As beautifully crafted as one of the revolutionary cars of its title, Tucker is like a Frank Capra film in an age when American finally recognises that the good guys rarely won in real life. Bridges is the ever-smiling post-war inventor whose affable exterior envelops a nervous system as tightly wound as a clockwork coil. Capra would have let him win, but this is the real world where big business interests crush private initiative with the ruthlessness of a bulldozer, and you'll clench your fists in frustration at the realisation that Tucker stood no chance against them. Though its pace is sometimes on the stately side, Coppola's film comes alive in the final courtroom scene when Bridges' performance rivals that of James Stewart in Mr Smith Goes to Washington. The dialogue is well-written if a shade cautious, and gives its best line to Landau's elderly adviser: `Don't get too close to people - you'll catch their dreams'. 44 Tucker cars, a coda tells us, are still in working order: they must be worth a fortune.

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