White Lightning 1973

Bobby “Gator” McKlusky sits behind bars in an Arkansas state prison for running white lightning moonshine. When he learns his younger brother, Donny, was killed by Sheriff J. C. Connors, he tries to escape but is quickly recaptured. The sheriff is taking money from local moonshiners, and Gator agrees to go undercover for the United States Department of the Treasury in their corruption and smuggling investigation. But his motive is revenge for his brother’s murder, and he has no intention of gathering evidence against his fellow moonshiners.

The Feds outfit him with a high-performance 1971 Ford Custom 500 and direct him to contact Dude Watson, a local stock car racer and low-level whiskey runner who is already on probation and forced to cooperate. To infiltrate the local moonshine world, Dude introduces Gator to Roy Boone, one of the county’s top runners who works for moonshiner Big Bear, who also serves as Sheriff Connors’s enforcer. Gator begins a forbidden romance with Roy’s girlfriend, Lou Lou, even as he earns the trust of Roy and Big Bear.

Sheriff Connors learns that Gator is working for the federal government and sends Big Bear after him. Gator escapes and hides with Lou at Sister Linda Fay’s Home for Unwed Mothers, tucked away deep in the woods. Gator knows the Feds will want solid evidence against the sheriff and the moonshiners, but Connors’s men locate him first.

Gator escapes in his Ford and intentionally goads Connors into pursuing him. After a long, tense car chase, Gator tricks Connors into hurtling his patrol car over an embankment and into the river. Connors drowns when the car sinks, and Gator watches with a quiet sense of satisfaction. With Connors out of the picture and no hard evidence against the moonshiners, the disappointed Feds escort Gator and Lou out of Bogan County as the sheriff’s funeral procession rolls by.