Handle with Care is a 1977 comedy movie set in a small town in Nebraska and loosely based on the wide popularity of citizens band radio, usually called "CB" at the time. It was directed by Jonathan Demme. The movie was originally released as Citizens Band, and was later released in an edited version as Handle with Care. In the film, all of the cast of characters are known by their CB "handles". A paperback novelization of the film written by E.M. Corder was published by Pocket Books in 1977.
Plot
plays "Spider," a young man who makes a meager living repairing CB radios and spends his spare time volunteering with REACT International. He lives with his father, an irascible retired truck driver whose CB handle is "Papa Thermodyne." "Chrome Angel" is an interstate truck driver named Harold, passing through the outskirts of town during bad weather when he is injured in an accident. After Chrome Angel issues an emergency call over CB Channel 9, Spider rescues him, taking him to the hospital. During his recovery in town, Harold is visited by local prostitute Debbie, who solicits customers over the CB radio. Chrome Angel has two wives, Connie who calls herself "Portland Angel" as she is from Portland, Oregon, and Joyce who lives in Dallas, Texas, neither of whom knows he is married to the other. Both arrive in town at the same time while he is recovering. They not only discover that he has been seeing Hot Coffee, but during a conversation the two strike up in the bus station, meeting for the first time, they discover for the first time that they are married to the same man. Spider's former fiancee, Pam, is a cheerleading coach and physical education teacher who, unbeknownst to Spider, has a hobby of her own, striking up erotic conversations over the CB with teenage boys. She is also romantically interested in Spider's older brother, Dean, who goes by the CB handle "Blood." After Spider's activities with REACT are seriously disrupted by a gang of local kids holding a frivolous conversation on Channel 9, which is reserved for emergency communications, he decides to go on a singlehanded county-wide crusade to shut down illegal CB stations, such as those using unlawful linear amplifiers. Spider's targets include "The Red Baron", a neo-Nazi who uses a high-powered CB base station to broadcast white supremacist monologues, and "The Hustler," a teenage boy who reads pornography aloud over the air. Spider and a partner from REACT begin a spree of cutting antenna cables, intimidating offenders by visiting their homes and claiming to be Federal Communications Commission officials, and other vigilante acts in the hopes of cleaning up the CB airwaves. As Chrome Angel's two wives learn they are both married to the same man, and Spider learns that his former fiancee is the infamous Electra, much of the last part of the film consists of the myriad complicated friendships and odd romantic relationships that finally come to a head. Finally, the whole town comes together in a search and rescue effort after Papa Thermodyne suddenly disappears.
Cast
Reception
The film's initial release resulted in disappointing box office results which led Paramount to reconsider its campaign and distribution strategy, including renaming the film to reduce the CB radio connection and as apparently some thought that the word "Band" in the title indicated it was a musical. The film was renamed Handle with Care for its New York Film Festival showing on September 30, 1977. The renaming did not boost its box office and it grossed just $815,530 in the United States and Canada. Handle with Care currently holds a 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 7.9/10 among the critics. John Simon wrote of Citizen's Band "a lovely, hilarious, semisatirical folk comedy, only needing a better ending."
