Everybody is somebody else

CB radios provide a human connection between the lives of a collection of varied characters in Jonathan Demme's energizing film that exploits the CB radio craze of the mid-'70s. Chrome Angel (Charles Napier) is a truck driver who has an accident and is laid up recuperating at the home of Hot Coffee (Alix Elias). A road-roaring philanderer, Chrome Angel is a bigamist with a wife, Dallas (Ann Wedgeworth), in Dallas and another wife, Portland (Marcia Rodd), in Portland. The two women converge in a small town where Spider (Paul Le Mat) and his embittered brother Blood (Bruce McGill) are both trying to date Electra (Candy Clark). The characters' CB monikers weave the characters into the same CB waveband, exemplifying the interconnectedness of an American subculture


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 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" (nicknames).
A paperback novelization of the film written by E.M. Corder was published by Pocket Books in 1977.


Release Date: September 29, 1977


Distrib: Paramount


Boxoffice: $815,530 2013: $2,944,000