There are times when it is profoundly difficult to avoid the pervasive influence of popular culture. Try as you might, some things penetrate even the best armor leaving a well-seared branding on the brain.
No, I’m not going to stray into the pasture of what is cool, hip, or groovy; I’m one of the last people who should walk around that acreage. What I am saying is in the collective minds of non-automotive people, it seems a red Forward Look Plymouth Fury triggers a certain unfortunate print and Hollywood induced association. With any hope, that wasn’t your first thought about this Fury.
Such externally induced associations are far from being isolated to the Forward Look Plymouth. Thankfully, the list of cars that are and will forever be ingrained into the collective psyche is a small and finite number.
Often times people seeing an early 1960s full-sized Ford will spout some utterance about an inept deputy from a fictional North Carolina town. Some owners of these cars have had to endure half-baked inquiries about when they are going to convert their possession into a specimen in black and white. Some seem to think there must be endless tributes to a long-cancelled television series.
Further, on the rare chance you see a 1974 Dodge Monaco four-door (1975 model shown), how often is it still wearing its factory shade of paint? It seems most are now made to sport an aged and abused appearance with two-tone paint and cigarette butts strewn around the interior for enhanced effect. Perhaps this is one case where such a connection has helped preserve a goodly number of cars that would have otherwise been discarded long ago.
Even as I write this, the list of other examples that spring to mind continues to grow. 1969 Dodge Charger. 1975 Ford Torino two-door. 1971 Plymouth Valiant four-door. 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am. Maybe there is an upside of sorts…this list is disproportionately Mopar, perhaps helping to emphasize these cars had more going for them than what met the eye and what was reflected in the marketplace. That’s not a bad thing.
However, this red Fury has been catapulted into this unfortunate category of mental tattooing by virtue of color and association. Having sat on these pictures for months, I have wanted to do something with them, preferably a fictional or short story as another 1959 Fury has been featured in its own CC (here) by someone with tangible 1959 Plymouth Fury experience. Such experience with any car does add another new dimension when writing about it.
There were several plots I had formulated for a fictional or short story account of this Fury. The British mid-wife and her American husband. The nephew called upon to address his uncles world-class hoarding. Some hybrid of the two, maybe even incorporating a curve-ball element of espionage or other unforeseen treachery. Yet I couldn’t create anything truly convincing as even after two attempts surpassing one thousand words each, I realized I had fallen prey to that insidious and competing Forward Look Fury reference. In my mind, anything remotely involving homicide, the occult, or any odd behavior would have been playing to the knee-jerk reaction a red Fury prompts in some. I didn’t want any comparisons to, or perceptions of spring boarding off, a well known plot. My intentions had been softly hijacked.
Did this Fury inadvertently rob me of something better? Hardly; other cars could fit the bill. Yet this Plymouth did play out to the mental yarn of the moment better than, say, any 1972 Dodge Coronet or Datsun B-210 could ever hope to do. Espionage, adultery, or even petty larceny just seems to work better in a finned Fury than any loop-bumpered Dodge or wood-grained Datsun.
But I am compelled to look on the bright side of this yo-yoing of my imagination and intentions. While I had found this Fury about 100 miles from my house, I have since been made privy to an expired e-Bay auction for what appears to be the same car located in a small hamlet about five miles away from me.
This car (or its evil twin) has been partially resurrected with a new interior and some overall cleansing. That it may once again be roaming the highways and by-ways of its new home is quite encouraging. Less encouraging, the auction description ladles out references to that horror novel and the related, disjointed motion picture from 1983.
If only this Fury had been dipped in green, blue, or even white. In red, it too has been hijacked.
I always wanted to think that those egg crate grilles were make of clear plastic.
I had a car like that. Calle Piece of Shit. -1940
Christine was actually a ’58 and a 2-door (although in the book she/it is erroneously referred to as being a coupe AND having four doors).
King had a habit of doing that, just to infuriate the reader. At one point in the story, its mentioned that owner grabs the shift lever, slams it into “drive” and tears out – when of course, all ’58 Chrysler automatics were push-button shifting.
He does other minor details wrong in other novels.
I know I’m way late to the thread, but from what I heard the reason there are so many inaccuracies in Christine was because King had pretty much already written the entire novel before he decided what kind of car Christine would be. When he finally decided, apparently mostly just because he thought “Fury” was a good name for a killer car, he just went back and filled in the blanks with “Plymouth Fury” but never bothered to find out if the details he’d written about the car actually applied to a Plymouth Fury.
