Gratuitous Sunday Afternoon Car Chase, le part deux

[Well-known member]

The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, 1976



Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "Like every other low-budget, regional melodrama of this kind, the movie is virtually constructed of automobile chases in which every shot of the lead car turning a corner, hitting a bump or swerving to avoid a truck must be repeated by a shot of the pursuing car dealing with the same set of circumstances.

 

[Vieux Port]

"...cop thought he was dying of a terminal disease that was not covered by insurance but if he was killed in the line of duty his family would get a huge settlement. So he was taking a lot of dangerous chances..."

Dabney Coleman was in Downhill Racer - "I did not know that"

 

[Tacoma Mud Flats]

Great explainer here from insider for the enthusiast:



Free bonus:

 

[Tacoma Mud Flats]

Per the YouTube poster:

Belmodono’s car is the Fiat 131 Supermirafiori while his rivals are driving a Peugeot 504. There are a couple of 180 degree turns and the prerequisite shot of the Eiffel Tower. The chase moves to the grounds of the Palais de Chaillot, where we see driving a car down stairs. No CGI, no Ultimate Arm, no drones - Only Action.​

If you look close you can see the lens hole cut in the box to hide the crash cam in the door of the Citroën van - visible in the final crash.

 

[Well-known member]

Well let's do a little content rebuilding from the original thread:


Bullitt:



French Connection:



Seven Ups:



Smokey and the Bandit:



The Driver:



Gone in 60 seconds:



Vanishing Point:



Ronin:

 

[Tacoma Mud Flats]

Good featurette interview with the guy who staged car chases in Ronin. Paris and Marseilles chases, all with practical effects.



Caution: You must be able to read to watch this.

Bonus:

 

[Talchotali]

Built FORD tough - '68 Ford F-Series in Mr. Majestyk



The Ford Motor Company was so impressed, they used scenes licensed from the movie showing extreme driving of Majestyk's 1968 Ford F-100 pickup truck during commercials for its 1976 Ford trucks

Ford ad from 1976:

Ford Trucks Beating - (1976) - 0:30 (USA)

adland.tv

 

[barleymalt]

Hard to beat this one for sheer number of police vehicles destroyed

 

[Foreverslow]

in the filming of Bullet, Steve McQueen drove his own stunts.
Remember that mustang coming down the hill in SF?
As they got to the bottom, the cameraman in the back said to McQueen
"Steve, you can cool it, we are outta film"
to which Steve replied "Been trying to for 3 blocks. No brakes..."

 

[Well-known member]

Can't beat Mini's and Mayhem...




Bonus:

A Miura, horror of horrors...

Did they really destroy a Miura? Well, No and Yes.

Courtesy Super Car Nostalgia Blog (supercarnostalgia.com)

In June 1968, Paramount Pictures had approached Lamborghini for two Miuras, one to serve as a wreck for an accident scene and the other to perform driving duties.​

​

Fortuitously, Lamborghini were in possession of an Arancio example that had been crashed and returned to the factory. The presence of an already heavily damaged Miura meant a new bodyshell would not need to be sacrificed.​

​

A matching Arancio example was then selected from the production line: 3586. Following completion, chassis 3586 was road-tested on 18th June 1968.​

​

Filming for the opening scenes of The Italian Job took place in the Gran San Bernardo pass in late June.​

​

​

The Miura used for filming had its odometer disconnected and was delivered to the set by Lamborghini employee, Enzo Moruzzi, who worked in the sales department. As the car needed to be returned in as-new condition, Moruzzi recalled that the white seats were exchanged for a set of black seats used for testing. Because of the tight time frame, the car’s white headrests and matching bulkhead trim panel were retained.​

​

Moruzzi drove the Miura as a stunt double for Italian actor, Rossano Brazzi, who played Roger Beckerman in the movie. Brazzi drove only for the scenes where his face was seen.​

​

​

​

​

​

Afterwards, the Miura was returned to the factory and prepared for delivery.​

​

So why might chassis 3586 be The Italian Job Miura?​

​

Firstly, it was the only Miura produced in the correct timeframe with white seats and head rests.​

​

Secondly, all the interior perforations and imperfections visible on the movie car match those of chassis 3586, which has upholstery that remains in an original and unrestored state.​

Question marks about the current colour have been raised, but Lamborghini’s Arancio Miura and Rosso Miura shades are known to have appeared red in certain lights and orange in others. For evidence, look at the August 1967 edition of Car and Driver magazine where chassis 0979 looks red on the front cover and orange in other shots. The same can be said of footage and stills from both Miuras used in The Italian Job.​

​

It seems unlikely that more definitive proof will never be discovered. However, the evidence seems to suggest that chassis 3586 is the long lost Miura from The Italian Job.​

It'll buff out...

