This six minute car chase from The Master Touch (1972) is one of my favorites with Giuliano Gemma getting chased all over town, including through a cardboard box factory. There's always a cardboard box factory.
Love how that one car switched back and forth between a 1958 Plymouth and a 1960 Dodge Dart! At least they went through the effort to make the Dart look like the Plymouth, with the grafted on Plymouth fins and the side trim. I wonder if the audiences of the time noticed the car changing back and forth? In the old days, before we had the ability to watch things on demand, pause, rewind, watch in slow motion, etc, I bet a lot of that stuff went right over the audience's head
Andre G Yes I did notice changes in color a front grille's usually certain movies use as many as 8 cars to make different scenes,,,,like Christine for example
I wonder just how many Plymouths they went through,every time you looked the car's dents were in a different place,not to mention growing a couple of extra doors now and again,very enjoyable nun the less,one to keep for a good laugh.
They just had only one 1958 Plymouth and that car was used for all the shots were the car isn’t getting destroyed. And only one 1960 Fodge for pretty much the whole chase, probably because the Dodge could take all the beating. That dodge goes from dented to fixed constantly because they must’ve shot the sequences either out of order or went back to do reshoots. The lesson in car chase film making here is; make sure you have the right cars for the job and shoot the chase in order.
The guy in the Eurobox says to himself: "No fair! I couldn't catch up to the Plymouth 2-door that was stuck in 2nd and still had the parking brake on. NOW I'm dogging the Dodge 4-door with 4 flat tires and a driver who must be lonely because he keeps stamping on the brakes so I can catch up. Harrumph! Maybe I'll just go follow around that drunk waiter in the Dauphine!"
In addition to the cars continuously changing, if you watch the full movie, the first time you see his car in the movie it's painted multiple colors while it's just a solitary gray in the chase.
Wow, that is awesome to see that old Chryco beast (well, beasts) run like that... Thanks to their torsion bar suspension they were much better handlers than most people think.
Having owned nearly a dozen 1957-1958 Plymouths I think one reason they used the Dodge was they hold up better to crashing. Unfortunately the '57-'58 Plymouths don't do well, My first car, a '57 Belvedere convertible was in the middle of a six car pile up, the passenger area held up but every square inch of sheet metal was toast. They are fast, comfortable cars, just don't hit anything. The Plymouth apparently is a much rarer car than the Dodge in Europe. I have friends in France and the UK that looked for years for Plymouths and couldn't find them. One bought a DeSoto Firesweep, one a '60 Dodge Phoenix (with a slant six engine), and one was lucky enough to find a '58 DeSoto Diplomat convertible. The Diplomat is 95% Plymouth with DeSoto Firesweep front fenders, hood and grille. Did you notice how much they did to the Dodge to give it the Plymouth look, Not only the welded on fins, but filling in the rear door handles and painting, plus the side trim. They also painted the wheel rims silver on the Dodge. Plymouths in 1958 used silver paint, the Dodges normally used black rims if they had full wheelcovers, fun chase anyway.
They went to a lot of trouble to make that 1960 Dodge Dart (the four door) look like the 1958 Plymouth Belvedere coupe (not a Fury), they even put on fake fins. I like the way the Dodge bumper grows back after they drive down the steps. Also the Plymouth appears to be wearing the Dodge's hubcaps.
Just watched Bullit on tcm and decided to look up car chase scenes. Cannot believe I've never seen this! Friggin awesome! Love the chase down the stairs. Thanks!
Being a bit older than the previous commentor's, I feel they miss the point! This is NO DIGITAL crap your watching, this is a real, life, limb, and death car chase stunt where timing and trust were paramount! Slippers384
Notice how at 2:39 the camera has a shot from behind the Plymouth and the passenger side doors are not dented, but at 2:41 as both cars shoot out onto the street the Plymouth has badley dented sides and doors? This also makes one wonder how doors could be dented going down steps? I'm not knocking the clip; it is a great scene. But it is interesting how movie makers will cobble together scenes to appear as though they happened in a certain order when they in fact did not.
funny how the producers thought the audience woulnd t notice the bif difference in a '58 Plymouth and a '60 Dodge. It looks like they might have put 57-58 Plymouth fins on that DOdge. Interesting footage....
I like how they dummied up the '60 Dodge with fake fins and painted side trim to resemble, sort of, a '58 Plymouth. Great stunt work for an older foreign film.
This the goofiest and of course the saddest car chase I've seen so far. At the beginning, they're using a 1958 Plymouth 2dr, then at 1:26, they switch to a 1960 Dodge 4dr. But it's really sad seeing those cars getting wasted. The Opel I couldn't care less about. They used the Dodge more than the Plymouth. Movie industries always pick on the old American cars.
They are using 2 cars for this chase. The first car is a 2 door 1958 plymouth. Then it magically changes to a 1960 Dodge 4 door. Wonder if they thought no one would notice :P
The Citroen owner looks like he shops as the same clothes store as Jackie Stewart did at the time this was made. The Belvedere has a neat set of musical horns.
I had an Opel Admiral before. It had a small block Chevy in it. I feel bad for both cars. Non had Italian plates nor it was taking place in Italy. Non of the less it was pretty awesome chace! Feel bad for the cars....
I was sorry to see both the Plymouth and the Dodge get trashed. Actually, in the '50s, there were export models called the Dodge Kingsway and the DeSoto Diplomat which were both actually Plymouths. The front ends were different but the rest of them were pretty much just Plymouths. I had a 1950 Dodge Kingsway about 30 years ago.
Another thing that boggles me in movies screeching tires on wet pavement,and did't know passing a train barrier you would lose your top,movies are so fictional
Almost definitely the Fury's transmission gave up first, which is why it was replaced with the Dodge. Terrible seeing such a rare car destroyed tho, but also really entertaining :)
Caution!! No Fords were hurt during the filming of our Movie! It may be "Italian Style " but its in Germany?!? The '58 Plymouth turns into a '60 Dodge when they cross the border?!? More of a demo derby than a car chase, but what da heck, fun anyway!
at 2:27 you can see what had been a 58 Plymouth Fury 2-door and then became a 60 Dodge Dart 4-door, has the Plymouth's fins grafted onto the Dodge's rear fenders.
It's a Fury, sadly, Check out the colour and trim level of the interior, and its got the Fury sidetrim too. My best guess is that it was repainted to tidy it up (it was an old car even then) and to match it with the second car a 1960 Dodge Pioneer.
I'm assured that the producers didn't want to wreck a relic, the Dodge must have been more common at the time, so they simply fucked it up instead if that helps.
funny here in Colorado I just thoroughly enjoyed,never even noticed the changes just the excitement of the chase!!! hey,anyone know what the time is!?!😉
What a bizarre chase, I mean do they really think we can't spot that they changed the Mopar from 58 Belvedere, to a 60 Dodge Polara, so some other weirdo car, from a 2 dr to 4 dr to 2 dr again? jeez...
@jamminjoseph But good thing is that you know one thing here: what you see is what happened there no tricks nad montage, these are real drivers, and this is the real piece of action!!
I suppose. But it's still not cool. Those 1958 Plymouth's were one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen and seeing that car along with the 60 Dodge just is sickening to watch get thrashed. It was even more sad when I first saw "Christine". Cars like those don't deserve that kind of punishment.