I’m sure I read Christine had a 327!
Actually, she was supposed to have a “382”!
There was one place where King mentions a 382, however it was more of a causal reference:
“Engines. Big ones. Like the 382s they used to put in those old cars. Like Christine.”
According to this quote, Christine has a 318:
“Even the air cleaner was new, with the numbers 318 painted across- the top, raked backward to indicate speed.”
Search for yourself here:
https://archive.org/stream/Christine_132/StephenKing-Christine_djvu.txt
EDIT: While searching, I also came across an explanation for why Christine was red, although Plymouth didn’t offer the 1958 Fury in red:
Anyway, the other problem was just that LeBay himself customized the original Detroit rolling stock- Plymouth didn’t offer a Fury in, red and white, for one thing – and I’ve been trying to restore the car more the way he had it than the way Detroit meant it to be. So I’ve just been sort of flying by the seat of my pants.’
Wow. The first four-door coupe. Literature invents a marketing category, unknowingly, several decades in advance. How prescient…
Actually to be totally nit-picky, it wouldn’t be the first. King wrote Christine in the early 80’s but Rover made the 4-door P5 Coupe in the late sixties.
Well said Jason. It is very unfortunate that certain cars become the object of a particular thought due to their portrayal in the media, and even more unfortunate that non-car people will often ruin a perfectly good car due to this.
Any mention of the oz 70s Ford two door hardtops on international sites yields the inevitable Max Rockatansky references. Not that I mind of course given how well it was used in the movie, but for me (still in single digits at the time) its the Moffat/Ickx and Bond/Hamilton 1/2 victory at Bathurst in 1977.
If I had a fullsize 60 Ford, it would be more woody than Mayberry.
Btw ‘normcore’ was the most searched fashion expression in 2014. Despite your best efforts Jason, you have strayed into that acreage.
Don, I have never heard of norm-core until now. I looked it up but I’m afraid I don’t fully grasp what you are thinking.
One who has no pretensions of coolness, hipness or grooviness is now cool, hip and groovy.
Hey, if that’s the case I’m 40 years ahead of the curve! It reminds me of the old Country-western song with lyrics of “I was country when country wasn’t cool. “
These days you really stand out from the crowd when you don’t have any tattoos, piercings
or a ZZ Top beard.
Things have come full circle,to be a rebel now you have to look like Joe Citizen!
> One who has no pretensions of coolness, hipness or grooviness is now cool, hip and groovy.
I wish that trend had come about back when I was in highschool. I would’ve been hassled a lot less.
Well said.
“I’m so hip I have trouble seeing over my pelvis. I’m so cool you could keep a side of beef in me for a month.” – Ford Prefect, “Life, the Universe, and Everything,” Douglas Adams.
I’m only cool among people who enjoy Douglas Adams references.
71 Valiant 4-door? That’s the only one on your list that doesn’t immediately click for me.
That last pic of the Fury really hits home how close the rear quarters, sans fins, are to the ’61. Which makes the ’60, like its Ford counterpart, the odd man out. When I was a kid, my dad still had the Ross Roy data books for the ’59 Plymouths and Chryslers, momento of his last year selling cars at my mom’s family’s C-P dealership. I thought these cars were great – until I discovered the ’57 and ’58s, thankfully before Stephen King did.
Love that ’72 coronet. Proof that they didn’t all look like cop cars and taxis, and the sedan counterpart to my mom’s crest wood wagon. A contrast-color vinyl top did wonders for those cars.
Spielberg’s ‘Duel’
That’s where my mind went, also, but I’m 62 years old and am not sure just how engrained Duel is in today’s popular culture. In any regard, great Spielberg made for TV movie and, yes, the Valiant was one of the stars.
I was just going to comment on how good that Coronet looks dressed as a “civilian” model. Even with the faux-wire wheel covers, that is as sharp as a B-body Mopar gets.
I also have to give a nod to that ’72 Coronet. This sedan was quite handsome before barge bumpers, stacked headlights and a faux Mercedes grille.
There’s also the idea of the “Batmobile” with any car that has fins.
