Ah, the ‘70s, a time when PC principles did not apply. You can guess what part of the title served as a nickname for Welch’s telephone operator in this dark comedy about a Los Angeles ambulance company. Bill Cosby is the star driver Mother — last name Tucker — who drinks on the job, hassles nuns and is rude to everyone else. Joining this band of misfits is a Vietnam War ambulance driver Harvey Keitel, who earns the name Speed for supposedly selling cocaine to children. Directed by Peter Yates of “Bullitt” fame, it was described by Roger Ebert as “an unhappy cross between “MASH” and “As the World Turns.” But forgettable it was not.
