Viva Knievel! (1977)

Motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel is offered a fortune to perform in Mexico. What Evel doesn't know is that they're planning to kill him and use his body to ship cocaine into the U.S. His ... See full summary »

Director:

Gordon Douglas

Writers:

Antonio Santillán (screenplay), Norman Katkov (screenplay),

Stars:

Evel Knievel, Gene Kelly, Lauren Hutton

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Evel Knievel	...	Himself
Gene Kelly	...	Will Atkins
Lauren Hutton	...	Kate Morgan
Red Buttons	...	Ben Andrews
Leslie Nielsen	...	Stanley Millard
Cameron Mitchell	...	Barton
Frank Gifford	...	Himself
Eric Olson	...	Tommy Atkins
Sheila Allen	...	Sister Charity
Albert Salmi	...	Cortland
Dabney Coleman	...	Ralph Thompson
Ernie F. Orsatti	...	Norman Clark (as Ernie Orsatti)
Sidney Clute	...	Andy
Robert Tafur	...	Governor Garcia
Marjoe Gortner	...	Jessie

Storyline

Motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel is offered a fortune to perform in Mexico. What Evel doesn't know is that they're planning to kill him and use his body to ship cocaine into the U.S. His chief mechanic, who is an alcoholic, is weary of the whole thing and discovers something, but before he can tell Evel he is sent to a rehab clinic for drug addicts, which Evel doesn't believe he is. He goes to see him who tells Evel what he found out but is still in the dark as what is happening.

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Plot Keywords:

stunt | fan | mechanic | mexico | spectator | 

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Taglines:

The one and only real live Evel Knievel in his first dramatic movie role.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Biography | Crime

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

June 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

Seconds to Live

Filming Locations:

Veterans Memorial Stadium - 508 E. Lew Davis Street, Long Beach, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Sherrill C. Corwin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There is a scene where Evel spots his friend and competitor Jessie (Marjoe Gortner), and races his bike up to him head-on, and Jessie (on foot) leaps over Evel's bike. This is actually a stunt that Evel used to do in his very early daredevil days (as the jumper), and even got seriously hurt once doing it.

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Quotes

Ralph Thompson: This is an American facility and we only deal with Americans.
Evel Knieval: Boy, you're too good to be true.

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Connections

Edited into E! True Hollywood Story: Evel Knievel (2004)

User Reviews

God's only begotten sky-cyclist

In VIVA KNIEVEL, the daredevil foils a drug shipment, charms a Mother Superior, reunites a long-estranged father and son, inspires crippled children to walk, woos a feminist news photographer and makes a 150-foot jump over a cage full of lions. Not all at once, however.

Robert Craig Knievel was one of his era's most singular pop culture figures, an endless self-promoter whose failures (e.g. his aborted 1974 Snake River Canyon jump) drew more media hype than almost anyone else's successes. A well-marketed, low-budget Knievel biopic starring George Hamilton did great at the box office in the early 1970s, so it was assumed the real Evel would also pack them into the theaters. But Knievel, unlike a Babe Ruth or Muhammad Ali, has no genuine on-camera magnetism and many of his line readings are horrid; trying to get Red Buttons to pay up on a debt, Evel says flatly, "You stole from me (long, long pause)... PROMOTER."

A quintessential 1970s cast (in fact, three POSEIDON ADVENTURE survivors appear here) includes a poorly-wigged Gene Kelly as Evel's alcoholic mechanic, a pre-AIRPLANE! Leslie Nielsen as the drug kingpin, Marjoe Gortner (take my word for it, kids, he was big in the 1970s) as Evel's protégé-turned-druggie and Lauren Hutton as the women's lib photographer who F-stops her way into Evel's heart.