Released: 1976

Dir.: Chuck Bail

First viewing in over 40 years.

Every decade or so, a movie comes along with the power to inspire, motivate, even change the course of one’s life. The Gumball Rally is not one of those films, it is, however, what most movies should be: good, escapist entertainment. The Gumball Rally also brought back some fun memories.

Growing up in the 1970s we were lucky enough to have a drive-in theatre in our neighborhood, I could climb up on the roof or simply watch from my bedroom window. Sometimes some wise guy would crawl under the fence and turn up one of the speakers so the whole neighborhood could hear. But most of the time it was just marveling at the silent images.

The Lakeshore Drive-in would show just about everything from Jaws to Roger Corman’s women in prison movies, and most everything else in between until the ‘mysterious’ fire in 1978. The last film shown was The Greek Tycoon. It wasn’t summer without the drive-in echoing into the night. Coming home from visiting the grandparents walking up to the front door to Death Race 2000 or the dogfight scenes from Von Richthofen and Brown, are still vivid memories.

But even though films like American Graffiti or Close Encounters were featured, it was the b-movies that dominated. Does anyone remember W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings? If you do, you likely saw it at the drive-in, and quite possibly remember it fondly. I remember the cars lined up for a mile or more before sunset when it was showing.

The Gumball Rally fits perfectly into the type of film that would have played at our neighborhood drive-in. Not a big name cast, but familiar enough, as well as soon to be stars, in a film that is pretty non-stop. I first saw The Gumball Rally in its entirety when it first aired on TV, and even though it was the first of the cross-country race movies, it quickly became overshadowed by Smokey and the Bandit and the Cannonball Run movies and seemed to be forgotten. It played on TV a couple of times, and then was gone.

I, however, never forgot it. So, when I stumbled across the DVD on Amazon, at a bargain basement price, I couldn’t resist. But 40+ years on, would it still live up to my expectation? Well, it did, and more.

The plot is simple, wealthy businessman, Michael Bannon (Michael Sarrazin) gathers his friends for a cross-country, no rules, no speed limit auto race, and not get caught by the police, especially LAPD Lt. Roscoe (Norman Burton) who’s been after Bannon and his cohorts for years.

We follow the adventures of the various teams as they use cleaver schemes to elude the police and beat one another. Bannon’s main rival and longtime friend Steve Smith (Tim McIntire) who recruits Italian race car driver Franco Bertollini, Raul Julia in a terrific comedic, yet not over the top performance. Kandinsky (Steven Keats) and Avila (Wally Taylor) drive a souped-up Dodge Polara police car, with various State Highway Patrol markings, to elude the cops, with varying degrees of success. The movie is fun in that way.

At times the film veers into slapstick, but never overdoes it. The stunt driving is thrilling, but again doesn’t go overboard with insane freeway carnage, keeping things reasonably realistic. Lots of car mounted cameras of the actors doing their own driving excellently conveys the sense of speed without having to resort to rear-projection photography, heightening the reality.

Aside from the act one scenes introducing the characters, and the set-up of how the race is conducted, 85% of the movie is the race. The cars are cool, although you don’t have to be a petrol head to enjoy The Gumball Rally, the characters are funny and likeable, and the pace is above the posted speed limit.

Although I don’t specifically remember seeing it on the drive-in screen, watching The Gumball Rally all these years later I found myself being brought back to all the memories of long-ago summers watching movies from my bedroom window. We tend to forget how special and unique those memories are. Those times won’t happen again, but we still have the movies.

I know there are still drive-ins around, but not in suburban areas. However, there is a trend nowadays of people creating their own outdoor cinemas in the backyard. I think The Gumball Rally would be a perfect movie to watch in the backyard if nothing else for nostalgia. I know that’s what I would do. You can watch whatever you want, doesn’t have to be The Gumball Rally, it’s your drive-in and your memories, I’m just sayin’.

As a side note, my DVD copy includes Cannonball Run 2, which I had not seen before, so naturally I watched it and found it completely dreadful, not to mention embarrassing. Although I enjoyed Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jamie Farr, who was the only one who seemed to be giving an actual performance, my emotions went from embarrassment for the cast to anger, as they all seem to be having fun, yet I wasn’t. I suppose in the first Cannonball Run movie, we were in on the joke, and in the second film the audience was brutally left out. A sad waste of talent and celluloid. Best to stick with The Gumball Rally.

The Gumball Rally is available on Blu Ray and DVD from Warner Home Video.