Litter Box Treasures: THE GUMBALL RALLY (1976)

In Litter Box Treasures, we focus on a variety of older films which aren’t necessarily classics, but are well-worth discovering.

THE GUMBALL RALLY (1976)

Starring Michael Sarrazin, Tim McIntire, Normann Burton, Raul Julia, Gary Busey, Nicholas Pryor, Harvey Jason, Susan Flannery, John Durren, J. Pat O'Malley, Vaughn Taylor, Steven Keats, Wally Taylor, Joanne Nail, Tricia O'Neal, Lazaro Perez. Directed by Chuck Bail. (105 min).

ESSAY BY D.M. ANDERSON💀

The Gumball Rally evokes really fond memories, so please indulge me if I give this film more praise than the genre generally warrants.

Nearly every week as a kid, I'd hit the Cinema V, a local second-run theater near my house, to catch double-bills for less than a buck. Sometimes I biked there, other times Mom or Dad would drop me off with a friend. The place was old, dank and sold Milk Duds dating back to the Middle Ages. As hang-outs go, it was second only to 7-Eleven as the most wonderful place in the world. That's where I first caught The Gumball Rally (with a Vanishing Point chaser). I'd seen plenty of car chase movies before - which had their heyday in the 70s - but this one struck a chord with me and remains one of my childhood favorites.

On the other hand, maybe it does warrant more acknowledgment & praise than its relative obscurity suggests.

Superficially, The Gumball Rally is just another car chase movie made during a decade rife with them. It has most of the same ingredients...hot cars, outlaw antiheroes, idiot cops, sexy babes, a plot with the complexity of Go Dog Go and, naturally, plenty of high-speed motorporn. A few of these crash-fests went on to become cult classics - like the aforementioned Vanishing Point - but most were brain-dead junk food made on-the-cheap and destined to be forgotten within weeks of their release.

But while The Gumball Rally walks & talks like its contemporaries, beneath its turbo-charged exterior beats the heart of old-fashioned madcap comedies like The Great Race, Monte Carlo or Bust and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (with a dash of Looney Tunes). The humor is broad, silly...even a little corny. But the whole thing is constantly good-natured and what little violence there is is strictly of the slapstick variety. In fact, if not for the preponderance of boob jokes, this could (almost) pass muster as a family film.

What's wrong with this picture?
(That's right...the driver on the right doesn't have insurance)

Unusual for the genre - at least until Burt Reynolds went into the Smokey and the Bandit business - the film boasts an impressive ensemble cast consisting of respected character actors, led by Michael Sarrazin (channeling his inner Peter Fonda...and a bit of Bugs Bunny thrown in for good measure). The fun they have with their characters (no matter how broadly drawn) is infectious. A young Raul Julia steals the show as oversexed Italian race driver Franco - Pepe Le Pew personified - while Normann Burton makes a perfect Wile E. Coyote (beleaguered expression and all) as the hapless Lt. Roscoe.

Though The Gumball Rally is played strictly for laughs, it doesn't skimp on high-speed thrills, which are expertly choreographed and shot, with far better production values than the average chase film of the time. It's all punctuated by a music score that combines ragtime, jazz and what resembles music from a Quinn Martin cop show. Yet somehow it fits, going a long way in establishing the jovial tone of the entire movie.

Sure, I may be biased, but what can't be disputed is the movie's influence. Not only was The Gumball Rally was the first of a wave of similar films depicting an illegal coast-to-coast road race (all inferior rip-offs), it eventually inspired real-life racing events all over the world, the most famous being the annual Gumball 3000, still held in Europe each year. Additionally, the MiceChat Gumball Rally is a yearly event at Disneyland, where fans compete to see who can ride the most attractions in a single day.

Not bad for a silly chase comedy hardly anyone recalls. For me, the movie is a nostalgic trip down memory lane that I take about once a year. I may not laugh as boisterously as I did at 13, sitting in the back row of that decrepit old Cinema V, but The Gumball Rally still brings a smile to my face.

THE GUMBALL RALLY vs. Duran Duran

Starring Michael Sarrazin, Nicholas Pryor, Tim McIntire, Raul Julia, Norman Burton, Gary Busey, Susan Flannery, J. Pat O’Malley, Harvey Jason, Steven Keats, Joanne Nail. Directed by Charles Bail. (1976, 105 min).

