.
- Will Disney as Dr. Brookmyre.
- Edith Bell as Lab Technician.
- Leland Starnes as Shelby.
- Bill Thunhurst as Brubaker.
- A.C. McDonald as General Bowen.
- Robert J. McCully as Hawks.
- Robert Karlowsky as Sheriff Cooper.
- Ned Schmidtke as Sgt. Tragesser.
- Tony Scott as Deputy Shade.
- Roy Cheverie as Army Doctor.
- Jack Zaharia as Priest.
- Bill Hinzman as Man in Infirmary & Crazie shooting at the doctor’s office.
Production & Filming Details
- Director(s): George A. Romero.
- Producer(s): A.C. Croft.
- Writer(s): George A. Romero and Paul McCullough.
- Music: Bruce Roberts.
- Cinematography: S. William Hinzman.
- Editor(s): George A. Romero.
- Production: Pittsburgh Films.
- Distributor(s): Cambist Films.
- Release Date: 16 March 1973.
- Running Time: 103 minutes.
- Country: US.
- Language: English.
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