Batmobile pre-fins era — had to add his own:
I get what you’re saying about the 59 Fury, although I’ve thought they looked sufficiently different enough from the 57s and 58s not to be confused with them. Of course, I’m old enough to remember seeing these things as elderly cars, but still in regular service. It probably wasn’t until the early 70’s that these cars finally exited our roads in Northeast Ohio.
However, for someone not in the hobby, I can understand the association. Like you noted, it’s a two edged sword; even though the associations may not appeal to the collectors’/enthusiasts’ sensibilities, it does keep these cars available, whether as parts donors or whole cars. I believe we would all be poorer if they were to all have been recycled into Chinese washing machines…
If that’s the same car, someone put a heck of a lot of effort into sprucing it up for little monetary reward. Those new seat covers are something else!
It’s the same car. Look at the bent grille under the driver’s side head lamp. Same rust spots, too.
For $2,500 her new owner has bought himself years of hearing the same joke ad nauseam.
For sure…It’s like owning a Corvair for me!
To be fair, that’s probably the best way to get an old 4-door going. It looks like the person who fixed it up just did enough to flip it, but it doesn’t look too bad. The engine compartment looks nice enough, and if s/he fixed up the brakes/cooling system/etc., then that will be a nice enough driver. It wouldn’t be monetarily worth going through and restoring it.
Never mind, I just read the ad. It looks like the person didn’t go over anything mechanically.
When I was a kid in the late 60s, there was a local man with a very unsavory reputation who drove a ’59 Plymouth 4-door. By that time, the outdated styling made the car look comical to my young eyes, but he was the type that you didn’t dare laugh at. The car, in addition to being comical, had a sinister quality to it, with that grinning grille and those razor-sharp fins The car and the driver suited each other perfectly. You didn’t dare laugh at either of them!
You weren’t living in Maine at that time, were you? Bangor area, possibly?
No, and the gentleman’s name was not Roland LeBay. Although the guy I’m thinking of was pretty similar to the character in the book and the movie… Coincidence?
I always thought the 59 Dodge and Buick were the angriest,most pissed off looking cars with their glowering grilles.
As both a dyed in the wool Forward Look Mopar ,and Stephen King fan,I have read the novel Christine at least a few times over the years.
I have never seen the movie,and really have no desire to.
As an aside my family owned both a 58 and two 60 Plymouth’s over the years.
It would be hard for me to associate a 59 Plymouth with Christine.
Others may disagree, but I recommend watching the movie. The scene when Christine first reveals that she can repair herself to Arnie is a favourite of mine. “Okay… show me.” and then Christine puts herself back together to the tune of the Viscounts’ Harlem Nocturne.
I liked it a lot,it was probably the truest translation of any Stephen King book to film.Great soundtrack too.
Count me in as a fan, too. I own the DVD and get it out at least once a year. I like John Carpenter’s early, low budget films. The sound track is a blast. I’ve never read the book so can’t compare the two. The car itself is gorgeous automotive porn (only sorry so many cars were destroyed to make the movie). To quote Roger Ebert:
“Christine” is, of course, utterly ridiculous. But I enjoyed it anyway. The movies have a love affair with cars, and at some dumb elemental level we enjoy seeing chases and crashes. In fact, under the right circumstances there is nothing quite so exhilarating as seeing a car crushed, and one of the best scenes in “Christine” is the one where the car forces itself into an alley that’s too narrow for it.”
I like the 57-59 Plymouths. The 59’s front is rather handsome, IMO, the back not quite as much. Certainly better than the awkwardly styled 60 and the hideous 61. I’m also one of the small group of fans of the 62, a cool, refreshingly modern and huge departure from the year before.
There are some media associations that don’t catch hold because the movie or show was small, or has been forgotten, or the car somehow blended in. In the rare case that the owner chooses not to spotlight such an association, he/she might not mind a reference made that sparks a pop culture conversation, and perhaps it leads to a Netflicks search on the instigator’s part. Most people of a certain age can conjure up an image of Paul Le Mat with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and his arm chicken-winged on the window sill of a yellow Deuce coupe in American Graffiti, but few who aren’t car nuts remember him in the same pose with a blue ’57 DeSoto Firesweep in Demme’s “Melvin and Howard”.
… but few who aren’t car nuts remember him in the same pose with a blue ’57 DeSoto Firesweep in Demme’s “Melvin and Howard”.
