In 1974 I was 7 years old and my aunt…who was watching me for the night took me to see Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, and Gone in Sixty Seconds (the original of course). Car chase movies were popular at the time and this was a good one. The cast includes Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, Roddy McDowall, and Vic Morrow. Kenneth Tobey was in the movie also…not a huge part but really good.
This movie always stuck with me because it is so real. It took a British director named John Hough to film this Americana car movie and he used the low budget to great effect – no studio sets, no process shots, no fakery…
It is a B movie but a fun B movie. Larry Rayder (Peter Fonda) is an aspiring NASCAR driver, Deke Sommers (Adam Roarke) is a mechanic. As they feel they collectively are the best, the only thing that is holding them back is money to build the best vehicle possible. They decide to rob a supermarket and are successful as they steal 150,000 dollars.
Larry’s one-night stand, Mary Coombs (Susan George) talks them into letting her go with them. The best part for me is when they steal a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T from a Flea Market. Fonda lives up to his name in this movie for the most part. Susan George’s character starts to realize this and starts to think that Adam Roarke is the one she should have liked.
Vic Morrow is fantastic in this movie as he always is in his films. A very tangible character that seems real. He was one actor who seemed completely natural in his roles. It was like he wasn’t acting at all.
I love cars and this was a time when cars actually looked different. They used three cars in this movie for the Charger. Two for the stunts and the main one for the normal shots. The color of them was Citron Yellow. A yellow car with a green tint. In the original movie, the car looked banana-yellow because of someone doing a wrong color correction. In the blue ray version, the car is like it was…Citron Yellow.
A lot of the stunts were done by Peter Fonda. Susan George and Fonda both said that in the chase scenes, Fonda would be going over 100 mph with cars bumping into them. George has said that many of her screams were in fact real. The other stunts were done by stunt driver Carey Loftin. All without the aid of CGI, adding to the film’s excitement. That is why it looks so real…because it is.
The budget was 1.4 million and made over 28 million dollars (178 million today) back in 1974. When it was released, the film received mixed reviews from critics. However, it has since gained a cult following, particularly among fans of car chase films and 1970s cinema. It does have a great car chase. My favorite car chase in a movie is a 40-minute one in Gone in Sixty Seconds also released in 1974.
If you are bored and want to watch an entertaining car chase movie, you might like this one. Citizen Kane, it’s not but it’s a fun movie in which Peter Fonda made a fortune from a percentage deal he made. It really caught fire with Drive-In Theaters. If you have seen the movie and want to see a really good film locations video…watch this.
The filming locations were around Stockton California.
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