David Lynch movies typically feature a villain fueled by some inexplicable inner rage. But in one sensational sequence in Lost Highway, there's no mystery as to what's eating crime boss Mr. Eddy, played by Robert Loggia. Out for the sheer pleasure of driving his Mercedes sedan on L.A.'s winding Mulholland Drive, he's angered by the driver of a T-Bird who tailgates him and then compounds the insult by giving him the finger when Mr. Eddy allows him to pass. This ticks off Mr. Eddy big time.
''Do you know how many f -- -- n' car lengths it takes to stop a car at 35 miles per hour?'' he bellows at the driver after he pushes the T-Bird off Mulholland and up a dirt road, pulls the driver from the car, and starts pistol-whipping him. ''Six f -- -- n' car lengths...that's about a hundred and six f -- -- n' feet, mister!''
The lecture goes on, with more profane paraphrasings from the safe drivers' handbook and another punctuating blow. Back in the Mercedes afterwards, a more relaxed Mr. Eddy apologizes to a passenger: ''Sorry about that, Pete, but tailgating is one thing I can't tolerate.''
To raise Loggia's ire, the soft-spoken director took a cue from the slightly deaf FBI agent he used to play on Twin Peaks. Says Loggia, ''I felt I was delivering some pretty Vesuvian energy, and David said, 'Bob, I can't hear you.' And I said, 'What the f -- - are you taking about? I'm screaming my brains out!' He said, 'I can't hear you.' So I kept getting louder and louder.''
Audiences go nuts for Loggia's rant -- especially in Los Angeles, of course, where auto etiquette or lack thereof can provoke mortal combat. Scary, then funny, the scene also provides a huge release of tension after Highway's slow, nightmarish, metaphoric first hour. Even Lynch -- who, in assessing his movie's commercial chances, expresses ''high hopes that human beings can want to go into a different world and have new experiences, based on an understanding of human behavior'' -- frankly concedes: ''The tailgating scene, I'm thinking, is pretty mainstream. And the rest we'll see about.''
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