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The Gumball Rally
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DeTomaso Appearance
Few realize that there's a Pantera hidden in
there. Right at the beginning, within the first five minutes or so, as the
characters are all being introduced, the two CHP officers are seen blazing
through L.A. freeways (incredibly devoid of traffic; my, how times have changed)
in pursuit of a speeder. On the wide-screen version, both cars are in view, but
when they shrank it to fit in a TV-sized box, they edited out the speeder.
Well, that speeder is driving a silver Pantera. There is one momentary glimpse
of the car, just at the very left edge of the screen, and it's going well over
100 mph passing cars left and right. I remember reading an old back issue of PI
where the owner of that car discussed the details of the filming. One of these
days I might dig it out again and see if I can find it. For you who have access
to such things (mine are all packed away in storage) and are feeling ambitious,
I think the film and the article both came out in 1975, 76 or 77.
Images
If you have any screen captures of the DeTomaso
vehicle in the movie, please send them to me and I'll add them here. Thanks.
Summary
A comedy about a group of wacky characters who
compete in an illegal auto race known as the Gumball Rally. It starts in New
York and finishes in Long Beach, California and there are absolutely no rules.
This is the road race comedy that all the others imitate and it's based on a
real event.
Imagine racing 2,900 miles from Times Square, New
York to Long Beach, California in a mere 33 hours and 11 minutes (at an average
of 86.38 mph), driving flat-out against the redline, with no holds barred and a
police officer who will stop at nothing to keep you (and your fellow
competitors) from finishing...and it's all for glory and a gumball machine.
Based upon the infamous Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy
Dash, The Gumball Rally was the first of the cross-country road-race comedies
(the Burt Reynolds Cannonball Run series following in Gumball's path) and is
still the only good one, with genuinely funny characters, great cars, and loads
of cartoon-like action.
Among the racers in the Gumball Rally are business executive Michael Bannon
(Michael Sarrazin); his arch-rival, Smith (Tim McIntire); Le Mans champion
Franco (Raul Julia), who finds time to sweet-talk numerous attractive women
along the race route (including Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, Linda Vaughn); a
beautiful model; a pair of Englishmen; Lapchik the crazed motorcyclist; a
daredevil named Ace Preston (with a wild Texan sidekick, Gibson, played by a
very young Gary Busey), who drives a 600-horsepower Camaro and a team of
housewives in a Porsche Turbo Carrera.
The nemesis of these determined motorists is Lieutenant Roscoe, an
equally-driven police officer who will stop at nothing to prevent the
participants from reaching their goal -- the Queen Mary.
The flick is full of great one-liners, including Franco's first rule of Italian
driving (while ripping the rearview mirror out of the Ferrari and tossing it
aside): "What's behind me is not important," and Smith's toast to his
competitors: "To internal combustion, and wind in the face."
The real stars of the show are the authentic Shelby 427 Cobra and Ferrari 365
GTB/4 Daytona Spyder. If the sounds of these thundering beasts echoing off of
New York skyscrapers doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand at
attention, you need to have your pulse checked. There is no trick photography or
"speeding up of film" in this flick. When the speedo reads 120-mph in the Cobra,
you can believe it was doing 120.
One of the most memorable sequences features the Cobra (driven by Sarrazin) and
the Ferrari (driven by Julia) racing in the Los Angeles River, slipping and
sliding through the muck, and the rolling "pit stop," where Julia drives the
Ferrari into a moving semi where a crew of mechanics perform a full service on
the vehicle.
Built with a bevy of great automobiles, a good plot and decent comedy, Gumball
Rally is one of the ultimate car movies of all time and a must-have for the
automotive enthusiast. Released theatrically in New York City on August 20, 1976
Reviews
Rotten Tomatoes;
Yahoo! Movies
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