Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It would be interesting to learn who originated this story of bamboozled couriers. Though this movie was made in 1974, a 1963 story by Gene Roddenberry appeared as The Virginian episode 1:29, 'Run Away Home' featuring this same basic plot with the same slug-fisted ending. I remember seeing it reworked again in 1988 as Miami Vice 5:6, 'Line of Fire' where Sonny Crockett is transporting a 'top secret' witness. Another variant is Airwolf 3:18, 'Hawke's Run'. Does anybody remember any other variations? I am sure there must be more. This plot-line seems to be another one of those television tropes that pops up every few years wearing another hat or in this case, being transported by another vehicle, i.e. horse, truck, or boat.

This TV movie was Black Dog, Thunder Run and The Road Warrior all rolled into one, though it was made before the others. David Janssen from the TV series The Fugitive is a truck driver who has lost his truck driving license. It will be temporarily reinstated if he drives a load from Los Angeles to Houston, and, upon completion of the run, it will be permanently reinstated. Gee, can the law really be manipulated like that? Didn't that happen in Black Dog? Keenan Wynn plays his co-driver. They drive one of the White Freightliner cabovers popular at that time. Along the way, people try to highjack the load. Gee, didn't that happen in Thunder Run? They stop for a while in the desert. Will they make it to Houston? And what were they hauling, anyway?

I have recently gotten into TV movies out of the 70's and been trying to track them down anyway that I can find them. I was fortunate to run across this on a compilation DVD at Suncoast with some other trucker movies.Well on to the review, this movie does look dated because it was made in 1973, major league 70's fashion along with clothes,cars and even the eighteen wheelers that were used in the movie.(SPOILERS) The story revolves around two truckers who are offered a substantial amount of money to take a big rig from Los Angeles to Houston, Texas. Along the way a group of individuals try to stop them anyway they can even if they have to kill them to do it. The acting by the two leads David Janssen and Keenan Wynn are quite good and keep the movie going along. I was surprised at how well some things that were handled, along with the photography and stunts. The Dialog is not great but for a TV movie it was a nice waste of time as opposed to some of the major movies that are put out nowadays. It's nice to know that some of the simple movies that were put out in the 70's are not lost, even if they were put out on TV.It's not great but it's not bad either.

David Janssen, as Jake, and Keenan Wynn, as his partner and pal Donny, are independent truckers who are hired along with their big rig by a man named Kleiner (William Schallert) to haul an unknown cargo from Los Angeles to Houston for a handsome stipend of $6000, but with a deadline to be met for their labours. Kleiner is apparently a front man for a corporation dealing in government contracts, and the only description he will offer the driving duo of their sealed cargo is that it is "non-explosive and non-chemical", sweetening the payoff with a guarantee that Jake's driving license, temporarily reactivated for this assignment, will be permanently reinstated upon its timely completion, having been suspended after he punched an officer at a weighing station outlet. Success of the journey quickly becomes in doubt, as the 18 wheeler is harried by a persistent group of men with homicidal tendencies who obviously are covetous of the van contents and who must be continually fought off by Jake and Donny as their pursuers, little heeding the rules of the road, employ automatic weapons and a helicopter in their highjacking attempts. When not warding off sallies from the stalkers, Jake finds time for the obligatory romantic interlude, his paramour being a young woman (Lee Purcell) living with her grandfather in a highway bypassed hamlet, and their entr'acte, although handled with taste, makes little sense unless one accepts that some sort of intermission is called for by the cargo hunters. Even less rational is the climactic conflict between the two buddies and their violence-prone adversaries, but the film's ending includes a nicely ironic twist and the relationship between the two friends, although skimpily developed, is the best part of the scenario, since Donny has a heart "condition" and Jake's concern for him is made convincing by Janssen.