The Cannonball Run DVD 1981 / Directed by Hal Needham / Starring: Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.

UPC 5032438505685

REGION 2 PAL DVD  

MADE IN HUNGARY

AUDIO: English 5.1

SUBTITLES: -

Runtime: 92 minutes

English Summary:

The Cannonball Run is a 1981 American comedy film starring Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, and an all-star supporting cast. Filmed in Panavision, it was directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong's Golden Harvest films, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film is based on the 1979 running of an actual cross-country outlaw road race beginning in Connecticut and ending in California.

Race teams have gathered in Connecticut to start a cross-country car race. One at a time, teams drive up to the starters' stand, punch a time card to indicate their time of departure, then take off.

Among the teams:

• JJ McClure (Reynolds) and Victor Prinzi (DeLuise), drive a souped-up, but otherwise authentic, Dodge Tradesman ambulance. (Hal Needham and Brock Yates used the same vehicle in the actual 1979 race.)
• Former open-wheel icon (and Scotch-swilling) Jamie Blake (Dean Martin) and his (gambling-obsessed) teammate Morris Fenderbaum (Sammy Davis Jr.), dressed as Catholic priests, drive a red Ferrari 308 GTS 1979. (They are based on an entry in the real 1972 race, in which three men disguised as priests ("The Flying Fathers") drove a Mercedes 280 SEL sedan, which they claimed to be "the Monsignor's car" belonging to an ecumenical council of prelates in California.)
• Jill Rivers (Tara Buckman) and Marcie Thatcher (Adrienne Barbeau), two attractive women who use their looks to their advantage, start the race in a black Lamborghini Countach.
• Jackie Chan and Michael Hui race in a high-tech, computer-laden Subaru GL 4WD hatchback with a rocket booster engine.
• A pair of good ol' boys, played by Terry Bradshaw and Mel Tillis, drive a street-legal replica of Donnie Allison's Hawaiian Tropic-sponsored NASCAR Winston Cup Series Chevrolet stock car owned by Hoss Ellington. (It starts off as '75–76 Laguna. After they paint it, it somehow becomes a '76–77 Monte Carlo.)
• Roger Moore plays "heir to the Goldfarb Girdles fortune", Seymour Goldfarb, Jr., who perpetually identifies himself as actor Roger Moore and signs into the race under that name. His character behaves similarly to James Bond and only once (by his mother) is called by his real name. He drives a silver Aston Martin DB5. (This film was released around the same time as Moore's next bona fide James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only.)
• Jamie Farr portrays an oil-rich Middle-Eastern sheikh, driving a white Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

At the starting line, observing from the shadows, is Mr. Arthur J. Foyt (a play on the name of racer A. J. Foyt), a representative of the "Safety Enforcement Unit", who tries to stop the race because of its environmental effects and safety issues. In the car with Foyt (George Furth) is a photographer and tree lover, Pamela Glover (Fawcett).

Beyond the starting line, JJ and Victor (driving their ambulance) come across Foyt and Glover, who have been involved in a minor fender-bender. Glover implores JJ and Victor to help, but when they tell Foyt to enter the ambulance through the back door, they kidnap Glover and take off without Foyt.

As the race progresses, Victor occasionally turns into his alter ego, superhero "Captain Chaos". The very spooky Dr. Van Helsing (Jack Elam) and his huge hypodermic needle are also in the ambulance to "help" keep Glover quiet during the race.

Cast

Cannonball Run featured an all-star ensemble cast, including these actors:^[5]

• Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise as racer J.J. McClure and his buddy, mechanic Victor Prinzi, a.k.a. "Captain Chaos."
• Roger Moore as Seymour Goldfarb, Jr., a self-parody of his role as James Bond. His car, an Aston Martin DB5, displays the UK registration plate 6633 PP, same as the one in the Bond films Goldfinger and Thunderball., although Moore's Bond never actually drove an Aston Martin in any of his seven Bond appearances. (The original UK registration plate was BMT 216A before being sold to businessman Gavin Keyzar.) Molly Picon portrays his mother. Several women ride with Seymour, including model Lois Hamilton, billed as Lois Areno.
• Farrah Fawcett as tree-loving photographer Pamela Glover. J.J. calls her "Beauty."
• Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. as race car driver Jamie Blake and scam artist Morris Fenderbaum, disguised as Catholic priests. Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder plays himself as Fenderbaum bets on his success. (Snyder was Dean Martin's neighbor when both were growing up in Steubenville, Ohio.) Blake's car, a Ferrari 308 GTS 1979, is the same as the model in the TV series TV Magnum, P.I..
• George Furth as Arthur J. Foyt, the insipid, uptight main antagonist of the film, who tries to have the race stopped.
• Jackie Chan and Michael Hui as drivers of a Subaru GL filled with gadgets. In the opening part of the film, Chan and Hui are introduced on a talk show (hosted by Johnny Yune) as the operators of Japan's entry into the race. (Both Chan and Hui were actually Chinese; furthermore, the credits mistakenly credit the two as "Mitsubishi Driver(s).")^[6]
• Jamie Farr as Sheik Abdul ben Falafel, a wealthy Arabian potentate determined to win the race, even if he has to buy it. Bianca Jagger makes a brief appearance as his sister. Farr's car is a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. The Sheik is the only character to appear in all three Cannonball Run films.
• Mel Tillis and Terry Bradshaw are Mel and Terry, a couple of "good ol' boys|" driving a thinly-disguised Chevrolet Malibu NASCAR Grand National race car, resembling the Hoss Ellington No. 1 Hawaiian Tropic car Donnie Allison drove in 1979, most famously in the 1979 Daytona 500 crash that led to the famous fight.
• Adrienne Barbeau and Tara Buckman as Marcie Thatcher and Jill Rivers, satin-Spandex-clad "hotties" in a black Lamborghini Countach. The same Lamborghini was used in the film's opening credits as it was being pursued by a Nevada Highway Patrol car. Valerie Perrine has an uncredited cameo as a state trooper. (Their character names are not mentioned during the story, but appear in the end credits. Their names return in the sequel, though the parts were re-cast.)
• Peter Fonda has a cameo role referencing his character in The Wild Angels. The appearance of Fonda and his motorcycle gang during a halt in the race offered an excuse for Chan to demonstrate his martial arts skills during the fight sequence. Fonda's big, bald biker buddy is played by Robert Tessier.
• Bert Convy as wealthy but bored executive Bradford Compton, who planned to run the Cannonball by motorcycle with the help of an old friend, Shakey Finch (Warren Berlinger), once the world's greatest cross-country motorcyclist. The two planned to disguise themselves as newlyweds. Compton's now portly ally forced them into a wheelie for the entire race.
• Jack Elam as Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing, same name as the famous vampire hunter. This Van Helsing is a proctologist and graduate of the University of Rangoon, and the Knoxville, Tennessee College of Faith Healing.
• Rick Aviles and Alfie Wise as Mad Dog and Batman, tow truck drivers who jump the train flatcar.
• John Fiedler as the desk clerk.
• Joe Klecko as the Polish driver in the van who gets pulled over by Mr. Foyt. (Klecko was a player in the National Football League.)
• Car and Driver Magazine columnist and correspondent Brock Yates, who having created the real-life Cannonball Run, wrote the film directly for the screen, plays the race organizer of who lays down the rules at the starting line.
• Director Hal Needham appears uncredited as the ambulance EMT.
• Veteran Daytona 500 commentator Ken Squier appears as a California Highway Patrolman.
• Veteran voice actor June Foray provided the dubbed dialogue of several of the women who escort Goldfarb in the race ("Seymour's girls," as the opening credits list them) in an uncredited performance.