Chevelles (and
other A-bodies) in Movies and TV -- the disco decade
Back in the days, this was a time
in which OPEC imposed an oil embargo, and this resulted in the first energy
crisis of 1973, and 1979. This was a time in which the 60s vehicles
were in a transition phase, when Detroit managed to focus on safety concerns
and stringent EPA regulations. Keep in mind that what is seen in
movies and TV are immortalized for life.
Jack Nicholson gets out of his 1964 Mercury Park Lane sedan,
and a white 1964 El Camino and red 1964 Chevelle hardtop are seen in treffic.
The driver of the Chevelle says "Get off my car!" after Jack Nicholson
stands on the front bumper. This takes place during a traffic jam
scene on a highway outside El Paso (?TX), just before he hops into a flatbed
truck with a piano.
Nostalgia scenes include a Standard (Calso/Chevron) and
Gulf gas station, which might bring back a lot of memories to collectibles
of gas station memorabilia.
Dean Jones is seen right in front of a traffic intersection,
and a 1970 Chevelle 2-door hardtop is seen in the background, just before
a Ford pickup shows up.
A 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser is seen as the picture car.
Before the Vista Cruiser is seen, a 1969 Chevelle hardtop is seen, parked
in front of a deaprtment store, where the kids first go into town.
After the opening credits (one of the vehicles in the NYC
traffic is a 1965 Chevelle 300), where the scene shifts to a shoeshine
store, a 1968 Chevelle station wagon is seen through the windows (LH side
of the above pic). During a street scene in Harlem, a 1971 Grand
Prix and a 1968 Cutlass are seen as parked cars.
Trivial note: Tommy Lane (the hitman that hops out
of Shaft's window) is well known as Adam in Live and Let Die (1973).
He's the one that clubs a park ranger and ends up wearing gasoline (right
after 007 fills a pot with fuel during the boat chase scene).
A 1971 Pontiac LeMans 4-door hardtop sedan (driven by Gene
Hackman) is used in the chase scene under the Brooklyn El-train, and battered.
A 1968 El Camino (driven by Bud Cort) with a tree in the
back is seen, and they have a run-in with a motorcycle cop (Tom
Skerritt, well known for the Aleve commercials).
After the scene where the police raid an apartment complex,
there is a scene in which Sweetback is on the run, and one of the stock
footage scenes had a 1965 El Camino seen making a right turn.
The ultimate musclecar film of all time, which features a
yellow 1970 GTO (with Keystone rims) as the picture car. Several
classic GM A-bodies are seen, which include a 1965 El Camino (during the
first scene with the nighttime cruise), a 1968 Cutlass S hardtop (seen
parked in front of a diner, where Warren Oates makes a U-turn, and spots
the 55 Chevrolet), a 1970 Chevelle station wagon (wrecked, and is seen
where the 55 Chevy swerves off the road), a 1969 Chevelle hardtop (at the
Memphis dragstrip), and last, but not least, a 1970 El Camino SS 396 (seen
during the final drag racing scene, on an airport runway). In the
background shot during the final drag racing scene, a 1970 Chevelle 4-door
is seen, as well as a 1967 Chevelle hardtop.
Note: the 1955 Chevrolet is powered by a big block,
and the car was rebuilt for use in American
Grafitti (1973).
During the opening credits, a 1971 Grand Prix and 1965 Vista
Cruiser are seen as parked cars. After Goldie Hawn is upset at Ms.
Baker, she exits her station wagon (a 1971 Chevrolet Caprice Estate), and
a 1970 or 1971 Chevelle wagon is seen in traffic.
Kris Kristofferson is seen driving a 1971 Chevelle Concours
station wagon, where he is spotted in a drug deal.
A 1969/70 Grand Prix is seen (the camera is set up inside
a Ford Econoline van, and the Grand Prix is seen driving by), during the
traffic diversion, when Steve McQueen goes into a storm drain, and cuts
a power main. When Steve McQueen gets out of the van, a dark green
1968 GTO passes by. After crossing the border, a 1968 Chevelle hardtop
is seen in a row of parked cars.
