User Reviews

Recap: Paula Powers, daughter of governor candidate Bigby Powers, has decided to spurn the fiancée, Collins, that her parents have chosen for her, and elope with her love Sam. She steals Bigby's Rolls Royce and heads for Vegas. This doesn't sit very well with Bigby and he hires a private investigator to catch them. Paula's wannabe fiancée also has something to say about Paula's idea and sets after them in his Porsche. But when he crashes his car, he calls to a popular radio station offering 25 000 dollars if the pair is caught, then steals a car and restarts the chase. Collin's mother then offers an additional 25 000 dollar if someone can return Collins to her unharmed. And then the chase is really on. Everyone that spots the Rolls wants in on the action, and it doesn't help that the whole circus is reported live.

Comments: One of a few quite similar movies that appeared at the end of the 70's along with such titles as Smokey and the Bandit and Gone in 60 Seconds. Like many of the others, Grand Theft Auto has a simple idea, offer a simple excuse for an extended car chase, crash a lot of vehicles in spectacular ways, and run it for approximately 90 minutes. As it is made in the late 70's, and on a low budget to boot, the special effects is notably poor. The cheapest effect that seemed readily available was to smash and crash cars, so that is repeated extensively. They actually takes it so far so that they actually end up in demolition derby, which just puts a name on what it has been all the way. But at as such it offers some easy entertainment, a few laughs and some very easy watching.

A little extra fun to watch as it is the real directing debut of Ron Howard, who also plays the lead character Sam in the movie. With the story as it is, which was also written partly by Ron, I can't say it is obvious that he would become a famous director. But you got to start somewhere. And as in many other of Ron's movies, brother Clint also appears in the cast.

But other than that, it isn't much to remember. If you enjoy a car chase movie, this is maybe something you want to see. If that doesn't necessarily thrill you, skip it.

5/10

Eloping because her parents were not happy of her marrying against their wishes, Nancy Morgan and boyfriend Ron Howard(who also directed)head for Vegas in papa's(Barry Cahill) Rolls Royce with many vehicles damaged along the way. Morgan was supposed to marry a rich prick(Paul Linke, who is hilarious) she doesn't even like because her parents wanted her to be a part of his wealthy family. Set out on the highway, Linke chases after them, with his mom(Marion Ross, Howard's Happy Days co-star)trying to find him. Linke thinks Nancy's been brainwashed and he plans to find her while placing a bond for anyone who will hunt them down and bring her to him. Then Ross is caught driving a stolen car(her chauffeur's!), to be arrested after front ending a tree, flees the scene of the accident, and is followed by a cop whose police car was in turn "borrowed" by a preacher(Hoke Howell who is a hoot, always using the police car intercom as a means of communicating to Linke that he must turn himself over in the name of the Lord!) who sees dollar signs when he learns of a reward for the return of her son! There's nothing quite like vehicle carnage and director Howard lets out all the stops, with a car destroying something(or being destroyed by something)every five minutes it seems. This is also a movie about "evasive action". Howard and Morgan evading those out to catch them, constantly avoiding "reward seekers", hired men paid by her father(using "G-men", or at least they look like them, and a helicopter crew), and nutty Linke who thinks she's under Howard's mind control(in his mind, he's a hero in pursuit of a damsel in distress). The reward seekers come out of the woodwork, too..gas station attendant, two gearheads, the aforementioned preacher, and so on and so forth. I'll just tell the viewer to prepare for plenty of explosions and noise. Like other cross country chase movies, Howard and Morgan's "odyssey" becomes popular news and they reach a form of celebrity. You have a showstopping finale in a demolition derby where the orgy of car violence reaches it's climax. But, Howard doesn't end there..an obnoxious radio personality, who had been following them from a helicopter, decides to continue bugging them, finding instead a suburban house and outside pool awaiting him(there's nothing quite like seeing a station wagon exploding through the living room of a house). Clint Howard shows up as one of the gearheads who chases after our eloping young lovers. Rance Howard, Ron's dad, is hired by Morgan's father to find the kids. GRAND THEFT AUTO is exactly what it was intended to be, an entertaining comedy action drive-in movie. I thought Morgan and Howard has wonderful chemistry as the eloping couple, and the cast really inhibit their roles with a great deal of oomph.

