Modern car-centric cinema like ‘Drive‘ has elevated the genre to ‘art’ but back in the bad old days of the 1970s, car crash movies were a quick and dirty way for gearheads to get their thrills at the drive-in theatre. The undisputed heavyweight champ of these el-cheapo films is the 1974 motion picture ‘Gone in 60 Seconds‘.
An independent independent film that was written, directed and produced by stunt man H. B. Halicki, who had zero filmmaking expertise, but loved cars. The result was this smash-em-up B-movie that became cult classic. To keep the budget low, Halicki didn’t hire actors, instead casting family and friends in roles and did most of the stunt driving himself.
Halicki plays protagonist Pace, a man who living a double life as an car insurance investigator and a professional car thief. A Columbian drug lord offers Pace the score of a lifetime; $200,000 cash up front to steal 48 classic / sports cars and deliver them to the port of Long Beach within five days. If Pace is successful, there’s a $200,000 cash bonus.
The first hour of the movie introduces the crew Pace assembles for the job, and follows along as the crooks case the cars. Amateur actors deliver laughable dialogue while dressed like pimps from ‘Superfly‘ or ‘Shaft‘ yet strangely, isn’t that bad. The moody music helps create a feeling of suspense. Kind of like a ‘how to steal cars’ documentary, vehicles on the list include a 1930 Studebaker Dictator, a 1959 Rolls-Royce Phantom, and a 1972 Plymouth Barracuda.
By the halfway point of the movie, every car on the list has been stolen, except one; Eleanor. She’s a yellow 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 with a powerful a 351 cu in Cleveland V8 engine. While stealing her, Pace is spotted by the cops, but escapes arrest and leads the police on a car chase through six California cities from Long Beach to Carson involving local, county, and state law enforcement.
As the chase continues, Eleanor gets more and more beaten up, after being sideswiped by a Cadillac and jumping over a roadblock. The 40 minute chase scene is the longest in film history, and a total of 93 cars were destroyed, during filming, a record which may never be broken. That scene is the reason that ‘Gone in 60 Seconds‘ is remembered today.
Eleanor was fully re-enforced to withstand the damage, and Halicki’s widow still owns the car. She has loaned it to the the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles where it remains on display, complete with the damage from filming, preserved as a piece of movie history.
It looks super 70s.
Yup. The music and fashions too.