DeTomaso Mailing List: March 1997, Message #37
     



From: MikeLDrew@aol.com

Subject: More movies, TV shows, commercials...

Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 02:25:19 -0500 (EST)



All,



Interesting thread going on here.  I heartily agree with the reviews thus

far, thought I'd add a few more.



There's a movie, I think it's called "Cannonball", a nominally serious

precursor to the awfully lame Burt Reynolds series of "Cannonball Run"

flicks.  It starred David Carradine (or was it Keith Carradine?), was made in

the early '70's and is basically about a cross-country race.  Carradine's

character drives a black Dodge Charger as I recall (it's been many years),

but there's one character, a rather sinister cartoonish German driver, who

drives a yellow Pre-L Pantera.  There are several great scenes of this car

absolutely hauling butt across the country.



I don't remember why, but a bomb is placed in the car, and halfway through

the movie viewers are treated to the gruesome sight of an honest-to-God

for-real Pantera being blown to bits for America's entertainment.



I know, it's criminal.  But at the time, Hollywood wasn't sensitive to these

issues.  Remember the Elvis flick, "Viva Las Vegas" in which several

beautiful Ferraris and other exotic sports cars are purposely crashed and

destroyed?  That one brings more than a few tears to my eyes too.



Also, "The Gumball Rally" is a personal favorite, and I think the best in the

genre of cross-country race flicks.  Although many of us have seen it time

and again, 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.



Also, remember the buddy cop flick starring Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen

(or was it Emilio Estevez?) that came out about six or eight years ago?

Can't remember the title.  Anyway, in one scene they're poking around in a

bucks-up garage.  They grab a Mercedes SL500 and go launching out a

fourth-floor window or some such nonsense nanoseconds before the place blows

up.  Just before leaving, as they're poking around the garage, they happen to

pass by a Porsche or Ferrari or whatever, and then walk past a yellow

Pantera.



It, too, is only on the screen for a split second, parked, dimly lit.

Certainly not worth renting for that, but something to file away for the

next 'stump your Pantera buddies' trivia contest when you ask them to name

every film featuring a Pantera! :>)



I saw an episode of "The Rockford Files" where one of the characters drove,

you guessed it, a yellow Pantera.  Come to think of it, Rockford himself may

have driven it too.  Saw it at least 10 years ago, so I don't really

remember.



In one of the lamer flicks of the era, "Gone in 60 Seconds", car thieves

steal a whole variety of interesting cars, including, surprise, a yellow

Pantera.  Some chick gets out of the car and leaves the keys in the ignition,

and the thief just gets in and drives away.  Hey, at least they didn't hurt

it.



One of the stock shots from the TV series "CHiPs" (you know, the generic two

or three second shots they keep on file, and show between scenes to 'set the

stage' and transition between scenes) is a static camera placed in the center

divider in a freeway, filming oncoming traffic.  A silver Pantera GTS comes

beaming up in the fast lane and zooms past.  (I have been known to go into an

apoplectic fit when watching such a show with non-Pantera buddies and

suddenly a Pantera appears unexpectedly.  They tell me to calm down...)



British actor Pierce Brosnan once did a British TV commercial for Coke, in

which he races a train to a railroad crossing, driving DeTomaso Drivers Club

of Britain president Phil Stebbings' red Pantera GT5.  The car got a lot of

great exposure in that piece.  Don't know how well it sold Coke though.



Any others?



Mike Drew, Pantera Geek to the Nth Power!