TT 313: '70's Car Movies

A Nostalgic Journal

“70’s Car Movies” is streaming on the Criterion Channel. There are thirteen collected in the noisy bunch:

The Cars That Ate Paris — Duel — Dirty Mary Crazy Larry — Fear is the Key — Gone in 60 Seconds — The Last American Hero — The Last Run — Le Mans —The Seven-Ups — Super Fly — Thunderbolt and Lightfoot — Trafic — White Lightning

I saw many of these as a kid, for re-running this kind of fare was the bread-and-butter of Channel 9 (KMSP) out of Minneapolis.

Most of these flicks are dated action movies, where the idea of a bandit outrunning the police on the open road was at least somewhat tenable. A substantial portion of the production money was spent on destroying Detroit iron, and to achieve that minor mayhem, a stunt driver got behind the wheel and did a take. No CGI, no outstanding safety measures, no frills. The smoke coming out of the wheel wells on the high-speed turns is not a special effect: The rubber is really being burned off the tires.

To be clear, these films are not automatically recommended to younger buffs who consider Quantum of Solace (2008), Drive (2011) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) or Ford v Ferrari (2019) as the standard for magnificent analog car control. I’m just having fun, noting the passage of time, and refreshing some of my basics…

…or, as Clint Eastwood recites in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot:

The clock uncoils the working day
and he wakes up feeling his youth has gone away.

Calling them “‘70s movies” actually undersells how tight the chronology really is. All thirteen films saw release between 1971 to 1974. There was simply an insatiable appetite for this kind of thing at the time. (I was born in 1973, BTW.)

If you squint hard enough, eight from Criterion’s list can be grouped together as crime movies. I’ve reviewed those eight below in ascending order from worst to best.  The other five are mentioned briefly at the end of the post.

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Gone in Sixty Seconds (1974)

Directed by H.B. Halicki from his own screenplay (such as it is).

Car: 1973 Ford Mustang. Thanks to Gone in Sixty Seconds, this model is one of the few vehicles to get a proper name that any car buff knows, “Eleanor.”

H.B. Halicki’s famous indie is a fever dream from an adolescent mind. The first half-hour of set up is all but unwatchable, but then our hero steals Eleanor, mutters, “I should have read my horoscope today,” and kicks off the 40-minute chase/crash extravaganza. When I was 9 years old I thought this was the greatest movie ever made, for the obvious reason that it had the greatest number of car crashes.

Due respect to the director getting this done against the odds, but truthfully the editing during the chase is quite poor and the whole thing falls strangely flat.

Jeez. I don’t know what I’m complaining about, the movie is iconic. Also, in philosophical terms —  puts academic hat on — Halicki viciously portrays the cruel beating heart of American consumption through the id of California car culture. (Did I say that right?)

Rating: 5/5 for “someone had to do it,” plus that is Halicki himself driving Eleanor. 2/5 for the underwhelming reality.

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Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)

Directed by John Hough. Screenplay by Leigh Chapman and Antonio Santean adapted from an obscure crime novel, The Chase by Richard Unekis.

Cars: The criminals trade in a souped-up 1966 Chevrolet Impala for a snazzier 1969 Dodge Charger.

The shock ending is famous. I saw it as a naive kid and can attest: the ending was a hell of shock. Apparently Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright admire this film but I suspect that if the ending was more conventional the movie would be barely known today. The central criminal trio is petty and unlikeable and that’s before we consider the garish overacting of Peter Fonda and Susan George.

However, the bulk of the story is somewhat redeemed by Vic Morrow as the Captain in pursuit; in fact, the police scenes are generally amusing and well done. The stunt co-ordinator was Al Wyatt and his team included the legendary Carey Loftin; there’s no doubt they had fun working out how to make six or seven Dodge Polara police cars bite the dust during the chase. There’s very little background music, an unusual and successful choice.

Trivia: I remembered the Dodge Charger as being yellow, but at Criterion the car looks green. Wikipedia has the answer: “The film developers thought that the Dodge Charger was actually bright yellow so they ‘corrected’ the film negatives to eliminate the greenish tint of the car. Therefore, the entire movie in theaters, on TV, and on VHS was originally very warm-toned. The Dodge Charger became the correct lime green color starting with the 2005 DVD release.”