*I* remember that film. One of my favorites. ‘course we old buggers remember when that happened. After the “Mormon will” surfaced, so many other purported Hughes wills showed up that Johnny Carson announced the “Howard Hughes will writing contest” on the Tonight Show. Entries flooded the studio and a few weeks later Johnny read some of the best ones on the air.
The film itself is a delight, won a couple Oscars.
Well put, a movie to recommend for all who haven’t seen it. That’s the DeSoto’s cockpit that “Melvin” is seen in during the trailer. And Mary Steenbergen is cute as a button in her Oscar winning role.
And Mary Steenbergen is cute as a button in her Oscar winning role.
Not to mention nekkid. I finally bought the DVD some years back and listened to the commentary. In the scene where Mary is fired from the “gentleman’s club” she whips off her waitress dress and walks out. The director had a really hard time getting her to do that.
This was one of the first films to make extensive use of actual, recognizable songs, rather than a custom written score, but my favorite pieces are the piano bits, like the scene where Melvin is driving Howard into Vegas, and at the end when Melvin picks up his son and is driving back to the gas station in Utah.
Few trivia bits: not only is the courthouse used in the film the actual court where the validity of the “Mormon will” was judged, those sheets of paper in the page protectors that the judge (Dabney Coleman) is holding in the scene is the actual Mormon will, which had been kept on file in the court records.
Another really thought-provoking piece with a well thought-out premise. I wished some of my personal favorite cars had been featured in some shows, but now I’m not so sure…
Very thought-provoking.
“Christine” was a horrible movie but a fun book. Whenever I see one of these Plymouths, it makes me smile…and I keep my distance. Just kidding.
The book is interesting because it shows how cars get into our psyche, representing our dreams, fears and wishes. They then take on a life of their own.
A couple more prominent examples of cars whose owners have to endure endless “movie” comments at car shows are DeLoreans (have you ever had it up to 88 mph?) and just about any hearse or car-based ambulance – especially if it’s a late tailfin-era Cadillac. (Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!)
The latter is of particular note as more than a few rare and irreplaceable “procars” and vintage station wagons have been hacked into homemade Ectomobiles.
I think many DeLorean owners like the BTTF association though. So many seem to have BTTF-inspired custom license plates, and I saw one not long ago with a mock-up flux capacitor mounted between the seats.
The flux capacitor is available at an auto parts store near you. http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/EB00/121G.oap?year=1977&make=International&model=Scout%2BII&vi=1175149&ck=Search_121g_1175149_-1&keyword=121g special order of course. Unfortunately they have recently discontinued the MrFusion.
Yeah many Delorean drivers like the connection. My friend that has one has the OUTATIM license plate on his, but none of the decorations.
His just got its entire drivetrain removed as he is going to make it an EV.
The Ghostbusters thing I agree with but DeLoreans pretty much owe their popularity and continued support from the companies that specialize in them squarely to that movie. I have no doubt that they’d remain the oddball footnote tied into cocaine culture that they were known for up to 1985 today, pretty much like Bricklin SV1s
One of my favourite cars in a TV show were the Ford Zephyrs(I don’t think the Police or TV producers splashed out on a Zodiac).We thought we were real cool kids when Dad had a Ford Zephyr 6.
So true! You have fleshed out a concept that I had never really thought about, at least consciously.
Fortunately, I owned my 59 Plymouth in 1979-80, so was spared all of the Christine references. However, the car might have been easier to sell if I had waited 3 years. 🙂
I have been trying to think of some other examples, but I think you have hit the biggies. The Green Hornet did a minor number on the 64-66 Imperial, though.
Oh wait – Everyone thinks of Simon Templar when a Volvo P-1800 shows up.
Can’t forget Maxwell Smart in his progression of Sunbeam Tiger, Karmann Ghia and Opel GT
The whole millennial generation will probably think of Supernatural every time they see a ’67-68 Impala.
Never heard of the TV show/movie Supernatural until now and I am a Millennial/Gen Y.
+1
Well, all of my sons (29, 17, 15) are into the show. Maybe my sample size is too small! 🙂
I wouldn’t have minded that if they hadn’t trashed a bunch of them. And then “Mythbusters” wrecked some more. At one point they wheeled one in and co-host Kari Byron said, “Ohh, that’s a pretty car.” Yes, Kari…soon to be past tense, boo hoo.