Using the name that came in second for Eat My Dust and working on the script with his father Rance, this was the first movie that Ron Howard directed. It takes what worked in that aforementioned New World Pictures movie and makes it even more charming.

Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan) wants to marry Sam Freeman (Howard) but as far as her parents - Bigby (Barry Cahill) and Priscilla Powers (Elizabeth Rogers, who was the substitute communications officer for Uhara on Star Trek) - are interested, she should be with the wealthy Collins Hedgeworth (Paul Linke, Motel Hell) instead of a poor kid who is studying the environment. She responds by stealing their Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and racing out to Las Vegas.

Bigby is running for political office, so he sends Ned Slinke (Rance Howard) after the couple to stop this whole foolish enterprise, while Collins heads out after his would-be fiancee, but not before he steals a car, which sends the police - and his mother, played by Howard's Happy Days castmate Marion Ross - after him.

He also calls KTNQ's DJ Curly Q, who is the "Real Deal" Don Steele, a fixture in so many Corman movies like The Student Teachers, Death Race 2000 and Rock 'n' Roll High School as well as Corman alumni films like Gremlins and Eating Raoul. Speaking of high speed and cars, one of the promotions Steele was involved in ended in tragedy. When he was at KHJ in the summer of 1970, the station had a "Super Summer Spectacular" with Steele driving around Los Angeles in a red sports car. They would broadcast clues about his location and. Give $25 to anyone who found him. During this contest, two teenagers attempting to track Steele by car at speeds of roughly 80 miles per hour rammed another car into a highway divider, causing the death of Ronald Weirum. Weirum's family sued and won, saying that the promotion caused recklessness. Steele would also often yell. "Tina Delgado is alive! Alive!" on the air and would never reveal why. I've heard two stories: one that she was a girl whose obituary was incorrectly written and he was always trying to make up for it. Or it was the scary version, where she was a teenager listening to Steele on the air and not paying attention, which led to her walking right into a train. His guilt led to him saying her name on every broadcast to pay tribute. You can also hear him in the Cheap Trick song "On the Radio" ("Heaven Tonight") and when his career was down in the 80s, Ernie Anderson - the one-time Ghoulardi and the father of Paul Thomas Anderson - got him the agent he needed to return to stardom, to the point that he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I digress, but man, whenever Don Steele shows up in a movie, I love it.

By this point, our leads are being chased - for a $25,000 reward given by Collins' mother for the safe return of her beloved boy - by all manner of weirdos like mechanics Ace (Ron's brother Clint) and Sparky (Pete Isacksen); a preacher (Hoke Howell, who had been on The Andy Griffith Show with Howard); a demolition derby and even an organized crime family led by Garry Marshall (Howard was calling in all his Happy Days people) that has Leo Rossi - Bud from Halloween 2! - amongst its members.

I love how the radio station takes the couple as bad guys, then good guys, then bad, then by the end Don Steele is chasing them from their wedding on the way to their honeymoon, promising coverage of their lovemaking before crashing into a house. A total New World all-star film, this also has Allan Arkush as a clown and Paul Bartel as a groom.

Shot without permits in 15 days, Howard impressed the crew with how fast he was able to understand directing a movie. Then again, he'd been on films sets for a decade. Corman told him, "Do a really good job on this one, kid, and you'll never have to work for me again."

Headstrong rich gal Paula Powers (a winningly spunky portrayal by the fetching Nancy Morgan) steals the family Rolls Royce and heads off to Las Vegas to marry her amiable working class boyfriend Sam Freeman (a likable turn by Ron Howard, who also made his directorial debut with this film). A motley slew of folks give chase. Director Howard, who also co-wrote the simple script with his dad Rance, tells the entertaining story at a zippy pace, maintains an engaging light-hearted and good-natured tone throughout, and stages the assorted wild'n'wacky vehicular carnage with considerable go-for-it brio. Moreover, this picture benefits tremendously from being so straightforward and unpretentious: After a few initial minutes of basic plot set-up, the rest is essentially one lengthy car chase that culminates in one hysterical doozy of a demolition derby climax. Better yet, the enthusiastic cast attack the material with infectious aplomb, with especially energetic contributions from Marion Ross as the disapproving Vivian Hedgeworth, Peter Isacksen and Clint Howard as a pair of loony hot-rodders, Rance Howard as no-no0nsense private eye Ned Slinker, Paul Linke as pompous preppy Collins, Don Steele as obnoxious disc jockey Curly Q. Brown, and Barry Cahill as huffy millionaire Bigby Powers. The jaunty score by Peter Ivers hits the stirring spot. The always dependable Gary Graver does his usual ace job with the glossy cinematography. An immensely fun flick.