*************************************************************

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:​

​

By CHRIS HASTINGS ART CORRESPONDENT FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY​

​

PUBLISHED: 20:00 EDT, 21 March 2015 | UPDATED: 09:27 EDT, 22 March 2015​

​

The Italian rescue job: Iconic Lamborghini from classic film is found 46 years on... and yes, the mafia DID throw it off a cliff, just not that one.​

​

Car fans always assumed the iconic vehicle was a complete write-off​

It has now been found in pristine condition by two British businessmen​

​

Now worth more than £1million and will go on display across the world​

​

In 2004 Top Gear magazine vote it the coolest car - IN THE WORLD.​

​

It has a starring role in the classic movie The Italian Job – in one of the most memorable opening sequences in cinema history.​

​

A stunning orange supercar races through the Alps, before disappearing into a tunnel. Then, in a heartbreaking moment for car fans, the Lamborghini Miura crashes in a ball of flames. The smashed up wreckage is dragged out of the tunnel by the mafia and pushed into a ravine by a bulldozer – followed by a wreath for the driver.​

​

The millions who have seen the iconic film since it was made in 1969 must have assumed the car was an irrecoverable write-off, never to be driven again.​

​

But now The Mail on Sunday can reveal the car seen powering through the Alps has been found in pristine condition – and is worth more than £1 million. Described as ‘the holy grail of supercars’, it has been tracked down by two British businessman.​

​

The car’s new co-owner, Iain Tyrrell, received a tip-off at Christmas that the Miura had resurfaced.​

​

He said: ‘I was initially skeptical because no one had seen it for 46 years. But my source was a credible one so I started to pursue it.’​

​

He was invited to see it – but given just three hours to verify the vehicle as the genuine article. ‘It was all very James Bond-ish – I had to go to Paris to inspect the car in a secret underground car park,’ he said.​

​

​

The car, now worth more than £1 million, was found in pristine condition and bought by two British buisnessmen. Pictured: Joint owner Iain Tyrrell​

​

Mr Tyrrell learned that the thrilling sequence that opens The Italian Job was shot using two cars – both supplied by Lamborghini, but one of them was already smashed up.​

​

It is the first, intact, car that has now been found. Mr Tyrrell said: ‘The Italian Job Lamborghini is the holy grail of supercars precisely because no one knew what happened to it after the film. I have a life-long passion for these cars but I just assumed this particular vehicle was out of reach.’​

​

As the Miura is still in near-mint condition, Mr Tyrrell – who owns Cheshire Classic Cars – was able to cross-reference its original features with stills from the film. He has also checked the car’s history at the Lamborghini archive. He said: ‘After inspecting the car, there is no doubt in my mind that it is the Miura from The Italian Job.​

​

In the 1969 iconic film the stunning orange supercar races through the Alps, before disappearing into a tunnel​

​

The Lamborghini crashes in a ball of flames and is then dragged out of the tunnel by the mafia before being pushed into a ravine by a bulldozer​

​

‘There are certain quirks within the interior of the car, such as the trim and the stitching. They are like a fingerprint or a birth mark. They can’t be replaced.’​

​

Research has uncovered that the filmmakers, Paramount, hired the car from Lamborghini and after filming it was sold to a dealer.​

​

The dealer then sold the Miura to an unidentified buyer. In 2005, after it had changed hands a few times, Norbetto Ferretti, a luxury yacht manufacturer, bought it. This transaction brought a remarkable coincidence to the saga – as Mr Ferretti was the son of the dealer who originally bought it from Lamborghini after The Italian Job. Incredibly, it seems that both he and its previous owners had been completely unaware of its role in the movie.​

​

Mr Tyrrell and his friend and co-owner, Keith Ashworth, now plan to display the Lamborghini around the world, although they have not ruled out selling it on. The car’s value is likely to increase substantially in the light of its history.​

​

But the Miura mystery has not been entirely solved. The smashed -up Lamborghini, vanished without trace after it disappeared down the mountainside.​

​

Mr Tyrrell said: ‘When the production team went back to salvage the remains of the crashed car the next day it had gone. The whole car had disappeared and had obviously been stolen.’​

​

Built between 1966 and 1973, the 170mph Lamborghini Miura is widely credited with kick-starting the trend for high performance two-seater sports cars.​

 

[Talchotali]

Just a normal TAXI ride in any French city...

