Steven Spielberg's first theatrical feature, based on a true story, follows the adventures of a Texan outlaw couple striving to keep their family together against all odds.

Determined not to lose her child to the authorities, Lou Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) persuades her obedient convict husband Clovis (William Atherton) to break out of jail to help her kidnap their baby from its foster parents.

With police officer Slide (Michael Sacks), the fugitives head across the plains to Sugarland, Texas, pursued by a flotilla of police who are bent on capturing the couple.

Spielberg won the screenplay prize at the Cannes Film Festival but The Sugarland Express flopped at the box office.

Immediately followed by the blockbuster Jaws, the film seems at first a low-key and inauspicious film but the powerful themes of parental separation and emotionally stunted adulthood are explored without the Spielberg-style action and extra terrestrials that would come to define his career.

Worth a watch but don't expect to be on the edge of your seat.

CS