Snowball Express (1972)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Norman Tokar

Writers:

Don Tait (screenplay) and
Jim Parker (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

26 March 1973 (Brazil)

Genre:

Comedy | Family

Tagline:

It's the funniest SKI-FOR-ALL!

Plot:

When John Baxter inherits a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains, he quits his job in New York and moves the family west to run it...

Plot Keywords:

Snowmobile Race | Banker | Broken Arm | Dog | Ski Instructor

Cast

Dean Jones	...	Johnny Baxter
Nancy Olson	...	Sue Baxter
Harry Morgan	...	Jesse McCord
Keenan Wynn	...	Martin Ridgeway
Johnny Whitaker	...	Richard Baxter
Michael McGreevey	...	Wally Perkins
George Lindsey	...	Double L. Dingman
Kathleen Cody	...	Chris Baxter
Mary Wickes	...	Miss Wigginton
David White	...	Mr. Fowler
Dick Van Patten	...	Mr. Carruthers
Alice Backes	...	Miss Ogelvie
Joanna Phillips	...	Naomi Voight
John Myhers	...	Mr. Manescue

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:U | Iceland:L | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Crested Butte, Colorado, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Quotes:

Jesse McCord: [after plunging through a snowbank into a mine tunnel] We dead?
Johnny Baxter: I didn't want to be the first to mention it.
Jesse McCord: Johnny, I hate to add to your troubles, but it's getting hotter.
Johnny Baxter: [Whispered] It sure is.
Jesse McCord: Must be that go-round I had with the widow Corzine. But heck, that was 20 years ago, and she started it.

Trivia about Snowball Express

Just a couple of comments about Snowball Express. Call it "trivia" if you like. The movie was filmed in Crested Butte, Colorado. I lived half-way between Crested Butte and Gunnison, CO at a place called Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery. I lived there as a kid when the movie was made. My best memory of the movie being made was the scene where Wally (Michael McGreevey) gets stuck in the tree on the cliff and Dean Jones comes to rescue him. This was actually filmed on a cliff along Highway 135 north of Almont, CO about halfway to Crested Butte. I know this because it was right across the highway from Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery and we watched the scene being filmed. As I recall it took a number of days to film the scene and it required traffic to be stopped for each take as the cliff was right over the highway. (This cliff is now gone as the highway has been re-aligned.) In a brief moment in the scene you can see the buildings of Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery where my dad worked. As another trivia bit, I can remember the snow mobile was on display for the open of the movie in the local Gunnison theater.

See part of this movie made was great fun a kid growing up there. I recently bought a DVD of the movie and my kids now love it. Of course, they are very interested to see the old Crested Butte I knew as a kid and they especially like the "cliff rescue" scene.