The Ambulance
Joshua Baker knows what he wants and he is direct about getting it, and right now the thing he wants is a date with the beautiful woman he sees on the street corner, pursuing her with an determination that only a New York man would think was charming, she evading him just as deftly but nevertheless appreciative when he is in the right place when she collapses, Josh only able to catch her first name before she is taken away by the ambulance.
Cheryl’s presumption that she took slightly more insulin than she should have, Josh’s promise to meet her at the hospital is frustrated when he is unable to locate her in any facility; an artist working for Marvel, he sketches her image and walks the streets seeking anyone who knows her, but what he finds is a pattern, diabetics becoming suddenly ill and collapsing, a vintage ambulance always nearby which whisks them away…
Directed by the great guerilla filmmaker and originally released in the Hallowe’en season of 1990, aboard The Ambulance are Eric Roberts as Josh, Millennium’s Megan Gallagher as Police Officer Sandra Malloy with Pete’s Dragon’s Red Buttons as journalist Elias Zacharai, Chronicles of Riddick’s Nick Chinlund as ambulance driver Hugo and Stan Lee as Josh’s boss, perhaps establishing this as an early part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Roberts having later masterfully played an ambulance driver himself in Doctor Who, Cohen’s script deftly weaves between lanes of thriller, horror and comedy, all the characters quirky and defined and the ensemble given free reign to embellish with Conan the Barbarian’s James Earl Jones competing for the most outrageous scene stealing as gum-chewing Lieutenant Frank Spencer, dour and disdainful of Josh’s conspiracy theory.
Tied to Cohen’s beloved New York as were 1976’s God Told Me To and 1982’s Q: The Winged Serpent, the city is vibrant and exciting but cold and indifferent, no guarantee of help and no place which can be considered safe, the police aggressive, unhelpful and accusatory and that which should be a symbol of aid actually the lurking threat, The Ambulance genuinely tense throughout with the only misstep that the fate of victims is established early rather than left as a mystery.
Restored for Blu-ray for Eureka, their new edition of The Ambulance is supported by a new commentary by King Cohen director Steve Mitchell, an archive commentary by Cohen himself, a new video essay by film scholar Murray Leeder, an interview with Cohen expert Michael Doyle and a newly edited interview with Cohen from the King Cohen sessions covering the film as well as the original trailer and an essay by Liam Hathaway.
The Ambulance will be available on Blu-ray from Eureka from Monday 13th October
