Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

"The Original Basher! "93 Cars Destroyed in 40 Minutes!" - video box tag-lines for "Gone in 60 Seconds"

H.B. Halicki must have been a huge fan of Orson Welles. For his low-budget, car-chase, cheesy film "Gone in 60 Seconds," he served as writer, producer, director, star and stunt coordinator. And much like some of Welles films, Halicki's finished product is a muddled mess that has no rhyme or reason. Unlike Welles, however, Halicki must have made tons of money with this effort.

1968's "Bullitt" seems to have started the car-chase movie genre. It's scenes filmed on the streets of San Francisco now stand as the ultimate testament to how exciting automobiles can be as movie stars. With this in mind, Halicki only lists one star in his opening credits, Elanore, a 1970's yellow Ford Mustang. When the end credits roll, we wish he would list all the cars here as stars and not waste our time with the real people who act here as not one of the names in the film's end credits (Marion Busia, George Cole, James McIntyre, Jerry Daugirda) is recognizable.

Oddly, at the time I watched this film (June, 1994), The Beastie Boys had just released a video for their song "Sabotage" that plays out as an homage/spoof to 70's TV cop shows like "Starsky and Hutch" and "Streets of San Francisco." It also oddly echos an effect Halicki uses here. Namely, topping the stars in goofy, ill-fitting, silver wigs. See, in Halicki's flick, his car robbers are also insurance adjusters, so they wear the wigs as a disguise - just in case anyone sees them ripping off a set of wheels. Of course, it takes a good 30 minutes to figure this out.

"Gone in 60 Seconds" makes no sense whatsoever. Halicki uses voice-over, looped-in dialogue for more than 50% of the film and some of the conversations we get are as pointless as the visuals. The story has no real logical line to follow so it meanders mercilessly. From what we can figure out, the group of thieves we see here (led by Maindrain Pace - and played by Halicki himself) have entered into a contract to steal 40 cars in just a few days. When Pace destroys a stolen car full of drugs (because? - he's a good guy?), one of his associates tips-off the police as to when and where the next grand-theft-auto will occur. When the cops catch Pace in the act, he leads them on a 40 minute car-crashing romp through several towns in southern California. When the chase ends, the film ends - without even bothering to tie up any of it's loose ends.

The film's low-budget quality isn't really the problem here. Actually, Halicki spent a lot of cash to destroy tons of cars during the film. And while the final car-chase has moments of interest, it's lackadaisical approach to logic and cinematics usually defeats it.

And, of course, the film takes forever to get to it's meaty climax. After numerous unintelligible conversations, we see a few cars being stolen. Then, right before the car chase, we get a silly musical number called "Lois Lane's Blues" where we are treated to shots of Pace looking over the stockpile of car's he has stolen inter-cut with shots of his secretary sitting at her desk and tossing her enormous hair- do to and fro. It is silly and unintentionally amusing in it's pointlessness.

Finally, during the chase, we are treated to several on- the-street interviews supposedly conducted by a radio station called K-Fox. Halicki must have known someone in the business because the shots inside the radio station look authentic. Also, during the chase, we are treated to 6 black youths (with huge afros) driving around and getting stoned. These kids are used for (supposed) comic relief much in the way blacks were used for comic relief in Hollywood's heyday. It is all pretty racist by today's standards.

The point here is this: "Gone in 60 Seconds" is hardly worth watching today. The film's plot is unintelligible, the acting is horribly bland, and the car chase lags compared to later efforts from Hollywood. It even lags compared to other low-budget efforts in the genre. "Gone in 60 Seconds" takes 90+ minutes to play out, then it is gone from memory almost immediately afterwards.

Note: The film's video box (Video Treasures - 1990) claims that during the car chase "93 cars were demolished at a cost of over $250,000."

Other car chase movies include "Gumball Rally" (1976), "Eat my Dust" (1976), "Death Race 2000" (1975) and it's sequel "Deathsport" (1978) "Cannonball" (1976) - all of these associated with Roger Corman in one way or another - as well as "Cannonball Run" (1981), "Cannonball Run 2" (1984), "The French Connection" (1971) "The French Connection 2" (1975) and "The Chase" (1994) - among numerous others.

Review written in 1994

Report Card

Script: F

Acting: F

Cinematography\Lighting: D+

Special Effects\Make Up: D+

Music: D

Final Grade: F