Since discovering eardrum-shattering thunder of Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and Kiss as a kid, I’ve been a loyal and die hard heavy metal fan. Mom and Dad hated it, of course (“That’s not music! It’s just noise and screaming!”), but not only did it truly speak to me, there was something innately appealing about the fact that, with few exceptions, metal music flourished outside the mainstream like weeds punching through the cracks in your driveway.

Metal fans were, and still are, a fickle bunch, reveling in our favorite artists’ relative obscurity and making us unique among the mindless masses blindly-swallowing the latest digestible pop hit (sort-of like today’s hipsters, only without sandals). In 1978, when you bumped into someone who shared your love of Van Halen’s debut album (before the were superstars), you were instant kindred spirits.

We were an exclusive & elitist club with strict rules. With a few notable exceptions (Pat Benatar, Billy Squire, Red Ryder, The Cars, Billy Idol and others whose early songs had respect-worthy guitar riffs), we were unofficially required to declare utter contempt of anything resembling disco, new wave, country, R&B or pop (especially once MTV became a cultural phenomenon).

One of those contemptible banes on modern music was Duran Duran, five English pretty boys with big hair, great looks and flashy videos, part of the so-called ‘New Romantic’ genre of English pop. In the metal camp, they represented the worst aspects of popular music…homogenized, image-driven singles calculated to make teenage girls swoon (much like One Direction today). Duran Duran were the de-facto poster boys of everything headbangers hated. 

But unlike modern boy-bands cynically assembled to dance and croon generic pop tunes written by their managers, Duran Duran wrote all their own songs and played every instrument. They were good musicians who simply had the misfortune of being drop-dead gorgeous.

For me, regularly-worshiping at the alter of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, I became distressed upon the realization that Duran Duran actually had some great fucking songs. Were they works or art? Maybe not, but a lot of them were mindlessly catchy and sounded great blasting from my car stereo. But I could never admit that out-loud. I’d already chosen sides, oft-declaring my disgust for this type of processed pop. Still, I privately found myself cranking up “The Reflex” whenever it popped up on the radio, feeling like a hypocrite. 

As I grew older and more mature, I lightened up on the whole us-against-the-world metal mentality. It was okay to admit I probably always liked U2, Blondie, Cyndi Lauper and Prince. But Duran Duran? Their lingering stigma as a ‘boy band’ later had me asking my wife (who always loved them) to buy their newest album for me because I was embarrassed to admit “Ordinary World” was one of the greatest songs I ever heard. 

Like Duran Duran’s synth-pop heyday, The Gumball Rally (1976) is a dumb car chase comedy made during a decade rife with them. I seriously doubt a month went by when there wasn’t a film in theaters featuring mindless auto-destruction, broad humor, hot chicks and super-cool antiheroes out-driving legions of cops so dumb they make The Simpsons’ Chief Wiggum look like Frank Serpico. This disreputable genre’s popularity peaked with 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit, one of the few chase films released by a major studio with a cast of A-list actors. 

That sumbitch switched lanes without signaling!

These movies were brainless crash-fests designed to appeal to yahoos who got-off on destruction, boobs and slapstick. The Gumball Rally, depicting an illegal coast-to-coast road race, was simply one of them, much like A Flock of Seagulls was one of countless synth-pop bands to rock the 80s. Being 13 and relatively undemanding, I found The Gumball Rally a lot of fun, laughing aloud at the cartoony characters, broad humor and amusing - though totally preposterous - chase scenes. Michael Sarrazin, who previously achieved some notoriety as a decent character actor, oozed onscreen cool, even though he was aping Peter Fonda. The Gumball Rally also features a few actors who’d go on to find much-greater fame later on (Gary Busey, Raul Julia). 

As I grew supposedly more sophisticated, I left childhood pleasures behind, including movies which have not aged too well (like Grizzly, Heavy Metal and Meatballs). Shortly after Smokey and the Bandit cleaned-up at the box office and films like Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Road Warrior redefined the action genre, these old car chase flicks seemed stupid and archaic. 

While I now scoff at some films I found awesome as a kid, there’s still a soft spot in my heart for The Gumball Rally, even though I generally hate films loaded with slapstick humor, exaggerated characters and gratuitous scenes where the camera lingers on breasts longer than it should. I’ve since-fancied myself as a knowledgeable & pretentious movie snob, but must confess I still occasionally pop this film into by DVD player and find amusement in the same type of humor I normally declare offensively-stupid, once-again rendering me a hypocrite. For reasons I can’t explain, The Gumball Rally simply rubs me the right way, much like the music of Duran Duran.

