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Blog: MotorMouth by Kris Palmer

Octane’s 50 Best Car Movies

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

Last night I dug into Netflix’s lastest arrival–The Haunting (1963). Wow. Talk about great cinematography. The sprawling mansion, lavishly eclectic interior and cool camera angles are a feast for the horror film fan.

But this is a classic car site, so I can’t gas on about that too long. Fortunately, moving some stuff around in my office I came across the January ‘07 issue of Octane–one of the last magazines I bought at the downtown Shinder’s, the best, most missed newstand of my life. In it is Octane’s “totally biased and subjective guide to the best car movies ever.”

Seems like a list worth sharing because there have to be flicks here many of us have not seen:

American Graffiti (1973) (one of the TBirds from which is here in MN)

The Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

The Blue Lamp (1950)

The Blues Brothers (1980) (Yeah baby. Got my vote, there.)

Brannigan (1975)

Bullitt (1968) (we’ve talked about it often)

The Car (1978)

Chase a Crooked Shadow (1957) (They really liked this and man, great title)

Checkpoint (1956)

Christine (1983)

Danger Diabolik (1968)

The Day of the Jackal (1973)

The Devil’s Hairpin (1957)

Duel (1971)

Echappement Libre (Backfire) (1964)

The Fast Lady (1962)

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

The French Connection (1971)

Genevieve (1953)

Goldfinger (1964) (good year for car writers :^)

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

Goodbye Pork Pie (1980)

[Gumball Rally (1976) (OK, Octane omitted this, but come on…)]

Grand Prix (1966)

The Green Helmet (1961)

Hell Drivers (1957)

Une Homme et Une Femme (we can all translate that) (1966)

The Italian Job (1969)

Johnny Dark (1954)

The Last Run (1971)

Le Mans (1971)

Life at the Top (1965)

The Lively Set (1964)

The Love Bug (1968)

The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)

The Mechanic (1972)

Psychomania (1971)

Red Line 7000 (1965)

Robbery (1967)

Ronin (1998)

The Running Man (1963) (no, not the Stephen King/Arnold Schwarzenegger one)

The Seven Ups (1973)

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life) (1962)

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

Topkapi (1964)

Two for the Road (1967)

Vanishing Point (1971)

Weekend (1967)

The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964)
Wow. Cool list from Octane (one of the best car mags out there, for those unfamiliar with it–particularly for the classic car fan).

Got some new names for the Netflix queue.

8 Responses to "Octane’s 50 Best Car Movies"

Dave G says:

May 19th, 2008 at 8:50 am

Interesting list. I haven’t see some of these. I’ll have to save this list and take some of them in.

Thanks for posting this Kris

Kris Palmer says:

May 19th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

Let us know what you think. I was amazed by the number of car films they pulled out. I think I’m gonna try Chase a Crooked Shadow first, if Netflix has it.

Dave Haddy says:

May 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

Where the heck is Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry on that list? Or The Driver? Or Two Lane Blacktop?

Lot of good movies on there, though

Kris Palmer says:

May 20th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

Good questions, Dave–guess the Brits get different car movies than we do. (Octane’s out of the UK.) But it’s an advantage for stuff we haven’t seen.

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry has to be in part responsible for the Charger’s rise in value. We all saw it, loved how that thing moved out, and cringed! at that lousy train!!

Dave G says:

May 20th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

That car was cool, but the car in the movie that fascinated me was the car used by the Larry’s partner to scope things out. It was a ‘66 Impala 4dr hardtop that sounded pretty nasty. It would’ve made for a sneaky sleeper, eh wot?? (

And hey!! Where the heck is “California Kid?!?!?!?!?!
:(

Kris Palmer says:

May 20th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

I remember watching California Kid on TV at home with the family in Malvern, PA. I can picture exactly how the “duel” between the evil sheriff and the black hot rod plays out. Cool movie.

There was another one I remember about a Chevy Bel Air with two engines–one in the trunk. A pair of brothers raced it but other complexities eventually overwhelmed them. One of the brothers was named Bo, because I remember hearing the other say, “The car’s done, Bo”–meaning finished–at which point I kinda lost interest. Course the weight penalty having two engines would limit the gain, particularly in handling!

Anybody else see that one?

Ron says:

December 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 am

This site is really superb!!! Thank you for you work! Good Luck

John says:

March 6th, 2009 at 7:47 am

Great site. I will bookmark for my sons to view as well!!!

Please leave a comment

MotorMouth Kris Palmer, freelance auto writer and editor, blogs about vintage cars, the collectible auto scene and just about anything else that goes vroom.

Your favorite: classic car blog, antique car blog, muscle car blog, vintage car blog. Antique and classic cars for sale by owner.

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