After Michael Douglas escapes from the local town police
precinct, he hijacks a motorcycle, and there is a scene where he rides
on the sidewalk. A red 1967 Chevelle 2-door hardtop and a 1969 Chevelle
(nose only visible in a brief scene) are seen as parked cars.
A 1969 Chevelle 2-door hardtop is seen, parked on a street
corner, and there is a scene where Walter Matthau drives a rented 1972
Buick Skylark.
A 1969/70 Grand Prix is seen, parked on the side of the street,
where a drug rehab facility (the BNS House) is located. This particular
scene occurs when the LAPD serve a warrant. A similar Grand Prix
shows up as a parked car, when Cleopatra Jones Vette is seen during a chase
scene. A 1967 Mustang ends up crashing into 3 port-a-potties, and
before the Mustang crashes, a 1972 El Camino is seen, in a row of parked
cars (when watching this particular scene, set your VCRs on slow motion
sequence). Before the scene where Cleo goes to a drug pusher's apartment,
a group of street kids are seen, and a 1973 El Camino is seen in traffic.
Before locating Tiffany (the woman that flees from the limousine during
the hit), a 1967 LeMans hardtop is seen in traffic, before Cleo pulls her
Vette into a repair facility.
Jeff Bridges drives a 1965 Chevelle, which is a stock car
for circle track racing.
A 1964 Pontiac Tempest 4-door sedan is seen in the parking
lot, after the jewel robbers leave the crime scene. The same parking
lot had a 1963 Chevy II parked, but the Chevy II was blown up, after a
1965 Mustang crashes into the car. In a later scene, Ruby Harris
(Vonetta McGee) goes to Freddie's apartment, and when the taxicab (a 1971
Dodge Coronet) pulls up, a 1969 Pontiac LeMans hardtop is seen. This
is where two hitmen hide in the apartment, and where Ruby is killed.
One of the hitmen flees from the scene, and when he is in an alley, a 1970-72
Oldsmobile Cutlass hardtop is seen (he hops into a 1968 Ford LTD sedan).
Note: the hardtops seen are 2-door coupes.
There is a chase scene in which Donald Sutherland goes for
a joyride in a Maserati, and one of the cars seen in traffic is a 1969/70
Pontiac Grand Priz. In a later scene, when Eddie Stell (Jon Cypher)
is tailed by undercover FBI agents, he is sitting in a taxicab (a 1970
Chevrolet Bel Air), and a 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser is seen.
Later, when Donald Sutherland is in hot pursuit (he drives a 1966 Ford
Mustang convertible) of a motor home (where the diamond exchange is taking
place), he ends up in an RV parking lot, and there is a brief glimpse of
a 1971 or 1972 Chevelle station wagon.
Right after the bar scene, where a heroin addict is defenestrated
(after the opening sequence), a 1971/72 GTO is seen, right before the camera
zooms towards Robert De Niro. In a later scene, two teens want to
purchase firecrackers and smoke bombs, and they end up in the back seat
of a Chrysler New Yorker. In the next scene, which takes place in
the evening, a 1970 Cutlass 2-door hardtop is seen in traffic. Another
Cutlass (a 1972 Cutlass Supreme Holiday Coupe) is seen as a picture car,
where a drunk teen is left on a Little Italy street corner (right after
David Carradine is shot, and dies on the sidewalk).
Trivial note: Martin Scorsese's breakthrough film.
Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds) is the one that kills the drunk
(David Carradine) in the bathroom.
A couple of 1970 Chevelles are seen in a few traffic sequences,
which includes a convertible (right after the opening credits) and a 4-door
hardtop sedan (where a mobster is kidnapped by a crooked NYPD detective
and a hitman). During the chase sequence, a 1969 Chevelle convertible,
along with a 1965 Chevelle sedan, are seen during the "hot pursuit", as
well as a few Oldsmobile Cutlasses (a 1969-72 hardtop and a 1966 Vista
Cruiser on the Taconic State Parkway). When the suspect (the parking
garage attendant) hops into a taxicab, a 1972 Cutlass Supreme is seen,
parked in front of an NYPD precinct.
One of the Asian thugs drives a 1973 Pontiac LeMans Colonnade
coupe, and is seen a couple of times. In an earlier scene, when the
African-American cop is kidnapped and shoved into a U-Haul truck, a 1970
Monte Carlo is seen.
