DeTomaso Mailing List: March 1997, Message #48
     



From: brockctella@juno.com (Brock C Tella)

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

Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 18:06:32 PST



In an episode of Vegas a "      " Pantera is featured being chased by a helicopter. At least 10 minutes of the car is shown.

On Wed, 5 Mar 1997 02:25:19 -0500 (EST) MikeLDrew@aol.com writes:

>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!

>