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Features - General
Giving Chase
Gumball!
Date Posted 10-27-2000
Imagine racing 2,900 miles from Times Square, New York to Long Beach, California in a mere 33 hours and 11 minutes (at an average of 86.38 mph), driving flat-out against the redline, with no holds barred and a police officer who will stop at nothing to keep you (and your fellow competitors) from finishing...and it's all for glory and a gumball machine.
Based upon the infamous Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, The Gumball Rally was the first of the cross-country road-race comedies (the Burt Reynolds Cannonball Run series following in Gumball's path) and is still the only good one, with genuinely funny characters, great cars, and loads of cartoon-like action.
Among the racers in the Gumball Rally are business executive Michael Bannon (Michael Sarrazin); his arch-rival, Smith (Tim McIntire); Le Mans champion Franco (Raul Julia), who finds time to sweet-talk numerous attractive women along the race route (including Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, Linda Vaughn); a beautiful model; a pair of Englishmen; Lapchik the crazed motorcyclist; a daredevil named Ace Preston (with a wild Texan sidekick, Gibson, played by a very young Gary Busey), who drives a 600-horsepower Camaro and a team of housewives in a Porsche Turbo Carrera.
The nemesis of these determined motorists is Lieutenant Roscoe, an equally-driven police officer who will stop at nothing to prevent the participants from reaching their goal -- the Queen Mary.
The flick is full of great one-liners, including Franco's first rule of Italian driving (while ripping the rearview mirror out of the Ferrari and tossing it aside): "What's behind me is not important," and Smith's toast to his competitors: "To internal combustion, and wind in the face."
The real stars of the show are the authentic Shelby 427 Cobra and Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder. If the sounds of these thundering beasts echoing off of New York skyscrapers doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand at attention, you need to have your pulse checked. There is no trick photography or "speeding up of film" in this flick. When the speedo reads 120-mph in the Cobra, you can believe it was doing 120.
One of the most memorable sequences features the Cobra (driven by Sarrazin) and the Ferrari (driven by Julia) racing in the Los Angeles River, slipping and sliding through the muck, and the rolling "pit stop," where Julia drives the Ferrari into a moving semi where a crew of mechanics perform a full service on the vehicle.
Built with a bevy of great automobiles, a good plot and decent comedy, Gumball Rally is one of the ultimate car movies of all time and a must-have for the automotive enthusiast. Released theatrically in New York City on August 20, 1976, the movie is currently available on VHS for home viewing through Reel.com for $12.99, gumballs not included. -- Scott W. Mead Running Time: 107 minutes
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