We head back to the 1970s this week for our House of Shame Roundtable Review of THE CAR, a neat little film starring James Brolin as a cop trying to save his southwestern town from the menace of a car possessed by Satan!

We finally have a full roundtable this week, consisting of film critic/cinematic guru Bill Cooke, writer/director Ashlon Langley, and Stewart Grinton, a video producer/editor.

Lets get started!

Ashlon: After Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg) but before Christine (1983, John Carpenter), Universal pictures distributed the Elliot Silverstein-directed effort, The Car (1977). This little drive-in gem snuck it’s way in front of me and promised great things. I think it shamefully delivers.

Andy: Obviously, the filmmakers borrowed a bit from DUEL or JAWS, but I think THE CAR holds up well on its own. You can’t help raising your fist and cheering when “The Car” goes sideways, then vertical and bowls over everything in its way, landing upright and continuing through the landscape. Lets see the shark from Jaws try that.

Ashlon: This shamefully choice moment is followed by the car literally jumping through a house, doing in Lauren (Kathleen Lloyd), the love interest of poor forlorn deputy Wade (Brolin).

Bill: I’m still trying to figure out how it did that. The house would have to be situated in the middle of the road!

Ashlon: What’s even better is the town’s triumvirate bent on protecting the good citizens Santa Ynez. This trio includes the drunken crybaby Luke (Ronny Cox), the wife-beating, dynamite-toting, hippie-stomping town madman known as Amos Clements (R.G. Armstrong), and Denson (Or is it Chas?), the mumbling Navajo deputy played by Eddie Little Sky or Henry O’Brien, you decide!

Stewart: What on earth are the recruiting standards for that sad little town anyway? Quite the cross section of under-qualified authority figures if you ask me. Except for Brolin of course. My favorite character of the film was the Sheriff by far. That guy was over the top and then some. I mean… “God… DAMN!”

Andy: So, what parallel universe did THE CAR take place in? The town consisted of a fraternity of inept, over-sensitive police officers, two teachers, some children and an abuse husband who just so happened to have a truckload of dynamite. Oh, and a French horn-playing hitchhiker.

The lack of “life” in the town, along with the arid desert setting, created a strange, off-kilter mise-en-scene. As if the residents here were trapped in hell itself, or purgatory.

Bill: I like your theory about the town’s displacement, its equivalence to purgatory. The desert scenery was beautiful…

What did you think of the Car itself? Did you find it scary… Menacing… Or silly?

Stewart: I thought the car was larger than life. I’m no car guy but I did find the vehicle unmistakably unique. It looked almost cartoonish in it’s exaggerated styling. Like something you’d see in the animated CARS or even SIN CITY. The air horn was straight out of the cab of the truck in DUEL.

Ashlon: I thought the car was menacing enough. Some of the stunts made it equal parts shamefully choice and utterly silly — a B-movie recipe for success in my book. I’d still like to know how the design came about. Who needs the Batmobile when you can have… THE CAR!

Andy: The car itself has a raked, hateful quality. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster of a car. It looks like a hearse, a Rolls-Royce and an old Ford mashed up into one greasy blunt instrument of destruction.

I found the musical-but-menacing quality of its horn jarring and flinch-inducing. It had a “hurry-up” quality to it that was tense and nerve-jangling. It’s motor had an angry growl too.

Bill: Yes, the horn is a nice touch - it even harmonizes with Leonard Rosenman’s score. Either Rosenman helped create the sound or at the very least he constructed his music around it. It’s a terrific score, full of Rosenman’s distinct brand of dissonance, his dense stacking of chords, and his penchant for aggressive action writing. He also incorporates the Dies Irae, that medieval plainsong for the dead (later used in the opening titles of THE SHINING), as a major theme. This was Rosenman’s second assignment in the “Devils on Wheels” sub-genre after RACE WITH THE DEVIL.

I love how near the climax, Rosenman’s score, which has been going full throttle for a long time, suddenly stops on a cut to a long shot of the canyon. All you hear are the sounds of The Car and Brolin’s motorcycle ricocheting off the canyon walls. It was a very strange and poetic effect.

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