THE BOLL WEEVIL EXPRESS

A dismal, talky runaway story. It's 1957, and tail, skinny farmboy Lars Gustafson, a.k.a. ""Lars, the man from Mars,"" runs away from hicktown Healdsburg, CA, with tough, big-talking Doug Walker, the self-styled ""Tennessee Tornado"" and now of the local Salvation Army home for unwanted kids. Going along at her insistence is Doug's tougher-talking, much smarter sister Cindy, not quite 14. Most of the dialogue consists of insults, with Cindy the clear champ: ""No wonder you're running away. You live on a boring farm out in the country from a boring town, and you don't even have a TV. Anything would look good to you, even running away with a moron."" Cool-headed Cindy also talks drivers into giving them lifts, and talks the police out of picking them up. She tries to talk Doug out of his fantasies, tries to talk Lars into going home, and finally prevails: they'll all go back to Healdsburg, Lars with a little more gumption than before--and a real weakness for Cindy.