Rating: 3/5

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Fear is the Key (1972)

Directed by Michael Tuchner. Screenplay by Robert Carrington adapted from the novel by Alistair Maclean. 

Car: 1972 Ford Gran Torino, an admirable slice of mid-range muscle later known as “the Starsky and Hutch car.”

Criterion didn’t include Vanishing Point in this survey, opting instead for the other film with Barry Newman behind the wheel, Fear is the Key. I have fond memories seeing Fear Is the Key as a kid, but today it presents itself as a convoluted puzzler that tries too hard. (Other than The Guns of Navarone, few of the many Alistair MacLean adaptations have proven durable.)

The big car chase (handled again by Carey Loftin) is fun but it is also placed very early on in the movie. After the chase is over, the film grinds along for a time; eventually, a tense ending in a submersible gives everyone a chance to chew the scenery. The jazzy score is by Roy Budd. It’s always nice to see John Vernon, who has substantial roles in several of my favorites from this era including Point Blank, Charley Varrick, and Dirty Harry.

Rating: 3/5

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The Seven-Ups (1973)

Directed by Philip D’Antoni. Screenplay by Albert Ruben and Alexander Jacobs.

Cars: The battle of the Pontiacs: a 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville vs. a ’73 Pontiac Ventura.

There are a lot of great things about The Seven-Ups, including an atonal Don Ellis orchestral score, grimy New York City locations, and a car chase orchestrated by Bill Hickman. However, the actual bones of the plot are not very intriguing. Even the lackluster title The Seven-Ups indicates a basic absence of excitement and creativity.

Philip D’Antoni produced Bullitt and The French Connection, both with famous Hickman car chases. When he put The Seven-Ups together, D’Antoni got into the director’s chair.  Perhaps this was a mistake, for a hat-trick doesn’t happen. The Seven-Ups remains relevant only for Hickman’s contribution: At one point the two Pontiacs are really blasting through a comparatively empty stretch of Manhattan.

Rating: 3/5

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The Last Run (1971)

Directed by Richard Fleischer. Screenplay by Alan Sharp.

Car: 1956 BMW 503 Cabriolet. This gorgeous ride is nearly a protagonist.

Almost everything about this modest crime movie is a throwback to classic film noir, especially the performance of George C. Scott, whose lonely gritty visage is just wonderful. The glamorous European setting is the only thing that seems circa 1970, although perhaps the existential attitudes and meta commentary (a TV in a bar is showing a gangster movie) is rather “French experimentalist.” The car control on display is a bit more realistic than usual, and Trish Van Devere brings something exceptional to the stereotypical role of gun moll.

While not a flawless masterpiece, The Last Run deserves to be in the conversation concerning interesting crime movies of the early ‘70s in the manner of another Alan Sharp-scripted film, Night Moves.

Rating: 4/5

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White Lightning (1973)

Directed by Joseph Sargent. Screenplay by William W. Norton.

Car: 1971 Ford Galaxie, a big box souped-up to out-run cops when transporting moonshine.

The team of actor Burt Reynolds and stuntman Hal Needham were responsible for a whole bunch of working-class comic entertainment from Smokey and the Bandit to The Cannonball Run. White Lightning has considerably more gravitas thanks to a hard-nosed revenge plot and generally tight direction by Joseph Sargent, who was just a year out from helming the authentic masterpiece The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The Deep South ambience feels real, and the use of local vs. federal politics is compelling.

I’m not sure if Burt Reynolds is a truly great actor or not, but his delivery of the line, “I was born ready!” is now in my personal pantheon. A love triangle drags down the plot — apparently Burt has a clause in his contract, “In all my scripts I need to be irresistible to all women” — and the ending could have been much better, but otherwise White Lighting is unique and compelling.

Rating: 4/5

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Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Directed by Michael Cimino from his own screenplay.

Cars: Lotta beauties in this one, but the 1973 Plymouth Fury with a jacked-up rear-end is definitely a showstopper. Surprise: the trunk is full of bunny rabbits.