 

[Vieux Port]

Car chase on the Chicago El!
Running Scared 1986



Sad end to a factory 140" wheel base Fleetwood Brougham Model 75. They only made 1250 of them. Front four door clip + rear two door clip made a proper wheel-arch-behind-the-door grand limousine, so they lady wouldn't get mud on her dress when she got in. The full size rectangular rear door was unique to this model.

(Aftermarket Caddie limo conversions are cut and spliced from four doors chassis so they have the rear passenger door opening partially over the wheel arch - girl gets mud on her dress).

 

[Well-known member]

Cars'n'bikes

To Be The Best 1993



Recoil 1998



The Sweeper 1996

 

[py26129]

Interesting video about the Italian Job Miura:

 

[Well-known member]

Lethal Weapon Four

 

[WhoaTed]

I always considered the Seven Ups chase w/Scheider to be one of the best but it’s often forgotten when the great car chase discussion comes up. Pretty cool since the wild ongoing action comes to a very abrupt stop.

 

[Tacoma Mud Flats]

Wild Bill Hickman rides again!

The Pontiac chase in The Seven-Ups is real as it gets​

Priscilla Page; Courtesy of Hagerty

In the early 1960s, New York police officer Sonny Grosso and partner Eddie Egan investigated a massive international drug smuggling ring, and in a 1962 bust they recovered more than 100 pounds of heroin. The case inspired Robin Moore’s nonfiction book The French Connection, which was adapted by William Friedkin into the Oscar-winning classic film of the same name in 1971. But this wasn’t the only Sonny Grosso story worth telling.

After the French Connection case, Grosso worked with an elite unit of cops that only handled major felony cases, where the minimum prison sentence was seven years. The team was appropriately named the Seven-Ups, and the cops’ story helped birth a Pontiac fan’s dream car chase.

Philip D’Antoni, the producer of Bullitt and The French Connection, rounded out his impeccable car-chase trilogy with The Seven-Ups, his only time in the director’s chair. Although the 1973 film is a fictionalized account of Grosso’s career, the spirit of the film is authentic, and also authentically Grosso. After working with Friedkin as a consultant on The French Connection, Grosso became a producer, and he infused 1970s cop movies and TV with his experiences and personality, an influence still felt today, something film critic James Monaco calls “Grossovian subtexts.” In The Seven-Ups, this “Grossovian subtext” makes for a taut crime thriller set in a New York City that is portrayed with character and grit.

"We showed the way cops are better than anybody had done it before. And we had a big effect. My desire was finally culminated when Hackman and Friedkin at different times both said to me, ‘I still hate your job, I hate what you do, but at least now I understand why you do what you do.’ That’s all I ever wanted. Walk a mile in my shoes."
– Sonny Grosso

Following his stint as Buddy Russo in The French Connection, Roy Scheider embodied Grosso again as Buddy Manucci, the leader of the Seven-Ups. Buddy works cases with the help of his unit, as well as an informant, his childhood pal Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Bianco). The men may have taken different paths, but they share history, an uneasy camaraderie, and a moral grayness: Buddy’s tactics for busting criminals aren’t always on the level, and Vito’s life of crime is motivated by a sick wife, a family who needs the money.

Buddy stumbles into a case involving a group of men who kidnap members of the mob for ransom and pretend to be cops. The mob blame NYPD, but the real perpetrators are Moon and Bo (Richard Lynch and stunt driver Bill Hickman of Bullitt fame), with Vito as the mastermind. When they bungle a kidnapping and accidentally kill another Seven-Up, Buddy’s friend Ansel (Ken Kercheval), they flee in a 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville, and Buddy pursues them in his ’73 Pontiac Ventura.

