| Director | Jerry Schatzberg |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 112 min |
| Country | United States |
| Box office | $4 million |
Two vagabonds—Max Millan, a short-tempered ex-convict, and Francis Lionel "Lion" Delbuchi, a childlike former sailor—meet on the road in California and agree to become partners in a car-wash business when they reach Pittsburgh. Lion is traveling to Detroit to see a child whom he has never met and make amends with the child's mother, Annie, to whom he has sent all of the money that he had earned while at sea. Max agrees to take a detour on his way to Pittsburgh, where the bank to which Max has been sending all his seed money is located.
While visiting Max's sister in Denver, the pair's antics land them in a prison farm for a month. Max blames Lion for their incarceration and shuns him. Lion is befriended by an inmate named Riley, who eventually tries to sexually assault and physically ravage him. When Lion resists, Riley beats him, breaks his teeth and blinds him in one eye, which emotionally traumatizes him. Max rekindles his friendship with Lion and becomes his protector, eventually exacting revenge by fighting Riley.
After their release, Max and Lion continue to have a profound effect on each other, although they have both undergone personal transformations, and their roles have shifted. Lion is still traumatized, no longer carefree nor able to smile, and Max loosens his high-strung aggression, performing a mock striptease to defuse a fight at a bar and make Lion laugh again.
When Max and Lion finally arrive in Detroit, Lion finds a payphone and calls Annie, now married to another man and raising Lion's five-year-old son. Annie is still furious with Lion for having abandoned her, and lies that she miscarried their son. Lion is devastated but feigns joy with Max about having a son. Shortly afterward, Lion experiences a psychological breakdown while playing with children in a city park, and becomes catatonic. Max makes a promise to Lion, now in a psychiatric hospital, that he will do anything to help him and boards a train to Pittsburgh with a round-trip ticket.