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In 1970, Joe Namath and Ann-Margret co-starred in the outlaw biker movie, C.C. and Company.
By Kent Taylor
There was a time when Hollywood just couldn’t make a motorcycle movie without choppers, bad guys and pretty women. When you think about it, these motorcycle mayhem flicks were really just a remake of an old-time Hollywood Western: somebody done somebody wrong, which leads to a few rounds of some bare-knuckled fisticuffs and a moment when you just aren’t sure that our hero will make it out alive. But the good guy always wins, and he always gets the girl; only this time, instead of riding off into the sunset on horseback, they rumble down the highway on a motorcycle, which is usually a Harley-Davidson. Clippity-clop swapped out for potato-potato-potato (all rights reserved, by the way).
In 1970, it would’ve been difficult to find two bigger names in sports and entertainment than Joe Namath and Ann-Margret, the stars of the classic MC flick C.C. and Company. Margret starred in such films as Bye, Bye Birdie, Carnal Knowledge and Viva Las Vegas. She had even dated Elvis Presley. Best of all, Ann-Margret knew how to ride her own motorcycle, a Triumph. Joe Namath was probably the best passer in the National Football League at that time and was fresh off a victory in Super Bowl III, where he had been named MVP. Flashy, good-looking and a talented athlete, Namath was at the peak of his marketability, and even a dog-eared film would be a cash cow with Broadway Joe on the marquee.
In the November 17, 1970, issue of Cycle News, Ron Schneiders offered a fairly positive review of C.C. and Company: “For a professional football player,” Schnieders wrote, “Joe Namath [in the lead role of C.C. Ryder] has a surprising amount of acting ability…Ann-Margret is absolutely ideal for the role.” Pretty good acting, a screenplay written by one of Hollywood’s top directors, Roger Smith (Margret’s real-life husband), motorcycles and sex appeal should have made for a pretty good combination.
The young sport of motocross nets some significant 1970s screen time, and even C.C gets a chance to do it in the dirt on a Kawasaki Bighorn. Most of these segments clearly involved a stuntman, but Namath is actually riding a chopped H-D in several scenes. Margret (whose name in the movie is also “Ann”) joins him, not as a passenger, but riding her own minicycle alongside C.C. on his chopper. An avid motorcyclist, she could’ve easily swapped rides with Joe Willie.
Fans have had 55 years to have viewed C.C. and Company but in the spirit of good sportsmanship, consider this a spoiler alert. C.C. and his gang, The Heads, have had a nasty and bitter split from one another, and Ryder now finds a new life with his wealthy girlfriend. This doesn’t sit well with Moon, the gang’s leader, who then kidnaps Ann and demands a $1000 ransom for her release. There is a little more backstory to that one, but we will get right to the movie’s climax, which involves an odd flat track race of sorts: choppers on a high school track-and-field complex, C.C. vs. Moon. The winner walks away with a very pretty redhead!
“As you watch this movie,” Schneiders wrote, “you become aware that some bits are a little too much, even for this type of movie. The hero of these plots is usually a good-guy type who somehow becomes involved with a gang of thoroughly despicable motorcyclists. But Joe Namath is a 7-foot choir boy with an Iowa corn grin that won’t quit. The few bits of deviltry that he gets into are more reminiscent of Huck Finn than Marlon Brando.”
The theory of the suspension of disbelief is a pact made between the folks in the theater seats and the moviemaker. We will pay our fee to enter your imagination, set aside some conventional wisdom and play along, so long as there are hot chicks, handsome dudes and cool vintage motorcycles (some of which will, of course, burst into flames after even a minor crash) to keep us entertained. One of the film’s craziest premises takes place before the movie begins, and that is the fact that an NFL team allowed its star quarterback to even ride a motorcycle, something that is prohibited under most pro contracts today.
Maybe Namath’s own contract stated as such. But C.C. Ryder makes his own rules, as Ann discovered early on in the film. Mystified by the dichotomy of a handsome and kind man who has saddled up with a gang of cycle toughs, Ann wants to know, “What are you looking for?” “If I knew that,” Ryder retorts, “I wouldn’t be looking now, would I?” Loving, brawling and bustin’ it up—all to an excellent soundtrack, by the way. Toss in a cool chopper and a snappy Kawi Bighorn. If C.C. still hasn’t found what he’s looking for, it’s probably something he shouldn’t have anyway. CN
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