The French Connection may have been Friedkin’s poem to New York City, but The Seven-Ups feels truer to the city in the 1970s: seamier, more dangerous, on the brink of collapse. It’s the perfect place for this film’s chase. The 10-minute sequence, designed by Hickman, required four weeks of guerrilla-style filming, its route running from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to the George Washington Bridge, then into New Jersey. Although Grosso was friendly with NYPD, the crew had to get shots when and where it could.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

“We were great at stealing shots,” D’Antoni explained. And there were a few close calls. During the chase, a stuntman opens the door of his parked car and Bill Hickman drives past, knocking the door off, which was rehearsed. But they didn’t anticipate that the door would fly at the camera crew, which had to move fast to avoid getting hit. Randy Jurgensen, technical advisor and another ex-cop who’d once partnered with Grosso, claimed the stunt drivers were even pulled over at gunpoint by the actual NYPD, because the officers believed the two had just robbed a bank: they were speeding, pursued by a helicopter, and wearing wigs.

D’Antoni adds to the riskiness and excitement of the film’s chase by keeping the cameras as close to the action as possible, and by endangering innocent bystanders (but only in the film, not on set). The moment when the drivers nearly mow down some kids was carefully choreographed, with cameras placed as close to the cars as possible to evoke the feeling of real danger. No one even tries to brake for the bystanders. The camera alternates between wide shots of the road and claustrophobic closeups on the actors, so we feel Bo’s determination, Moon’s fear (Richard Lynch’s genuine response to being Hickman’s passenger), and Buddy’s fury.

Once the men leave New York behind them and head onto U.S. Route 9, Moon and Bo pull in front of a Greyhound bus, out of Buddy’s sight. Moon gets his gun ready to fire at Buddy, but the bus driver alerts Buddy by honking. Buddy slows down just in time to dodge a bullet. His hood gets blown away instead, and he drives off-road. But Buddy comes back with a vengeance, hammering Hickman’s car with his own until a hubcap falls off. The Pontiacs reach a fork in the road, and Buddy notices a parked tractor trailer too late to stop.

20th Century Fox

The cast and crew had one chance to shoot this moment, the chase’s highlight: Buddy plows into the back of a parked tractor trailer, shearing off the top of his car in an instant. According to Hickman, the chase’s violent end was intended as a “tribute” to Jayne Mansfield, who died this way. In an interview with Louis Paul, Richard Lynch remembered: “Everybody stood by, and [stunt driver Jerry Summers] really plowed into that damn thing. It was one of the longest moments I can recall. Nobody moved. We waited, and then everybody started rushing to the car. He got a little hurt, the stuntman, he was a little damaged, he got a lot of glass damage. But for the most part, stuntmen know what they are doing.” As for Buddy Manucci, no matter how many times you’ve seen this chase, you still hold your breath when the truck driver peels back the dislodged, spiderwebbed windshield to see what’s become of him.

Just before the chase begins, Manucci finds Ansel—a cop who had just been talking to him about taking his oldest kid to get braces—beaten, bound, and near death in the trunk of a car, and Buddy’s raw emotion heightens the chase that follows. This isn’t just another cat-and-mouse game between an obsessive cop and criminal. It’s personal. Buddy is reckless, a man possessed, as he drives up onto the sidewalk, into a fruit cart, careens around corners, fishtails, and swerves around civilian cars.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

The chase shares its DNA with Bullitt and The French Connection, borrowing from their best moments, with cars that seem to fly down New York City’s crowded streets. What makes this chase work and what sets it apart from its predecessors is Buddy’s anger and grief. Buddy isn’t just working a case, he’s a man looking to avenge his friend. Scheider is one of the most likable actors of all time, and as Buddy Manucci, he’s complicated but sympathetic, a boy scout compared to Popeye Doyle, and we feel for him in and out of the driver’s seat.

D’Antoni expresses his reverence for realism in The Seven-Ups’ car chase. There were no gimmicks, no music, and almost no rehearsing, special equipment, or special effects. Just pure emotion, adrenaline, and roaring engines. Even if the drivers wanted to rehearse, they could only do most of their stunts once because they needed to preserve the cars, and if they’d shown anyone what they planned to do, no one would have let them do it.