Mmmmmm…. Kari Byron…..
Wait, what were we talking about?
I’d say that’s an impersonator but anyway, our teenage male readership just exploded! Wait, no, I mean, oh forget it.
You always have the 0.01% here, that makes up out teenage male readership!…Crap, now I have 99.99% protests yet again!
Oh yeah, hehehehehehehe!
I found a real life Christine near Staining Lancashire(a very spooky place especially when they close the roads for a candle lit procession on winter solstice) near Blackpool.
Couple of thoughts:
I looked at the eBay auction. So sad that whoever did the interior work chose such an obviously wrong seat fabric and didn’t keep the original design for the door inserts.
Also, I always thought these had an ungainly greenhouse. It’s entirely because the angle created by the trailing edge of the vent window doesn’t match the angle created by the trailing edge of the front-door window. Non-parallel lines — makes a greenhouse look all unsorted every time.
Crap – had never noticed that window edge angle thing. Now I can’t unsee it. Curse you, JG. Actually, this is one of the very few 4 door cars that may look better as a sedan than as a hardtop.
I zoomed in on those seat covers, they look like some kind of cheapo auto parts slip-ons.
Give her a turquoise dress and free her from the Curse of the Kitschy Paperback!
Doh, the image…
…or really confuse people by painting it bright orange with “01” on the doors and a CB whip antenna on the trunk.
I’m kidding, of course. 🙂
Funny thing about cars and pop culture. Every time I see any `74 Dodge Monaco, I automatically think of The Blues Brothers.That movie made that car a star.
Pull over, Dennis!
I would rather hear more about that ’72 Coronet, I really like the way that car looks, big loop bumpers and all!
I would love to find a Coronet of this vintage. Using a ’72 Coronet here was pulling something out of the air for contrast; this and the Datsun were what came to mind first.
I owned a ’59 Fury used, also red with a white roof. It had black slipcovers that mimicked tuck and roll pretty well, and of course I installed a rear speaker in the package shelf. The fake hubcap on the fake tire on the trunk lid pooled water after it rained and eventually that caused a stain on the hubcap which was aluminum, not chrome. The car burned oil, a lot of oil, enough oil that I referred to the car as “the Blue Cloud.”
Want a ’59 Fury story? My dad asked me to pick my sister up from an high school play rehearsal one evening. Two other girls also needed rides. I am, after all, an altruist, so I helped them out. I also helped my sister out; I took my sister home first. The last girl I took home that night has been my wife for enough years to be proud of and I am very proud. Also very lucky.
Great story.
Ahh, I knew I would find another recovering 59 Fury owner eventually. 🙂
Mine was a 60K original car with 1959-vintage clear plastic over the cloth and vinyl seats. The interior was virtually perfect, and the exterior was not bad, especially for a 20 year old car. Mine didn’t burn oil, but for a time went through a lot of brake fluid due to a leaky wheel cylinder.
Know what you mean about that birdbath on the trunk lid, damn thing was always full of water. That water would roll towards the back window and find its way into the trunk when I opened the lid.
Went through a couple of generators and voltage regulators on the Blue Cloud which stranded us until we discovered that the wire harness between them was shorted out. I guessed the fins caused this, but the car blew around a bit in a strong crosswind too. One night, I took it to the beach to see how fast it would go and the speedometer got stuck at over 100 mph. My father didn’t kill me because I beat on the dashboard with my fist until it unstuck before heading home.
What a wonderfully sly move! It’s great to hear you are still reaping the rewards of that.
I don’t know about anyone else. But this is the first this I thought of. The Cabs from “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
I haven’t seen Christine, I remember them in this movie, too.
Or the Imperial convertible,and the `62 Dodges that Spencer Tracy and Dick Shawn drove among others in that insanely funny movie.
Having owned one , I like the ’58 Plymouth Fury Coupe .
-Nate
I guess there aren’t enough Peugeot 403’s for the masses to make any type of association… 🙂
Not very many people realized what Detective Columbo drove when that show was new ~ I mentioned it as we were watching it and everyone said ‘ you idiot ! Peugeot never made convertibles ! ‘ .
I loved the episode where he drives up to a Junkyard and the Blue Suit in the driveway says ‘ sorry Sir . this yard is closed ‘ . =8-) .
Peter Faulk was one of the greats .
-Nate
I remember that one !