It must have rubbed a lot of other people the right way, too. Though the film was inspired by a real-life cross-country rally organized by auto-enthusiast Brock Yates, similar races have since incorporated the “gumball” moniker. Even Disneyland holds a similar MiceChat Gumball Rally, where participants compete to determine who can ride the most rides in a single day, and the winner receives a trophy strikingly similar to the one shown in The Gumball Rally.

On an ironic sidenote, The Gumball Rally was financed by First Artists, a production company formed by Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Sidney Poitier, Dustin Hoffman & Steve McQueen with the purpose of giving artists more creative control. This company didn’t exist long (1969-1980), but The Gumball Rally (featuring none of these stars) was one of their most profitable films. 

Blu-Ray Review: THE GUMBALL RALLY

Starring Michael Sarrazin, Tim McIntire, Normann Burton, Raul Julia, Gary Busey, Nicholas Pryor, Harvey Jason, Susan Flannery, John Durren, J. Pat O'Malley, Vaughn Taylor, Steven Keats, Wally Taylor, Joanne Nail, Tricia O'Neal, Lazaro Perez. Directed by Chuck Bail. (1976, 105 min).

WARNER ARCHIVE

The Gumball Rally evokes really fond memories, so please indulge me if I give this Blu-Ray release a higher rating than it might warrant.

Nearly every week, I'd hit the Cinema V, a local second-run theater near my house, to catch double-bills for less than a buck. Sometimes I biked there, other times Mom or Dad would drop me off with a friend. The place was old, dank and sold Milk Duds dating back to the Middle Ages. As hang-outs go, it was second only to 7-Eleven as the most wonderful place in the world. That's where I first caught The Gumball Rally (with a Vanishing Point chaser). I'd seen plenty of car chase movies before - which had their heyday in the 70s - but this one struck a chord with me and remains one of my childhood favorites.

On the other hand, maybe it does warrant more acknowledgment & praise than its relative obscurity suggests.

Can you spot what's wrong with this picture? (That's right...the guys on the left forgot their proof of insurance)

On the surface, The Gumball Rally is just another car chase movie made during a decade rife with them. It has most of the same ingredients...hot cars, outlaw antiheroes, idiot cops, sexy babes, a plot with the complexity of Go Dog Go and, naturally, plenty of high-speed motorporn. A few of these crash-fests went on to become cult classics - like the aforementioned Vanishing Point - but most were brain-dead junk food made on-the-cheap and destined to be forgotten within weeks of their release.

But consider this...

While The Gumball Rally walks & talks like its contemporaries, beneath its turbo-charged exterior beats the heart of old-fashioned madcap comedies like The Great Race, Monte Carlo or Bust and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (with a dash of Looney Tunes). The humor is broad, silly...even a little corny. But the whole thing is constantly good-natured and what little violence there is is strictly of the slapstick variety. In fact, if not for the preponderance of boob jokes, this could (almost) pass muster as a family film.

Mr. Burton sometimes takes his pants off to play checkers.

Unusual for the genre - at least until Burt Reynolds went into the Smokey and the Bandit business - the film boasts an impressive ensemble cast consisting of respected character actors, led by Michael Sarrazin (channeling his inner Peter Fonda...and a bit of Bugs Bunny thrown in for good measure). The fun they have with their characters (no matter how broadly drawn) is infectious. A young Raul Julia steals the show as oversexed Italian race driver Franco - Pepe Le Pew personified - while Normann Burton makes a perfect Wile E. Coyote (beleaguered expression and all) as the hapless Lt. Roscoe.

Though The Gumball Rally is played strictly or laughs, it doesn't skimp on high-speed thrills, which are expertly choreographed and shot, with far better production values than the average chase film of the time. It's all punctuated by a music score that combines ragtime, jazz and what resembles music from a Quinn Martin cop show. Yet somehow it fits, going a long way in establishing the jovial tone of the entire movie.

One of The Gumball Rally's many esoteric moments.

Sure, I may be biased, but what can't be disputed is the movie's influence. Not only was The Gumball Rally was the first of a wave of similar films depicting an illegal coast-to-coast road race (all inferior rip-offs), it eventually inspired real-life racing events all over the world, the most famous being the annual Gumball 3000, still held in Europe each year. Additionally, the MiceChat Gumball Rally is a yearly event at Disneyland, where fans compete to see who can ride the most attractions in a single day.