Tony Lo Bianco explained the appeal of the film’s chase: “That’s why it looks so great, because most of it was for real.” Randy Jurgensen added, “What we did is what you saw.”

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

The chase; plus car wash scene (link):

https://www.tcm.com/video/1221410/seven-ups-the-1973-you-want-the-wax

 

[WhoaTed]

Wild Bill Hickman rides again!

The Pontiac chase in The Seven-Ups is real as it gets​

Priscilla Page; Courtesy of Hagerty

In the early 1960s, New York police officer Sonny Grosso and partner Eddie Egan investigated a massive international drug smuggling ring, and in a 1962 bust they recovered more than 100 pounds of heroin. The case inspired Robin Moore’s nonfiction book The French Connection, which was adapted by William Friedkin into the Oscar-winning classic film of the same name in 1971. But this wasn’t the only Sonny Grosso story worth telling.

After the French Connection case, Grosso worked with an elite unit of cops that only handled major felony cases, where the minimum prison sentence was seven years. The team was appropriately named the Seven-Ups, and the cops’ story helped birth a Pontiac fan’s dream car chase.

Philip D’Antoni, the producer of Bullitt and The French Connection, rounded out his impeccable car-chase trilogy with The Seven-Ups, his only time in the director’s chair. Although the 1973 film is a fictionalized account of Grosso’s career, the spirit of the film is authentic, and also authentically Grosso. After working with Friedkin as a consultant on The French Connection, Grosso became a producer, and he infused 1970s cop movies and TV with his experiences and personality, an influence still felt today, something film critic James Monaco calls “Grossovian subtexts.” In The Seven-Ups, this “Grossovian subtext” makes for a taut crime thriller set in a New York City that is portrayed with character and grit.


Following his stint as Buddy Russo in The French Connection, Roy Scheider embodied Grosso again as Buddy Manucci, the leader of the Seven-Ups. Buddy works cases with the help of his unit, as well as an informant, his childhood pal Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Bianco). The men may have taken different paths, but they share history, an uneasy camaraderie, and a moral grayness: Buddy’s tactics for busting criminals aren’t always on the level, and Vito’s life of crime is motivated by a sick wife, a family who needs the money.

Buddy stumbles into a case involving a group of men who kidnap members of the mob for ransom and pretend to be cops. The mob blame NYPD, but the real perpetrators are Moon and Bo (Richard Lynch and stunt driver Bill Hickman of Bullitt fame), with Vito as the mastermind. When they bungle a kidnapping and accidentally kill another Seven-Up, Buddy’s friend Ansel (Ken Kercheval), they flee in a 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville, and Buddy pursues them in his ’73 Pontiac Ventura.

The French Connection may have been Friedkin’s poem to New York City, but The Seven-Ups feels truer to the city in the 1970s: seamier, more dangerous, on the brink of collapse. It’s the perfect place for this film’s chase. The 10-minute sequence, designed by Hickman, required four weeks of guerrilla-style filming, its route running from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to the George Washington Bridge, then into New Jersey. Although Grosso was friendly with NYPD, the crew had to get shots when and where it could.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

“We were great at stealing shots,” D’Antoni explained. And there were a few close calls. During the chase, a stuntman opens the door of his parked car and Bill Hickman drives past, knocking the door off, which was rehearsed. But they didn’t anticipate that the door would fly at the camera crew, which had to move fast to avoid getting hit. Randy Jurgensen, technical advisor and another ex-cop who’d once partnered with Grosso, claimed the stunt drivers were even pulled over at gunpoint by the actual NYPD, because the officers believed the two had just robbed a bank: they were speeding, pursued by a helicopter, and wearing wigs.

D’Antoni adds to the riskiness and excitement of the film’s chase by keeping the cameras as close to the action as possible, and by endangering innocent bystanders (but only in the film, not on set). The moment when the drivers nearly mow down some kids was carefully choreographed, with cameras placed as close to the cars as possible to evoke the feeling of real danger. No one even tries to brake for the bystanders. The camera alternates between wide shots of the road and claustrophobic closeups on the actors, so we feel Bo’s determination, Moon’s fear (Richard Lynch’s genuine response to being Hickman’s passenger), and Buddy’s fury.