Another one:
Lieutenant Columbo: [presenting his car to Mike, the mechanic] What do you think of this?
Mike: Have you ever thought of getting a new car?
Lieutenant Columbo: No, you see, I already have two cars. Of course, my wife’s car is nothing special. That’s just for transportation. You understand.
Mike: I only work on foreign cars.
Lieutenant Columbo: Oh, it’s a foreign car.
Mike: Oh, I know, but… there are limits, mate, you know?
This is interesting. I can always identify movies that have certain CCs in them, but I see them almost like extra-vehicle “options”. The car always comes before the movie unless there’s something unusual about the car like the paintjob e.g. Herbie. If you get a VW got up like that, now I think “Herbie!”. But just rolling up in a ’77 TransAm doesn’t make me think “Bandit!” unless you’re also dressing and groomed like 1977 Burt Reynolds.
A few months ago I saw a Herbie replica cruising down the freeway and the driver even had a period brain bucket helmet on. Talk about really getting into character. Of course he could just be worried about the crash safety of an old Beetle, but I’m guessing not.
A 77 Trans Am no, but black/gold SE Trans Am yes.
I wonder if the red and white Dodge pickup with matching red and white speedboat is owned by the same person?
> Less encouraging, the auction description ladles out references to that horror novel and the related, disjointed motion picture from 1983.
Not surprising. The seller was looking for more search hits.
If you can’t fight the image when writing a story, how about making it work for you? While it doesn’t fit your pictures, here’s an idea I just thought of:
After the movie Christine came out, Joe was constantly harassed by people comparing his old Plymouth to that blasted car. He figured the fuss would die down, but it never did. He was always always being delayed by some Christine fan who wanted to talk to him. Some wanted to buy the car. Eventually, somebody flashed a wad of cash at him big enough that he accepted. He used to proceeds towards the purchase of a used Dodge Charger, again in his favourite red colour. Not long afterwards, Joe was watching the news when they announced that the long-awaited sequel to Christine was coming to theatres. This time the villainous car was to be played by a red Charger.
Damn, I like that idea! Perhaps these pictures will be recycled on here one day. 🙂
As far as associations go, I have found if it’s a Fury up to 1968, people will still make Christine associations with it. I have been teased a good bit over the years over my ’67 Sport Fury and my ’68 Fury VIP both fast tops and both with scowling front ends. I especially endured a lot of this with the ’67 car when the Christine movie came out. Wish my cars were self repairing without the evil possession part!
Yes, the 1959 Plymouth was controversial! It had so much “design work” ideas going on on it looked like an amalgamation of too many thoughts at once! But that’s what made it interesting! I was a young Boy Scout in Santa Ana, CA, and my Scoutmaster had a nine-passenger station wagon, light blue! We all fought over the rear seat view because everyone knew what a road and scenery looked like when ahead! The Plymouth Belvedere wagon had remarkable road performance and power!, and I admired the car greatly! When my Scoutmaster’s wife got a brown wagon to match I drooled with envy! They made great sounds and were road- confident even when fully loaded! With big fins, push-button automatics they were automobiles that made the future feel already arrived!
Design-wise the egg crate grill seemed slightly unresolved in a broken waffle way, and I swear there was Packard influences afoot, especially with the “eyebrow” headlamp treatment. The post ”56, (yes “’56!) Plymouths were iconic, especially the ’57’s, which are for me one of the great American designs of the 20th Century!
And there was no question about it, Plymouths were NOT Chevrolets or Fords!
Thank God!
I have liked 56 Mopars for a long time. The 58s are growing on me. Just not feeling the 59s though.
My grandfather had a 59 Savoy with a flathead 6 and three on the tree. Probably exactly what those cabs in “Mad Mad World” were. Green with a white roof and grey interior. Rode that thing from Michigan to California and back in 63.. I may still have some 35mm slides from that trip somewhere.
I wouldn’t call the Christine tie-in ‘negative’ at all. People love horror movies and how many of these cars survive just because of that movie? Or any of the other examples? Although, WAY too many Chargers were destroyed making DOH….
Oh and how many solid black fullsize cargo vans got the red angle stripe and red turbine wheel treatment?
I thought the ’61 Plymouth Fury looked angrier than the ’58 and would have made a better Christine. But I suppose that tailfins carried the day. There was also a very nice ’68 Charger.
