MovieChat Forums > Electra Glide in Blue (1973) Discussion > Was Frank's death really a suicide after...

Was Frank's death really a suicide after all?

posted 15 years ago by tommymax
9 replies | jump to latest

Just thought I'd start a new thread on this. See my post here and let me know what you think -

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070022/board/nest/40313524?d=latest&t=20090813144310#latest

[–] tommymax 15 years ago

Editing to take the bump out and move my edit to here:

I should have said: "Let me know what you think HERE, in THIS thread. I now see this post yesterday by andrsbckly -

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070022/board/nest/40313524?d=145788402#145788402

I'm not sure if he was responding to me or just to the OP in that thread, but what he's saying seems to be in agreement with my theory (no murder, just a suicide).

[–] ctbeach 15 years ago

Homocide, Definitely. The coroner discovered a .22 slug in Frank's body. That proved the staged suicide was done to cover the murder. So, two scenarios remain possible. The schizo friend killed him, or the other cop killed him.

Based on the scenes and dialogue of the script:

1: The schizo friend shot Frank with a .22 and upon seeing the cash and just left it because it was meaningless to him. The other cop came upon the scene and took the cash. In doing so, he needed to establish a suicide because he knew a murder would cause investigation into where the money went (obviously toward that Electragride in Blue and Chrome w/o a squakbox that he showed Wintergreen before trying to kill him).

2: The partner cop actually killed Frank, took the money, and staged the suicide. The schizo may have later claimed guilt after being pressed by Wintergreen because he felt guilty for not being around his friend. That scenario would play nicely into debunking the detective's "listen to your innerself" bit.

Wintergreen caused the investigation (setting the tragedy of the story in motion) that lead to the homocide ruling, that lead to his partner's emotional/guilty nervous breakdown and death. Ultimately, Wintergreen let's his guard down and, ironically justifying the Detective's hard-ass bias toward the hippies, gets killed because they are likely hauling dope and think he's coming back to either harass or bust them.

[–] baheidstu-351-733122 12 years ago

My theory is the same as your 1. scenario. Willie killed Frank, Zipper found the crime scene and came up with the shotgun suicide idea to cover up his theft of the money. He almost got away with it too if it wasn't for Wintergreen's persistence.

[–] Goatlips 11 years ago

It would've been way better if Willie hadn't confessed so blatantly, they assumed he did it from circumstantial evidence and charged him (perhaps then committing suicide in his cell), and then Wintergreen finally found out Zipper did it for the bike money.
Actually, Willie seemed incapable of the murder and covering his tracks as depicted in the opening scenes.
Shame I'm never asked for my advice from film-makers really.

[–] Goatlips 11 years ago

...Oh, we're saying Zipper covered up Willie's murder of Frank and took the money? Ok, but he'd hardly cook pork steaks whilst doing it. The cleaning of Frank's dentures made no sense either, so I think it was mad Willie doing the cover up too.
If Zipper covered up the crime he should've been scripted to say so in the film. Since he only said he took the money, we have to assume that's all he did...then again, Zipper must've got the money in the time between the murder and Wintergreen finding Frank's body. Also, Willie seemed to have discovered the body and gone mad and out into the desert - so, maybe Zipper did it all.
...Basically, the film is unclear and flawed. But Willie seemed to give a clear account of why he did it and Zipper said the money was just lying there, so that's all we can take as to what happened...Zipper, was trying to kill Wintergreen just for some stolen cash too though...LOL, we'll never know!

[–] kcl71 10 years ago

Great thoughts, everyone. There's also a similar thread of discussion further down the board.
I think Crazy Willie did stage the suicide after shooting Frank. When Wintergreen found the body in the shack after he and Zipper had chased Willie around, Zipper would be soon to follow. My theory was that Zipper entered the shack, searched around in other places while Wintergreen was busy formulating how he could turn this into a murder beef, saw the money just sitting there, and grabbed it.
I also think when Wintergreen was arguing with the medical examiner (another great performance from Royal Dano), we see Zipper, through the door, kneeling down next to his bike, presumably using a rag on it. When Wintergreen starts to get louder and louder, we see Zipper look at him with a concerned look as if he's up to something. I think that's when Zipper had stashed the money in the bike's compartment and was using the rag as a cover, pretending to wipe something down or whatever.
Of course, these are just my opinions; I could be wrong. But to counter what has been said in the similar thread on the board, the hippie who shot Wintergreen was NOT the same person who killed Frank. No way!

[–] batpuller007 9 years ago

Wilmer killed Frank. Zappa took the money and ate the pork.

[–] Satantangoandcash 8 years ago

I can't figure out who killed Frank. Maybe it was Zipper, maybe it was Willie, maybe it was the shotgun killer at the end.
It's hard to believe that Willie was smart enough to stage the suicide, but he's the only person we see who was dumb enough not to aim the gun at Frank's head to destroy the evidence that he was killed by a shot to the head, so I think it was Willie who staged the suicide. Frank may have killed him and taken the money, but he didn't stage the suicide because he would have blown off Frank's head.

[–] Tabbycat (878) 4 years ago

No, Frank didn’t take the money.
Zipper admitted doing it — “It was just sitting there!”
That’s how he could afford the new Electra Glide in Blue.