Once the men leave New York behind them and head onto U.S. Route 9, Moon and Bo pull in front of a Greyhound bus, out of Buddy’s sight. Moon gets his gun ready to fire at Buddy, but the bus driver alerts Buddy by honking. Buddy slows down just in time to dodge a bullet. His hood gets blown away instead, and he drives off-road. But Buddy comes back with a vengeance, hammering Hickman’s car with his own until a hubcap falls off. The Pontiacs reach a fork in the road, and Buddy notices a parked tractor trailer too late to stop.

20th Century Fox

The cast and crew had one chance to shoot this moment, the chase’s highlight: Buddy plows into the back of a parked tractor trailer, shearing off the top of his car in an instant. According to Hickman, the chase’s violent end was intended as a “tribute” to Jayne Mansfield, who died this way. In an interview with Louis Paul, Richard Lynch remembered: “Everybody stood by, and [stunt driver Jerry Summers] really plowed into that damn thing. It was one of the longest moments I can recall. Nobody moved. We waited, and then everybody started rushing to the car. He got a little hurt, the stuntman, he was a little damaged, he got a lot of glass damage. But for the most part, stuntmen know what they are doing.” As for Buddy Manucci, no matter how many times you’ve seen this chase, you still hold your breath when the truck driver peels back the dislodged, spiderwebbed windshield to see what’s become of him.

Just before the chase begins, Manucci finds Ansel—a cop who had just been talking to him about taking his oldest kid to get braces—beaten, bound, and near death in the trunk of a car, and Buddy’s raw emotion heightens the chase that follows. This isn’t just another cat-and-mouse game between an obsessive cop and criminal. It’s personal. Buddy is reckless, a man possessed, as he drives up onto the sidewalk, into a fruit cart, careens around corners, fishtails, and swerves around civilian cars.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

The chase shares its DNA with Bullitt and The French Connection, borrowing from their best moments, with cars that seem to fly down New York City’s crowded streets. What makes this chase work and what sets it apart from its predecessors is Buddy’s anger and grief. Buddy isn’t just working a case, he’s a man looking to avenge his friend. Scheider is one of the most likable actors of all time, and as Buddy Manucci, he’s complicated but sympathetic, a boy scout compared to Popeye Doyle, and we feel for him in and out of the driver’s seat.

D’Antoni expresses his reverence for realism in The Seven-Ups’ car chase. There were no gimmicks, no music, and almost no rehearsing, special equipment, or special effects. Just pure emotion, adrenaline, and roaring engines. Even if the drivers wanted to rehearse, they could only do most of their stunts once because they needed to preserve the cars, and if they’d shown anyone what they planned to do, no one would have let them do it.

Tony Lo Bianco explained the appeal of the film’s chase: “That’s why it looks so great, because most of it was for real.” Randy Jurgensen added, “What we did is what you saw.”

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

The chase; plus car wash scene (link):

https://www.tcm.com/video/1221410/seven-ups-the-1973-you-want-the-wax

Thank you! Now I need to go watch it; it literally just dawned on me as I’m typing this that I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on a big HDTV screen and certainly not with full-on surround. STOKED!!

 

[WhoaTed]

That was fun; bigger screen was great and sound was good but oh to imagine hearing it in true digital surround, it would’ve been awesome if the technology existed then.

 

[Tacoma Mud Flats]

@WhoaTed

To my ear, this version has much better audio if you want to try another go.



The rumor is the sound recorded for Bullitt was used for dubbing of this chase. To the trained ear, these are Ford sounds (and some Dodge Hemi sounds) not Pontiac. The movie had the same producer as Bullitt, so he likely had access to the Bullitt original mag tapes.

Philip D’Antoni had produced Bullitt and The French Connection. For the Seven-Ups he also directed (and interestingly, the first and only film he ever directed).

I just wonder how many cars it took to film this. The normal rule is three, two destroyed + spare.

That Grand Ville must have been two and a half tons!

I didn't realize this was Bill Hickmans last movie as a driver - he moved on to stunt coordination and died of lung cancer ten years later...

More, from a later article;

Cars, police, and a blond wig: How The Seven-Ups was shot in NYC​

Simon Hucknall
22 June 2022

“You cannot rehearse a chase in the city of New York. Once the police department see what you’re rehearsing, they’re not going to let you do it for real.” That was Randy Jurgensen, one of the stunt drivers in the 1973 thriller The Seven-Ups, talking about the production’s high-risk approach to shooting a car chase, which has now become legendary for its very real speed and danger.