Not bad for a silly chase comedy hardly anyone recalls.

But for me, the movie is a nostalgic trip down memory lane that I take about once a year. I may not laugh as boisterously as I did at 13, sitting in the back row of that decrepit old Cinema V, but The Gumball Rally still brings a smile to my face. While this Blu-Ray from Warner Archive has no bonus features other than a trailer, this goofy old chestnut has never looked better on home video.

EXTRA KIBBLES

Trailer

KITTY CONSENSUS:

MEE-OW! LIKE TAUNTING A MOUSE TO DEATH

The SOUTHGATE QUAD CINEMA

Since no full photo of the Southgate seems to exist, this is a rendering by the author as he remembers it from the mid-to-late 1970s.

A Recollection (and artist’s rendering) by D.M. ANDERSON🎬

The Southgate Quad Cinema opened in Milwaukie, Oregon in 1973. Boxy, puke colored and located off an expressway in the middle of an industrial area, it wasn't much to look at. But since it was mere minutes from my house (10 by car, 30 by bike), the Southgate is where I saw many of the films I grew up with (and remain personal favorites), including The Towering Inferno, Jaws, The Omen, Three Days of the Condor, Sorcerer, Black Sunday, Prophecy, The Gumball Rally, countless B-movies and the re-release of Star Wars.

My last visit was to see Star Trek: Insurrection in 1998. By then, the Southgate was weathered, run-down and archaic compared to the multiplexes that had sprung up all over town. It finally closed for good a few years later and was unceremoniously demolished shortly after…another childhood haunt now gone and forgotten. Except by me, of course. The Southgate was where I went on my first-ever date, mastered the art of theater-hopping and made movies a major part of my life. Theaters these days are bigger, louder and more comfortable, but sometimes I still miss that old place.

A magazine feature about the Southgate Quad Cinema, shortly after it first opened.

The Brawling Babes of SWITCHBLADE SISTERS

SWITCHBLADE SISTERS (Blu-ray Review)

1975 / 91 min

FROM ARROW VIDEO

Review by Tiger the Terrible😼

Of course, one could easily argue that without Quentin Tarantino’s ringing endorsement, Switchblade Sisters would have faded into relative obscurity, simply one of countless other ‘70s exploitation flicks promising to serve-up sex and violence in equal measures. 

That’s not really intended as criticism, since the film is actually pretty-well made for a brawling babes B-movie. But the fact remains it was Tarantino’s stamp-of-approval which prompted fans, cultists, critics and historians alike to re-assess this film’s importance, influence and - perhaps most significantly - themes of female empowerment.

After viewing Switchblade Sisters for the first time, I doubt co-writer director Jack Hill had anything but profit in-mind. Still, I was a bit surprised that, for a film loaded with gangs, guns and girls, Hill obviously has more reverence and respect for his female characters than the male ones, who are simplistically depicted as thugs, horndogs, dim-bulbs or cannon fodder. 

The girls are mostly cartoon caricatures, too, especially gang leader Lace, comically overplayed by Robbie Lee. But the big difference is that they’re strong, assertive and - despite some hot-for-the-70s outfits and an implied rape - aren’t really exploited for their visual assets. In fact, if it weren’t for the language, the film might even squeak by with a PG-13 rating today. Maybe it's that aspect which ultimately left its indelible mark on someone like Tarantino, who’s always created strong, sexy female characters without ever actually sexualizing them.

"Bitch, these ARE my jammies!"

But aside from all that, Switchblade Sisters is pretty entertaining if viewed in the context of its era, with a pseudo-grittiness more akin to an intense Afterschool Special (remember those?) than an authentic look at gang life. And that’s okay because - high-minded retrospective analogies notwithstanding - the film makes no pretense beyond creating cheap thrills at a cheap price. As such, it’s ultimately one of Jack Hill’s better films. On a personal note, since I once had a brief boyhood crush on Joanna Nail, who plays Maggie, it was kinda cool finally seeing her in something besides The Gumball Rally.

In addition to a pretty impressive transfer, Arrow Video includes another fun batch of bonus features. Most of them are older but no-less interesting, some of which might help the viewer appreciate the film a bit more. Speaking of which, I’m kinda surprised the audio commentary Tarantino did for a previous DVD wasn’t carried over to this one. He is the movie’s biggest fan, after all.

