Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one is in the bag - thereby, the police precipitate in a desperate car chase against Pace and his Eleanor across Southern California.

Director:

H.B. Halicki

Writer:

H.B. Halicki

Stars:

H.B. Halicki, Marion Busia, Jerry Daugirda

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
H.B. Halicki	...	Maindrian Pace
Marion Busia	...	Pumpkin Chase
Jerry Daugirda	...	Eugene Chase
James McIntyre	...	Stanley Chase
George Cole	...	Atlee Jackson
Ronald Halicki	...	Corlis Pace
Markos Kotsikos	...	Uncle Joe Chase
Parnelli Jones	...	Parnelli Jones
Gary Bettenhausen	...	Himself
Jonathan E. Fricke	...	KFOX Interviewer
Hal McClain	...	KFOX Announcer
J.C. Agajanian
J.C. Agajanian Jr.	...	Light Blue Unmarked Detective
Christopher J.C. Agajanian	...	Himself
Billy Englehart	...	Billy

Storyline

Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace and his team lead double-lives as unstoppable car thieves. When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one, a 1973 Ford Mustang, are in the bag. As Pace prepares to rip-off the fastback, codenamed "Eleanor", in Long Beach, he is unaware that his boss has tipped off the police after a business dispute. Detectives are waiting and pursue Pace through five cities as he desperately tries to get away.

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Plot Keywords:

named car | coors beer | marijuana smoking | cigar smoking | telephone call | 

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Taglines:

See 93 cars destroyed in the most incredible pursuit ever filmed

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

maintained by writer/director's widow

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 July 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gone in Sixty Seconds

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Harbor, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$40,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

H.B. Halicki Mercantile

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 93 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono Dolby (DVD re-release) DTS (DVD re-release)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ronald Halicki, the director's real-life brother and Corlis Pace in the film, operated the crane that lifted "Jill", the red Challenger, to its fate in the car-crusher at the junkyard.

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Goofs

When the chase forces Billy's Cadillac to crash, the 1970 Long Beach PD Dodge Coronet patrol car leading the pursuit swerves off & is seemingly out of chase. In the very next scene when the pursuit passes an interview with Carson mayor Sak Yamamoto during an opening ceremony the Coronet is back in being the lead pursuit car again.

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Quotes

Long Beach Female Dispatcher: [over radio] 1-Baker-11, are you still with the pursuit?
1-Baker-11 detective: Where in the hell's she think we've been? Out to coffee?
1-Baker-11 detective: [wearily] Ohh!

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Crazy Credits

The ending credits in the 2001 DVD release features footage of H.B. Halicki's widow, Denice Shakarian Halicki, riding in "Eleanor."

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Alternate Versions

The Norweigian version, at least when released theatrically, concluded at the end of the "big jump" scene, where Eleanor spins out to the song "Big Town, Big City". Everything afterward was removed, because the Norweigian censors did not want the bad guy to get away, as Maindrian does in the film. The scene optically turns white, then cuts straight to the end credits.

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Connections

Featured in Laserdisc Memories: The Criterion Collection (2010)

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Soundtracks

Big Town, Big City
Music and Lyrics by Ronald Halicki and Philip Kachaturian
Sung by Philip Kachaturian

User Reviews

The best car-chase film of all time

The original "Gone In 60 Seconds" will be remembered by many viewers as the best car-chase film of all time. It will also be remembered as the film that featured lots of destroyed cars in a 40 minute chase. As said in the film's IMDb trivia: "93 cars are crashed in this 97 minute movie."

The best part of this whole movie is the 40-minute chase scene. So many cars are crashed and destroyed during the chase, including original city police cars. What's more, the chase scene had absolutely NO special effects, meaning that all the crashes and smashes were real. Furthermore, H.B. Halicki himself wrote, directed, and starred in the movie. He even drove the "star car" (the Mustang) throughout the chase!

My only negative comment about the film is that the beginning of the movie is very slow; so slow that you may be very eager to get to the 40-minute chase scene. However, if you have the DVD, you can just watch the film starting from the chase scene if you want to.

Overall, this movie had an awesome chase scene. It is the best chase scene ever filmed in a movie. It has to be seen to be believed.

P.S: This movie is much much better than the awful remake.