Some talk on car movies.

[Mike999]

17 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

Several years ago I had the idea of a sequel with Jeanne Moreau, Shirley Maclaine and Omar Sharif meeting each other years afterward at a concours where the car was displayed, or perhaps at an auction where it was to be sold; too bad two of them are gone now. 

That's a great idea!  When I lived in Egypt from 2005-09, Omar Sharif was still a national hero, to everybody from senior citizens to little kids.

Wandering off-topic here, unless we count the sight of burning Jaguars and Rolls-Royces in the streets of Cairo.  But for history fans - Omar Sharif was in the 2006 BBC documentary series "Suez: A Very British Crisis."  Well worth finding on your favorite video queue.

Made for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Suez Crisis.  That was the British plan to take back the Suez Canal, with help from France and Israel, and remove Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. All 3 nations actually thought they could keep that a secret.  Epic Fail.

The series uses some "re-creations," with the great actor James Fox playing British Prime Minister Anthony Eden.  But even those are based on original meeting transcripts etc.

This DocuWiki entry only shows 3 1-hr episodes: "Betrayal," "Conspiracy," and "War." There's also a fourth episode, "The Other Side of Suez," that interviews Egyptians from all walks of life who lived thru the Crisis.

https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Suez:_A_Very_British_Crisis

 

[ranma]

While looking for pictures of the '57 Chevy used at the end of drive angry I found a picture where the goofed! here are the four photo's, And I am currently started work on a '57 Chevy 150 to replicate the movie car. In the pictures of it as a 150 note a radio antenna , Baby dagmars on the bumper,missing review mirror in two pictures , and one where the mirror is in the car.  Third picture down Clearly is a Bel Air W/out antenna , and the bumper guards flatened.

Edited March 13, 2019 by ranma

[Wm David Green]

On 12/4/2018 at 2:46 PM, Daddyfink said:

 

Just bought this on Blu-Ray disc, features some great real NASCAR footage, shot from mid 1964 to early 1965 by Bruce Kessler. Certainly not the greatest film ever made, variable acting led to bad previews (disc commentary explains director Howard Hawks casting a non-actress in a leading role), but not the worst either.

If you like car race films, especially NASCAR, then you should enjoy this film.

Its got me wanting to do my AMT 1963 Ford 500XL as NASCAR racer, although the main cars appear to be mostly 1964 models, Fords, Mercs, Plymouths & Pontiacs, with some '65 Fords in some scenes. 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Wm David Green

[Plashdaddy]

On 05/12/2018 at 1:26 PM, Paul Hettick said:

I did Smiler Grogans 57 Fairlane from Mad Mad World.

That’s awesome.

Did ya see him? He just went sailing right out there! 

Love that movie

[Mike999]

"King of the Mountain" from 1981 recently turned up on a cable movie channel.  The voices in my head forced me to watch it (again).  I did fast-forward thru some of the romantic goop and the boring subplot about the recording industry.

Despite all the Porsches and other exotic machinery, the car that really impressed me was Dennis Hopper's grungy '67 Corvette coupe.  Missing its hood and rear window and painted in patchwork gray primer over Weathered Red. With those side exhausts that seemed to be in every MPC model kit during the 1970s-80s.

Here's a great build of Hopper's Vette from The Other Magazine Board:

http://cs.scaleautomag.com/sca/modeling_subjects/f/30/t/116467.aspx

 

[Rob Hall]

 I saw maybe the oddest car chase in a show the other evening. It was between a dirty cop driving a '85 Mustang LX convertible being chased by two criminals in a Nissan Leaf across New Mexico.  The Leaf eventually drained it's battery and the Mustang driver backed into it.   The Mustang was specifically mentioned as being a 5.0, but had no 5.0 badges.   This was in the Amazon streaming show 'Too Old to Die Young',  a very long, very slow paced, very colorful, very violent and strange trip from director/writer Nicholas Winding Refn, the Dutch auteur that made 2011's 'Drive' (which had some decent car chases and a great soundtrack).   The show reminded me of David Lynch at his oddest... 

Edited June 20, 2019 by Rob Hall

[TonyK]

Great job on the scene from Mad Mad World. So many good car driving scenes in that movie done before any computer fake stuff.

[heyjohnxx]

On odd chases in movies, how about a Plymouth Horizon chasing a Yugo in "Drowning Mona"

 

[Brian Austin]

I'm reading a lot of the complaints here with a shrug:  "Yeah, so?" 

I can picture a bunch of typography fans on some forum rolling their eyes at signage shown in movies:  "That typeface wasn't used in 1961!  How dare they!"  :-P

It's going to be virtually impossible for a film maker to 100% accurately re-create the past, and the general audience won't know the difference.  Is the story itself compelling?  That's what's important.  So, sure, we'll have classic cars bearing current-day license plates, inspection stickers and other anachronisms, slightly-too-modern trains in Western movies, aircraft rebuilt to resemble rarer types, etc..  Actual buildings used as sets are often re-dressed, with certain modern details covered over.  Results are often not graceful, but they made an effort.  Watching movies involves a bit of suspension of disbelief.