Ever amiable Ron Howard stars in this typical enough entry into the chase-and-car-crash genre. He plays Sam Freeman, the young man whom rich girl Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan) intends to marry, against the wishes of her snooty, judgmental father Bigby (Barry Cahill). Bigby, who's running for governor, would rather she marry another rich person, the *really* schmucky Collins Hedgeworth (Paul Linke). So what Paula does is appropriate her fathers' Rolls Royce and take off with Sam for Las Vegas. The story escalates into a circus as Collins takes off after Sam & Paula, Collins's mother Vivian (Howards' 'Happy Days' mom Marion Ross) takes off after *him*, and other assorted greedy individuals join in the pursuit hoping to obtain the awards offered for the return of both Paula and Collins.

Howard had already starred in the thematically similar "Eat My Dust" for Roger Corman, with the proviso that he get to direct their next joint effort. Howard and his dad, character actor Rance Howard, devised this story, in which Ron could technically be billed as the star but not have to be in every scene so that Ron could focus on the direction. Of course, despite the game efforts of this cast (also including Rance, Rons' brother Clint, The Real Don Steele, Hoke Howell, Ken Lerner, and Leo Rossi, with Paul Bartel and Garry Marshall in cameos), the real "star" of course is the intense action; Allan Arkush (who has an uncredited bit as the clown) handled the second unit direction and the vehicle stunts are absolutely first rate. The script by Jr. and Sr. Howard does have some good laughs going for it, to be sure; it's a hoot to see Ross actually flip off a cop!

The music by Peter Ivers is quite catchy, Gary Graver handles the cinematography, and the editor was Joe Dante. Overall the movie is quite noisy and senseless, but that still proves to be a big part of the attraction in movies like this. At least it does have two appealing performances at the core, by Howard and Morgan, and does have a fitting wrap-up as super obnoxious DJ Curly Q. Brown (Steele) finally gets his comeuppance.

Seven out of 10.

I've always had a soft spot for car chase movies, so naturally this one interested me. I wasn't disappointed. It has the usual elements of a film of it's type, the most prominent being the cast of eccentric characters constantly trying to get the better of each other.

SPOILER WARNINGS:

In his directorial debut, Ron Howard plays high school kid Sam who is in love with rich girl Paula. Needless to say, Paula's Ma and Pa, rich snobs who care only about their reputations (Her jogging-suit clad dad is running for Governor of California), disapprove. Her dad wants her to marry rich kid Collins Hedgeworth, whom Paula denounces as a 'flake'. Her dad tries to get the better of her by confiscating her car keys, but then she gets the last laugh as she purloins her old man's Rolls-Royce and picks up Sam. The two then set off for Las Vegas to get married.

Polo-playing wimp Collins tries to give chase, as does his mother, who is trying to get him back before he hurts himself. Collins calls DJ Don Steele and offers a $25,000 reward for Paula's safe return. His mother then calls up and offers another $25,000 for his return. At this point, the fun begins as a bunch of assorted nutcases join the chase. They include: a pair of horny mechanics, a bunch of bumbling private eyes hired by Paula's dad, a money-hungry preacher, a group of dynamite toting rednecks, a group of Hispanic low-riders and an LA cop looking to bust most of the group for grand theft auto.

The pace is frantic, and at times, you forget about certain characters because of the amount of time being focused on certain groups of them. The performances are rather good. Nancy Morgan as Paula seems to be the dominant one in their couple as she does most of the talking. The late Don Steele is great in his role as DJ Curly Q. Brown, which is essentially a reprise of his role of Junior Bruce in DEATH RACE 2000 (also produced by Roger Corman. DEATH RACE director Paul Bartel has a cameo here.). Ron's brother Clint of course appears here as one of the mechanics. He and his partner Pete Isacksen are both great as the sex-mad mechanics.

The car wrecks sometimes happen for no real reason, but they are all brilliantly done. Appropriately, the action reaches it's climax at a demolition derby outside Vegas. This film is brilliant and is a must for car chase fans, like me!