RIDING HIGH - 1981

The story of one man trying to be the best....I know that could be any movie, but this one stars EDDIE KIDD as Dave Munday who accepts a challenge to jump his motorcycle over an 80ft viaduct to prove he's the very best. 

If you're looking for Academy award nominated acting here you won't find any, but what you will find is an hour and a half of good fun and great bike stunts.

enjoy

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to this week's look at action and stunts on film and television. We have a great many anniversaries this year. It's twenty-five years since Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings first arrived on the big screen. Twenty years since Daniel Craig's Bond arrived on the screen in Casino Royale. And thirty-five years since Hannibal Lecter enjoyed his census taker with some fava beans and a nice Keanti. But forty-five years ago in 1981, we had a new Roger Moore Bond, and for many one of the very best in Fear Eyes Only. And in the sporting world, a new motorcycle daredevil was making waves when it came to jumping over double decker buses. His name was Eddie Kidd, and in 1981, he started a movie about a man called Dave Mundy, who competes in a jump challenge to be the best.

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This is riding high from the home.

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In the late 60s and 70s, it was evil can evil, causing a stir when it came to motorbikes jumping over cars, buses, and trucks. Eddie turned up and was the pinup boy of Daredevil Stunts. A few years before this movie, he doubled Harrison Ford on the movie Hanover Street, jumping from one side of a valley to another with a dummy of Christopher Plummer on the back of his back. So successful was this that before too long, producers were beating his door down looking for movie options. Riding High was a project written by Derek Ford after he saw Eddie Kidd being interviewed on TV. He thought he had the right charisma and charm to hold a picture together. Now Eddie was charismatic and very charming, but not so much that he could copy the big name on a three million dollar movie, maybe. So with that in mind, the script was rewritten and rewritten again, to create a story involving a stunt man competing against another in a jump challenge. Side characters included Eddie's grandmother, played by the wonderful Irene Handel, musician Zoot Money, who plays the Teddy Boy King Dorking, and an appearance by the lovely Linda Bellingham, who long before she was a loose woman on TV, was the mum and the Bistow Gravy Advert. In charge of the action was the great Peter Bream, a man who almost single-handedly drove a coach and horses through the rules of action cinema. Stunt arranger on Branagan with John Wayne in 1975, Villain with Richard Burton in 1971, and the criminally underrated Twin Town in 1997 with brothers Lyle and Reese fans. Riding high is an Eddie Kid vehicle. So much of the action takes place around Eddie jumping his bike, either target jumping to make the distance for the big jump at the end of the picture, or jumping over stationary vehicles in the road. You know the way Hollywood always does. A shot of the motorcycle approaching a parked car at speed. The camera then cuts to inside the car, and the two occupants react in horror as the motorcycle does not stop. The camera then cuts to a wide shot of the bike and the car, and we see the bike soaring over the top and landing right behind the vehicle on the road. But this happens two or three times in the picture, but Peter isn't just a vehicular stunt coordinator, he's also a very fine all-round stunt man. A performer who over the years will have confronted all manner of scenarios, and this movie also includes a fight in a party which ends with a food fight and cake and trifle everywhere. Peter brings in stunt people for safety. As a motorbike will ride along the big top table crashing through the food and drink. Plates and glasses crash to the floor. The stunt men brought in are Greg Powell, Clive Curtis, Nick Wilkinson, and Terry Plummer. Now they're not only there and they do take a great deal of that physical action themselves, but they're also there for safety to prevent many of the extras from getting themselves into situations where they could find themselves injured. The finale of the film is the big motorcycle jump over an 80-foot viaduct in Moulden in Essex. Filmed on December the 11th, 1979. It's filmed from at least four different camera angles and is as beautiful, an incredibly powerful image of a man and a machine in perfect harmony. Now, admittedly, the landing was just at this side of Wayward, but what an image! The bike landing almost vertically, the front wheel right up in the air, and the back wheel almost on the very tip of its mud guard. The impact was such that the control was lost for a breath or two, but Eddie managed to change down and brake whilst physically horizontal on the bike, bringing it to a stop just before he and the bike crashed into a huge bush and down a very steep embankment. It's absolutely breathtaking and very emotional. Knowing that Eddie is now wheelchair bound after a terrible accident in 1993. His condition is such that he's paralysed from the neck down. This tight, incredible human being is no longer available to jump motorcycles, but his memories will allow him to remember how good he was for that brief period of time. In the mid-80s, he joined the British Stunt Register and became a fully fledged stunt performer working on movies like Goldeneye, doubling Pierce Brosden, and Shining Through with Michael Douglas. The term King of the Daredevil is often overused. But when it comes to jumping motorbikes over pretty much anything in the last 70s or 80s, Eddie was a god. I was lucky enough to see him live in 1983. The show was in Loughborough in Leicestershire, and he jumped a bunch of British telecom vans parked nose to tail, ramp to ground jumping at its very finest. Three kings of motorcycle jumping, Evil Kanevel, Robbie Canievel and Eddie Hackid. The fact that this movie isn't a great picture is neither here nor there. What it is is a wonderful example of just how good Eddie Kidd really was. Now, join me on Friday when we'll take a deeper dive into the movie and have a look at a few more of the gags. But don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and the YouTube channel, and we'll see you all again next time. Until then, it's bye for now.