As someone who graduated art school with a degree in photography, one scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang jumped out at me.  The photographer at the 1:45 mark is using his camera incorrectly: 

He puts the cloth over his head and shoots the picture.  The problem is, when you have the film (or glass plate) holder inserted in the camera, you can't see through it to focus the image on the ground-glass screen on the back of the camera (when the photographer ducks under the focusing cloth).  There doesn't appear to be there's even a film holder in the camera any way.  There are a few steps involved in shooting a large-format camera that are omitted in the movie.  Point and shoots they are not!

How dare they!  :-P

 

Shifting gears, be sure to check out the old film serials of the '30s and '40s, often referred to as the Republic Serials.  These often featured vehicles.  The legendary Lydecker brothers filmed the special effects sequences for many of these serials.  Large models were used, and at least one miniature vehicle has survived, a '30s Ford woodie wagon:  https://www.yourprops.com/Miniature-Car-from-3-1940-s-original-movie-prop-Spy-Smasher-1942-YP55035.html

 

Background info and pictures:

http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2010/09/big-boys-toys-howard-and-theodore.html

 

Film reel of special effects sequences involving their miniatures...and lots of explosions! (Skip to around the 3 min mark or so).

 

One final note, regarding "classic" vehicles wrecked in modern films:  Many of these vehicles are owned by "picture car" rental agencies that can build or modify vehicles to suit, often rebuilding a car numerous times to repair stunt damage.

 

[Greg Myers]

It almost seems rampant in our society, excepting mediocrity.

Just the other day on the history channel ( yeah, I know) " He went to bed, putting an automatic under his pillow" then they show him placing a revolver under his pillow. Only had two choices and they get it wrong. Sure, I'm going to believe the rest of your presentation.

Technical advisers . . .

[Snake45]

8 hours ago, Greg Myers said:

It almost seems rampant in our society, excepting mediocrity.

Just the other day on the history channel ( yeah, I know) " He went to bed, putting an automatic under his pillow" then they show him placing a revolver under his pillow. Only had two choices and they get it wrong. Sure, I'm going to believe the rest of your presentation.

Technical advisers . . .

I saw that, too. What was that on, the Skunk Works show? That was pretty good, except in one scene where they're talking about something a U-2 or SR-71 was involved with in Vietnam, they show film of a burning airbase with a bunch of VNAF A-1 Skyraiders sitting there, which would have had NOTHING to do with anything being talked about. 

[Goose1957]

On 1/26/2019 at 2:37 PM, Oldcarfan27 said:

 

 

Season 6, Episode 8

 

 

 

Season 6 episode 8, hey that's John Milner's coupe from American Graffiti! Cool to see it used again. And yea, as a kid I LOVED the show Emergency.

Jeff 

[Greg Myers]

The best one (worse) is the classic clip the media continually uses showing the "Japanese Dive bombers" which are actually American Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bombers, every December 7th. 

[Mike999]

Movie "location goofs" are fun. On TCM, I recently saw the 1952 film noir "Kansas City Confidential."  It's pretty good, but not a single frame of it was shot anywhere near Kansas City. It opens on a long aerial shot of downtown Los Angeles, including City Hall. Even in 1952, L.A.'s City Hall was one of the most recognizable buildings in America because it starred in a lot of movies.

That was probably stock footage, so you'd think they could have found some footage of the real K.C.  Ed Wood probably had some in his library.  Also, scenes taking place in the exotic Mexican town of "Borados" were shot on Catalina Island.  But the scenes filmed in Tijuana, Mexico really were shot there, believe it or not.

 

[Greg Myers]

always a disappointment  when it's some place you've been or are from and you are looking forward ti seeing that location on film. 

[ChrisBcritter]

My favorite was The Beginning or the End, where the giant locusts begin their attack in the lovely mountain community of Ludlow, IL:

The real Ludlow:

Guess the locusts ate the mountains? 

Edited June 23, 2019 by ChrisBcritter

[Brian Austin]

Yup that's a film/TV trope:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMountainsOfIllinois

 

And it's a known fact that films are shot in locations nowhere near the setting.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CaliforniaDoubling

 

Countless productions were shot in Toronto that actually took place in various places in the US, and then there were movies taking place in New York City that were actually shot in Boston.  A recent film set in the '60s in Detroit was partially filmed in the Boston area.  I happened to watch a herd of period-dressed extras head toward a local courthouse for courtroom scene shooting.  Women wore beehive wigs.  I wished I had grabbed my camera.  Other towns had period police vehicles and other cars parked around for exterior shots.

 

 

[Mike999]

Long before "Top Gun," the U.S. Navy used Hollywood movies to showcase its cutting-edge technology.  One of the best examples turns up on TCM from time to time: the movie "Dirigible" from 1931. Airships were the weapon of the future! The movie is pretty amazing for its shots of the real dirigible USS Los Angeles landing on an aircraft carrier, the "parasite" fighters that hung under the airships, etc.

A major plot point involves an Arctic expedition.  The Arctic scenes were shot in the frozen wastes of Arcadia, CA, in northern Los Angeles County.  You can find pictures of the sets on the internet.  The actors chewed dry ice to create frozen breath.  That had a pretty gruesome outcome: one crew member did it wrong and lost most of his tongue and jaw.