Motion pictures and automobiles were invented at about the same time. Coincidence? I don't think so. The two are married to each other, till death do they part, and here's the evidence:
9. American Graffiti (1973)
Plot: It's the last cruising night forever before two guys go off to college and grow up.
Cars: '32 Ford five-window coupe (Milner's car), '55 Chevy One-Fifty (Falfa's car), '58 Chevy Impala, '51 Mercury coupe (The Pharoahs), '56 Ford Thunderbird (Suzanne Somers), '58 Edsel, '67 Citroën (Richard Dreyfuss).
Coolness: Paul LeMat's portrayal of John Milner. Debbie: "I just love it when guys peel out."
8. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Plot: No.
Cars: '70 Pontiac GTO (Warren Oates' car), primer-gray '55 Chevy Two-Ten, 454 engine, 4-speed (James Taylor).
Coolness: James Taylor doesn't look old enough to drive. Warren Oates is the personification of hinky. Full service gas at 8 bucks a tank, premium. Most dramatic scene: Taylor goes into an auto-parts store and buys a rebuild kit for the GTO's Quadrajet carburetor.
Car-spotters check here: Internet Movie Cars Database.
7. Vanishing Point (1971)
Plot: Not really. Something about "the last American hero to whom speed means freedom of the soul." (Translation: one long badass car chase.)
Cars: '70 Challenger R/T (white), '68 Dodge Polara (cop car), '66 Jaguar XKE, '70 Plymouth Belvedere (cop car).
Coolness: Western USA. 60s rock and roll. Cars jump, cars skid, cars fly up and down the highway. Best line: "Here comes CBS News—it must be important."
6. Funny Car Summer (1974)
Plot: A documentary on drag racer Jim Dunn's 1973 campaign.
Cars: Jim Dunn's rear-engined, hemi-powered, '73 Plymouth Barracuda funny car. Countless others.
Coolness: For gearheads only. Nothing humorous about funny cars, just a plastic "stock" body stuck on a 500HP home-made dragster filled with nitro trying to make it to 200MPH in a quarter mile without blowing up or flying off the track. Flames shoot out the side, not just painted on.
Uncool: Jim Dunn shaves. Carpenters-inspired music.
5. Bullitt (1968)
Plot: Driving on a flat surface is boring. Let's head for the hills, steep hills, bottom-out-and-bust-the-floorboards hills, like San Francisco.
Cars: '68 Mustang GT 390, '68 Charger
Coolness: The cars have unlimited hubcaps for flying off and infinite gears to shift through. Did somebody say "drinking game?"
4. Gone in 60 Seconds (the original, 1974)
Plot: not much. (Do yourself a favor—skip the first 55 minutes of "story" and cut right to the chase.)
Cars: A '73 Ford Mustang Mach 1 fastback named "Eleanor" and about a hundred others, wrecked. Exotics (not wrecked): Rolls Royces, '71 De Tomaso Pantera, '74 Manta Mirage, '67 Lotus Europa, '67 Lamborghini Miura, Ferraris, '72 Maserati Ghibli Coupe.
Coolness: Demolition derby combined with dirt-track racing on city streets. Non-stop car-crunching action. No CGI.
3. Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1985)
Plot: In 1948, Preston Tucker tries to build a sleeker, safer, more affordable car, but the big three auto companies and their political cronies shut him down.
Cars: Tuckers (duh), featuring padded dash, pop-out windows, disk brakes, rear engine, fuel injection, a headlight that moves when you turn, and seat belts. Other cars of the period are shown as well, mostly all black and dowdy in comparison.
Coolness: Who hasn't dreamed of designing and building his own car? Francis Ford Coppola (director) and George Lucas (producer) each own a couple of Tuckers. As strong an indictment of American business as Wall Street.
2. To Please a Lady (1950)
Plot: Race-car driver (Clark Gable) will stop at nothing to make it to Indy and win the big race.
Cars: Midget racers, Indy cars, 40s passenger cars.
Coolness: Spectacular, dramatic photography and lighting by Harold Rosson (The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain). Major chemistry between Gable and co-star Barbara Stanwyck. Indy legend Mauri Rose catches fire in the pits. Joie Chitwood's stunt car show. Midget-car racing, fast and furious. An Offenhauser twin-cam four-cylinder block-bored, blueprinted and assembled.
Uncool: A title which has nothing to do with anything.
1. Genevieve (1953)
Plot: This "sleeper" features the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, held since 1927 to commemorate raising the speed limit from 4 mph to 12 mph in 1896. Ironically, this most British of films features a French car and a Dutch car.
The cars: Genevieve is a 1904 Darracq, built in France, Type O Roadster, black with red interior, sporting a two-cylinder 10-12 horsepower engine. Its rival is a yellow 1904 Dutch-made Spyker open tourer with a four-cylinder, 14-18 horsepower engine.
Coolness: Made in 1953 so you see both early century steel and '50s cool. Larry Adler, blacklisted American Commie harmonica player, played the whole score on his mouth harp.
Uncool: Hard to get in the US. Buy the Korean version & turn off the subtitles.
Car-spotters go here: Internet Movie Cars Database