Philip D’Antoni, the film’s producer, had form, too. Bullitt and The French Connection were already in his back catalog, both of which featured car action that put you not only in the driver’s seat but also on the edge of your seat. The fact that The Seven-Ups‘ sequence is matched with a great story (arguably the best of the lot) makes it even more entertaining today.

Taking its title from the elite police unit tasked with investigating major New York City crime, and based on a story by ex-cop Sonny Grosso, Buddy Manucci (Roy Scheider) leads the crack Seven-Ups team. When his childhood friend Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Bianco), one of Manucci’s “snitches,” uses a confidential police list to kidnap mobsters and hold them for ransom, he triggers a series of escalating conflicts. After one of the Seven-Ups is killed while working undercover, Manucci stops at nothing to bring Lucia to justice.

As in last month’s review of Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, the star cars in this film were the last of the full-fat models produced by Detroit, before outputs were strangled by U.S. emissions regulations. Manucci’s ride is a silver 1973 Pontiac Ventura Sprint hatchback, which suits his subdued, self-effacing character to a tee. Packing a 175-hp 5.7-liter V-8 into its GM X-body platform, the Ventura’s dual-exhaust soundtrack makes up for the slightly lackluster output.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox


But it’s used to full effect in the epic 10-minute car chase, the film’s center-piece. Starting in the Bronx, Manucci is in pursuit of two of the kidnappers who have just killed his fellow Seven-Up Ansel (Ken Kercheval). The bad guys, Bo and Moon (Bill Hickman and Richard Lynch), take flight in a Pontiac Grand Ville, a vast, 6.6-liter V-8–powered B-body that brings a new perspective to the benefits of vertical damper control as it powers through the mean streets of NYC.

Both cars were supplied by GM, and according to Jurgensen, were unmodified save for reinforced suspension. While stunt performer Gerry Summers doubled for Scheider in the Ventura, Hickman in the Grand Ville was already regarded as one of the greatest stunt drivers in the business (he’s the Charger’s driver in Bullitt). This was to be Hickman’s last film, and he acted as stunt coordinator, too.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox
Whereas Bullitt’s chase used a quiet, early-morning San Francisco as its backdrop, The Seven-Ups action unfolds through New York City streets teeming with cars and pedestrians. “We were great at stealing shots [when permission isn’t granted to film by city authorities],” said producer D’Antoni. “We would run the cars up 8th Avenue and [there we] just ran wild. Luckily, we had police protection around us. Like in The French Connection, we “knocked over” a few cars, and if it wasn’t for the police … we probably would have been arrested ourselves!”

Filming of the chase sequence alone took four weeks: exteriors, then POVs, and finally facial shots of the actors. But it’s the very real sight of the Pontiacs oversteering through city junctions mere feet away from unsuspecting pedestrians that leaves you agog at the sheer audacity of D’Antoni’s camera work.

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Permits were, though, granted for the chase to extend over New York’s George Washington Bridge, providing the cars didn’t exceed 45 mph. But according to Jurgensen, “civilian” cars were overtaking them in the first trials, so when they came to film it, the Pontiacs were driven at 70 mph and simply weaved between the public’s cars.

However, after missing a turn as the cameras continued to roll from the chase helicopter, they strayed into an area where police were unaware of the shoot. The Pontiacs were pulled over and their drivers held at gunpoint on the ground. “They thought we’d robbed a bank,” laughed Jurgensen. “And my blond wig [he’d been doubling for Richard Lynch] didn’t help matters!”

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

The chase’s final “gag” was fully planned, with nothing left to chance. After a high-speed automotive punch-up as the Pontiacs careen side-by-side down NY’s two-lane Pallisade Parkway, Manucci’s Ventura bears down on a truck and trailer parked at the side of the road. Blocked in by the Grand Ville, he can’t avoid it and impacts the unprotected rear of the trailer, peeling back the Ventura’s upper-body to its C-pillars but escaping death by throwing himself to the car’s floor. Gerry Summers performed the actual stunt, and according to Jurgensen, broke his nose. Otherwise, he emerged unscathed.