Grand Theft Auto

Paula Powers and Sam Freeman (Ron Howard) shock her rich parents with news of their engagement. Her father Bigby Powers is running for governor and they forbid it. She sneaks out from her room and steals the family Rolls-Royce driving off for Vegas. Her mother informs unrequited suitor Collins Hedgeworth who goes on the chase. After a couple of crashes, Collins offers a reward over the radio and the mad chase go into high gear.

This is Ron Howard's full length directorial debut. He's calling in plenty of favors including Marion Ross. The plot is only an excuse to put on a cross-country car chase like "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". The female lead Nancy Morgan is sufficient but nothing special. It's all about the car action. There are lots of crashes and destruction. Howard is doing a few good camera shots but it's nothing revolutionary. For a first time effort, this movie shows his professionalism and excellence before his years. It also shows that action is not going to be his forte. He can have some fun but he's not changing the way car chases are done.

Before Ron Howard made his most famous movies, he started with this ultra-wacky car chase story. Sam Freeman (Howard) and Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan) try to announce their marriage plans to her parents', but the latter refuse to accept it. So, Sam and Paula run away in a car. As the story progresses, the whole situation snowballs. That is, more and more people get drug in. And of course, a bunch of cars get wrecked. Much like in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", everyone drives in every direction at top speed, damn the peripheral consequences.

One thing that really caught my eye was that Marion Ross starred in "Grand Theft Auto". You may remember her as Marion Cunningham on "Happy Days". I guess that you could say that Richie decided to cast his mom. Maybe it would look like this:

Marion: "Now Richard, always remember to be careful behind the wheel."

(Richie zooms off.)

Marion: "He always took after Howard when it came to driving."

***

Either way, the movie's outlandish (in fact, it's done like a B-movie), but it's impossible not to like.

Ron Howard's directorial debut (in which he also stars) is a pretty good piece of drive-in movie fun, with a silly but fast-paced story and enough car chases and crashes to keep those who go for this kind of thing plenty satisfied. A handful of familiar faces in amusing cameos add to the fun.

This movie will never be remembered as great filmmaking, but it's sure to go down in history as an eerily accurate time capsule of the 1970's. The seventies, a time when, despite the depressingly high crime rate, people left their keys in the ignition without giving it a second thought; when cars were stolen so often we considered them communal property.(By the way, if you're ever the victim of a car theft, stand in the road shaking your fist as the car drives off, then yell 'come back here!' as loudly as possible. This is sure to get your car back.)The seventies were a magical time, when gubernatorial candidates wore jumpsuits without fear of ridicule and kept hired goons on retainer; when towns had only one radio station and we all listened to it; when whiny polo players were considered good catches.

And the car chases! Every day and twice on holy days, my Dad would tell me. Many times, while driving to his job as Jack Lord's shoe buffer, he would come across an impromptu car chase headed to Las Vegas or Tahiti or some other fun place and you better believe he joined in! He would be gone for weeks at a time but we always understood. Mom and I were never worried about him; we could follow his progress from the constant radio reports given by the DJ flying overhead. In the seventies, radio stations thought nothing of scrapping their entire playlist and sending up a fleet of helicopters manned by skinny DJs in smoked glasses to spend days covering a car chase while whole police forces sat idly by, except for that one wacky policeman who always seemed to show up carrying some personal vendetta against one of the chasers and was in way over his head but didn't know it because he wasn't too bright but we understood and we loved him anyway.

Because it was the seventies.

Forget Smokey and the Bandit, check out Grand Theft Auto if you want a car-chase movie in the comedy genre! This was also Ron Howard's directorial debut. And everyone knows him as Opie from The Andy Griffith Show, and Richie from Happy Days. It's about these teenagers who go joyriding in stolen cars, and they get into the most deliriously funny situations anyone could imagine in a car-chase movie!

I don't care if this movie didn't get any good reviews or if it wasn't considered 'cool', but hey, after all it was Ron Howard's first movie he ever produced. The movie may have lowbrow humor, but it's still an awesome movie worth watching! I saw this movie for the first time when I was a preteen, and to this day I still find it to be outrageously funny! If you're in the mood for a serious car-chase movie, rent something like Bullitt or The French Connection. If you want to see a funny one, rent this movie! IMHO, I think it's the funniest movie of 1977!