All of the cars of American Graffiti are memorable, not just Milner’s ’32 coupe which is actually mentioned in the refrain from Manfred Man’s ‘Blinded by the Light’ (“Revved-up like a deuce coupe, roarin’ in the night”, although it’s barely intelligble).
Kowalski’s white ’70 Challenger from ‘Vanishing Point’.
Jim Rockford’s Firebird.
The XB Falcon from ‘Mad Max’ comes to mind everytime I see a ’70-’71 Torino.
A 1959 Chevy 4-door hardtop reminds me of the Batmobile, which the Lincoln Futura was driven by Glenn Ford in ‘It Happened One Night’.
The Chrysler products featured on shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, The Brady Bunch and Mission: Impossible.
The GM products featured on shows like I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched.
The Ford products featured on The FBI and Hawaii Five-O.
Some memorable sixties’ car in ‘Goodfellas’ and earlier cars in ‘The Godfather’ movies.
‘Dazed and Confused’ had some good early seventies’ beater musclecars, including one of the rare sightings of a Duster 360. Considering how popular that car was, you’d think there’d be more of them in the media.
I think there was a good looking, malevolent ’69 GTX in ‘Phantasm’.
‘Pulp Fiction’ had a rather unlikely 1974 Nova and seventies’ Honda Civic, as well as an Acura NSX and ’64 Malibu convertible, the latter two both reportedly Quentin Tarantino’s personal cars.
Paul Newman drove an early seventies’ GTO in ‘Slap Shot’.
The seventies’ Pontiacs in both ‘The French Connection’ and ‘The Seven-Ups’, as well as the Mark III in the former movie.
‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ Eleanor Mustang.
Checker cabs are pretty bland and generic, but one featured prominently in ‘Taxi Driver’.
Eddie had a robin’s egg blue ’57 Chevy convertible in ‘Eddie and the Cruisers’.
James Bond movie cars.
Then there’s the whole pantheon of thirties/forties cars in old, b/w film noir movies, the best known probably those driven by Humphrey Bogart.
A good list, but IMO many of these are not burned strongly into the public’s collective consciousness. If someone walked outside and there was a white Corvette with red stripes painted on the sides, how many people today would recognize that it was from the A-Team?
You could also add the Ferraris from Magnum PI and Miami Vice, and the Mustang from Bullitt (which I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned by anyone yet). I have also seen at least one clone of the KITT Firebird from Knight Rider before.
> I think there was a good looking, malevolent ’69 GTX in ‘Phantasm’.
The Phamtasm movies featured E-body Plymouth Barracudas.
I will forever associate the M3 Lee tank with Bogart, air cooled engine and all.
Wasn’t that from ‘Sierra’?
“Sahara” 1943 .
My , we’re dating ourselves a bit to – day , non ? .
I can’t ever find that great movie on cable .
-Nate
And wasn’t the tank called Lulubelle?
TCM shows it every now and then. Set your DVR.
TCM shows it every now and then. Set your DVR.
Just don’t confuse it with the “Sahara” that was released just a few years ago.
Or, you could just start accumulating DVDs. I had a Bogart festival at casa del Steve last week: Sahara, Action in the North Atlantic, They Drive by Night, Dark Passage, To Have and Have Not and Casablanca.
I’ll probably get thrown out of here for this, but…
If I owned one, I’d paint in like Christine, too. I remember the taxis in “It’s a Mad,Mad,Mad, Mad World”, but those are just yellow taxis. They could have used any car.
I like Christine (The movie, I’ve never read the book, but I hope to soon). It’s the story of a man falling in love with a car. So what- he goes completely overboard, endangers the lives of his friends, and has a car that turns homicidal. As a person who loves cars and was bullied throughout High School, Arnie Cunningham’s story just speaks to me a little bit.
I like the red and white Plymouth Fury. To me, it’s a cultural icon, and that adds a little bit of special value to an already awesome car.
I know it sounds bad but I felt Arnie and Christine got the short end of the stick…
**many spoilers below**
-I mean you’ve got these 35 year old high school bullies threatening Arnie with switchblades, breaking into private property and destroying his car, and I’m supposed to feel scared for THEM when they’re hunted down by Christine???