EXTRA KIBBLES

“WE ARE THE JEZEBELS” - An entertaining 40-minute doc featuring interviews with director Jack Hill, producer John Prizer, stunt Coordinator Bob Minor, production designer B.B. Neal and actors Joanna Nail, Asher Brayner & Chase Newhart.

ARCHIVAL 1990 INTERVIEW - Director Jack Hill and actors Robbie Lee & Joanna Nail.

ARCHIVAL 2007 INTERVIEW - Director Jack Hill and actor Joanna Nail.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By historians/critics Samm Deighan & Kat Ellinger. It’s definitely worth a listen, but it’s too bad the commentary Tarantino did for the original DVD release isn’t included.

TRAILERS - From various Jack Hill-directed films, including The Jezebels (this film’s original title).

PHOTO, POSTER, LOBBY CARD & HOME VIDEO GALLERIES

SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKLET - Featuring two retrospective essays and a new interview with director Jack Hill. Also includes photos, cast & crew credits, Blu-ray credits.

REVERSIBLE COVER - Features new and vintage cover art (we kinda like the new one!).

KITTY CONSENSUS:

NOT BAD.

HESTER STREET: Let's Hear it for Steven Keats

HESTER STREET (Blu-ray Review)

1975 / 90 min

FROM COHEN MEDIA GROUP

Review by Mr. Paws😸

There’s a big list of lesser-known character actors who, for one reason or another (and sometimes no reason), I have always found interesting. One such guy was Steven Keats, who appeared in a handful of movies from the ‘70s that I admire very much, such as Black Sunday, Death Wish, The Friends of Eddie Coyle…even the lowbrow car chase comedy, The Gumball Rally (a childhood favorite). 

Sadly, Keats passed away in 1994 at the age of 49 (from an apparent suicide). But even today, whenever he pops up as a guest star in an old TV rerun - which he did a lot of in his later career - I perk up a little. There’s just something about the guy’s screen presence that has always intrigued me.

While Hester Street is mostly remembered for Carol Kane’s Oscar-nominated performance, it’s also the only film to feature Keats in a leading role, that of Jake, a philandering Jewish immigrant who has enthusiastically assimilated himself into American culture during the three years he’s lived there. Though he has a decent job, Jake not-only takes-in co-worker Bernstein (Mel Howard) as a boarder, he borrows money from mistress Mamie (Dorrie Kavannaugh) to furnish his tiny apartment.

Jake’s also kind of a self-absorbed bastard, as revealed when he grudgingly arranges for wife Gitl (Kane) and young son Yossele to join him from Russia (which, of course, doesn’t sit well with Mamie). He treats Gitl coldly, is verbally abusive and overtly resentful at her reluctance to be more “American.” During the course of 90 minutes, Jake goes from outwardly charming to someone we despise, and Keats absolutely nails it. It’s a shame this role didn’t lead to bigger things.

"It's called the Hand Slap Game, son."

Still, Hester Street is ultimately Gitl’s story. She confides and seeks advice from Bernstein and outspoken neighbor, Mrs. Kavarsky (Doris Roberts), coming out of her shell and arguably becoming more independent than Jake. Kane gives a remarkable performance, conveying (by turns) helplessness, uncertainty, pride in her heritage and quiet resolve. And despite what she's forced to endure at her husband’s hands, it’s ultimately a charming, lighthearted story that also serves as a snapshot of Jewish immigrant culture during the turn of the last century. 

Considering the low budget, the authentic production design is pretty remarkable and given an atmospheric boost by writer-director Joan Micklin Silver's decision to shoot the film in black and white. Speaking of how it looks, Hester Street has been nicely restored for this Blu-ray release, which also includes several interesting bonus features related to the production. But most importantly, here’s everyone’s chance to appreciate the late Steven Keats’ unheralded career as much as I do.

EXTRA KIBBLES

CONVERSATIONS FROM THE QUAD - Archival interview with writer-director Joan Micklin Silver.

INTERVIEWS - Individual interviews with actor Carol Kane, actor Doris Roberts, director Joan Micklin Silver & producer Raphael D. Silver (Joan’s husband).

AUDIO COMMENTARY - by director Joan Micklin Silver & producer Raphael D. Silver 

ALTERNATE OPENING - with commentary by Silver biographer Daniel Kremer.

RESTORATION TRAILER