Despite the presence of Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, I had somehow never heard of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. I wasn’t expecting much, but it turns out this spacious and idiosyncratic flick is one of the very strongest in the idiom. Cimino and crew have all the time in the world as the unique plot and character dynamic winds its way to an unexpected finish.

They say a lot of stuff is “uncategorizable” but Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is the genuine article: part gritty heist movie, part comic buddy movie, and part existential void. Eastwood and George Kennedy are great, and Jeff Bridges does a definitive take on the then-popular “silly kid criminal” trope.

The meticulous aspects of the heist feel influenced by the Parker books by Richard Stark, the pen name of Donald Westlake. On the other hand, the surreal moments could be related to the comic novels written by Westlake under his own name.

Serious question: Is this the best Clint Eastwood movie? (I have it on good authority that it is the best Michael Cimino movie.)

Rating: 5/5

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Duel (1971)

Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Richard Matheson.

Car: 1971 Plymouth Valiant. Serviceable, an “everyman’s car.”

Truck: 1955 Peterbilt 281 tanker. The best-ever villain on 18 wheels.

Spielberg’s inexpensive made-for-TV movie is essentially a one-man-play for the great Dennis Weaver. Matheson’s simple but powerful script was based on his own short story. (I’ve read the story; the movie is much better.) The stunts and vehicle control were once again overseen by Carey Loftin, who also played the truck driver, although the truck driver is never really seen. I have been haunted by this film since I was a child; it still holds up today. Indeed, this must be my favorite Spielberg film!

Rating: 5/5

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The remaining films in Criterion’s survey are less to my personal taste.

Le Mans (1971) I saw Steve McQueen’s straightforward racing/romance flick twice before when much younger and found it pretty boring. This time I shut it off after 20 minutes.

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) Experimental cult classic from Australia; an early Peter Weir; Kubrick admired it; pairs with the original experimental Aussie Mad Max. There’s definitely something valuable here, but I don’t command enough context to comment.

Trafic (1971) I’m also not up on Jacques Tati. I loved how this movie started, it looks beautiful, but again this theme is not my music. At times I just have no idea what I’m looking at, although clearly Jacques Tati is a sly dog. A slow-moving stylized car accident is amusing.

Super Fly (1972) boasts an amazing car, an 1971 Cadillac Eldorado customized by Les Dunham, perhaps the most classic “Pimpmobile.” The Curtis Mayfield soundtrack is wonderful, but I have trouble embracing the edgy nihilism of the story.

The Last American Hero (1973) is based on the 1965 magazine article by Tom Wolfe heralding the start of “New Journalism.” (“The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!” can be found online at Esquire, and it is still a fascinating read.) Jeff Bridges stars. Another “moonshine runner makes good” tall tale, but when compared to the basic crime caper White Lighting discussed above, The Last American Hero comes off as somewhat pretentious. The editing of the car races also lacks a certain panache.

However, Pauline Kael liked it — her review is famous — so what do I know?

For me one of the best parts of the movie is early on, when a 1967 Ford Mustang is put through its paces by celebrated NASCAR driver Neil Castles. The first two stunts in the movie are taken directly from Tom Wolfe’s article:

It was Junior Johnson specifically, however, who was famous for the “bootleg turn” or “about-face,” in which, if the Alcohol Tax agents had a roadblock up for you or were too close behind, you threw the car into second gear, cocked the wheel, stepped on the accelerator and made the car’s rear end skid around in a complete 180-degree arc, a complete about-face, and tore on back up the road exactly the way you came from. God! The Alcohol Tax agents used to burn over Junior Johnson. Practically every good old boy in town in Wilkesboro, the county seat, got to know the agents by sight in a very short time. They would rag them practically to their faces on the subject of Junior Johnson, so that it got to be an obsession. Finally, one night they had Junior trapped on the road up toward the bridge around Millersville, there’s no way out of there, they had the barricades up and they could hear this souped-up car roaring around the bend, and here it comes—but suddenly they can hear a siren and see a red light flashing in the grille, so they think it’s another agent, and boy, they run out like ants and pull those barrels and boards and sawhorses out of the way, and then Ggghhzzzzzzzhhhhhhggggggzzzzzzzeeeeeong!—gawdam! there he goes again, it was him, Junior Johnson!, with a gawdam agent’s si-reen and a red light in his grille!