-Then there’s arnies Arnie’s parents who basically raised him like the gestapo, I mean there have to be rules but they were strict, and they kind of dropped the ball judging by Arnies personality at the beginning frankly, so throwing him a bone with a POS old car he paid for really shouldn’t have merited the reaction it did by them. His Mom clearly didn’t like his best friend Dennis either, so way to prevent rebellion!
-And then you’ve got Dennis, Arnie’s cool jock friend who basically grows to resent Arnie because Arnie essentially ends up cooler than him as the story progresses, he’s got a cool car, a real job, dresses better and even gets the hot girl(Leigh), which of course Dennis is clearly jealous of.
These points are essentially why Christine was crushed by a bulldozer, which by the way Dennis and Leigh STOLE, tampering with a crime scene in the process and yet again, destroying someone elses property! This of course led to the death of Arnie himself(yay for Dennis, no more competition!)
Now ok, there were some things Christine and Arnie weren’t saints for, I mean choking his Dad was pretty cruel, especially after graciously offering up a new car(really his parents were uncharacteristically nice in that particular scene) and Christine killing Darnell was wrong, his only real negative to Arnie and Christine was that he was gruff, but he was to everyone, Christine didn’t have much of a sense of humor apparently.
Christine killed Darnell because he saw her self-driving into the building damaged (burned) and there couldn’t be any witnesses. Those bullies had it coming though. 🙂
I never saw the film before, so after reading this article finally decided to take a dive…
So the film is kinda OK for an early eighties movie (I didn’t like opening sequences, too much vulgarity and teen – comedy nonsense). Christine is cool, but young Alexandra Paul was way more interesting to look at 🙂
I can understand why Christine was jealous :-))))
Fun random fact before we move on – 1959 was the last year that the old sailing ship appeared on a Plymouth. That feature that had been so prominent up to that point was gone in 1960.
It may not be the exact same sailing ship image but my ’99 Plymouth Breeze that I finally drove into the ground last year had this ship on the grille as well as the driver’s air bag.
One year after Pontiac traded an Indian head for an arrow.
Wow, there’s a 59 near me that’s identical to this, color, condition, everything, only the one by me is a 2 door sedan. I keep meaning to take pictures but I always find myself in too much of a hurry on that particular route to stop. My first reaction is Christine too, and the property the car is located is eerily similar to LeBay’s in the movie, you know, that sort of woodsy weed filled look. Actually I’m kind of afraid to stop and take pics because I might end up like arnie if I’m not careful 😀
This started running thru my head when I saw the top picture.
A green ’59 Plymouth Savoy four door sedan figures in a favorite story of a couple local characters. “Weiner”, a wiry little guy, was a prodigious drinker with his firehall buds, his wife Tibby drove cheap older rusty used cars, the $25 backlot refugees.
Off ‘Weiner’ went on the firetruck to march in another small-town’s parade and fair, which included a demolition derby. Shortly, Tibby followed with the kids in the battered Plymouth, taking in the delights of the parade, carnival rides and entertainments.
Soon, seated in the bleachers, Tibby, along with the kids at the demo derby, one suddenly yelled out “look ma, dad’s put your car in the derby! Sure enough, ‘Weiner’ and his buds had removed the glass, painted a number on the door and that old green ’59 Savoy battled to its end. Tibby, ever unflappable, just wrote it off to ‘Weiner’ being ‘Weiner’. It was quickly replaced by another rusty, trusty old crate.
Can’t see one now but I think of ‘Weiner’ and Tibby!
This is an awesome story!
As an owner of a ’79 Monte Carlo, how I hated it when the film Training Day came out. All of a sudden, I started getting lots of offers to buy my car, inevitably with the person making the offer all excited about how they were going to tear into it, paint it black and turn it into a muscle-car-slash-pimpmobile. No thanks.
This is my thread for owning things. Long after my ’59 Fury, I owned a ’79 Monte Carlo, 70’s metalic brown. I didn’t hate things people said about it; I hated the car. I bought it even though I thought it was ugly because while I was driving it, there was one less for me to look at from the outside. My wife locked the baby in it once. The gasket around the trunk lid leaked gooey black adhesive all over us and our luggage. The paint failed early, as did the transmission and the carburetor. That ’79 Monte was the car that caused me to swear off General Motors cars forever!
Christine, for sure my first thought.
Boy, would I love one, but a bit modernized with a LS-6 or something under the hood ….
She is a beauty!!!