Note: in this movie, Chuck Norris' voice (as well
as the African American and Caucasian actors in this film) is dubbed by
some unknown British or Asian actor.
During the opening credits, when Stan Boyle (William Bryant)
ditches a 1968 Chevrolet Bel Air sedan in a used car lot (after doing a
couple of hits), he walks past a blue 1966 El Camino parked on a streetcorner.
When McQ (Duke) conducts a stakeout, a 1973 Chevelle Laguna station wagon
is seen, when Duke uses a telephoto lens to snap a mugshot to ID a hitman.
In a later scene, the Duke follows a Chevrolet van, and when he parks his
Trans Am in the parking lot, a 1972 Buick Skylark and Oldsmobile Vista
Cruiser station wagon are seen. There are a few 1973 Chevrolet Bel
Airs (and one Impala) used as picture cars, in which one of them is a getaway
car, another has both right tires shot and its rear window shattered from
gunfire. The finale (filmed on the Olympic Peninsula, on a Native
American land reserve) had two Impalas used, in which one was the stunt
vehicle that rolls over several times (a pole is used to tip the car over)
when Duke pulls out a MAC 10.
*This is one of John Wayne's (The Duke) films that was
not a Western or a military drama, in which he portrayed a cop, a la Clint
Eastwood. He originally turned down the lead in Dirty Harry (Dirty
Harry was originally played by Frank Sinatra, but Clint Eastwood was the
last actor to have the part), but this movie was a little too late in his
long acting career before his death on June 11, 1979 of lung cancer.
A 1964 El Camino is seen in the parking lot of a motel, where
the undercover cops arrive in a 1969 Plymouth Valiant. After the
prison break, two female convicts (Erica
Gavin and Juanita
Brown) are at a gas station, and a 1964 or 1965 El Camino is seen,
parked in front of a restaurant. This is where they steal a cop car.
When Wilson and Maggie pull up to the Los Alamos Currency Exchange, she
drives a 1974 Plymouth Satellite coupe, and a 1972 El Camino is seen, parked
on the street. She parks behind a 1971 or 1972 Pontiac Ventura II,
which is the getaway car used by the holdup men.
Trivial note: directed by Jonathan
Demme. The LAPD squad car (the picture car), a 1973 Ford Custom
500, was previously seen in Enter
The Dragon (1973), where Williams (Jim Kelly) is harassed by the cops.
The REAL LAPD squads from that era were 1972 or 1973 AMC Matadors.
A classic movie, based on an actual event in 1969, had Goldie
Hawn, William (Ghostbusters, Die Hard) Atherton, and the late Ben Johnson.
There was a scene where a shootout occurs in a used car lot, and a 1966
SS was blown up and toasted. (Submitted by Gene McGill)
At the beginning of the film, a 1974 Chevelle 4-door is seen
as the "picture car", where the first victim, House, is bleeding in the
back seat. The car was driven by two white kids "makin' it" in the
woods. In a later scene, where Jim Brown is being fired at by white
supremacists (in a 1969 Plymouth Fury and a 1970 Ford Galaxie 500), a 1973
Pontiac Grand Prix is seen in a parking garage. A scene where Jim
Kelly (Enter the Dragon,
Black Belt Jones) uses his kung-fu on the Chicago P.D., a 1969 Buick Skylark
4-door sedan is seen, as a parked car. A 1968 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
station wagon is used in a later scene where a showdown takes place at
a water treatment plant. Before the conclusion, a 1965 Chevelle is
blown up, where the three men (Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Jim Kelly)
destroy all of the vehicles used by the white supremacists.
Trivial note: the kung fu scene, with Jim Kelly,
was spoofed in the blaxploitation parody I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).
Stock shots of the streets of San Francisco included a 1972
Buick Skylark, seen as a parked car. During the chase scene, where
Herbie (a 1963 VW Beetle) is fleeing from 3 1972 Lincoln Continentals,
a 1972 Luxury LeMans is seen, parked on top of a parking garage.
Trivial note: this was one of the films that Helen
Hayes would star in, after retiring from stage acting, until her death.
She is the adopted mother of James MacArthur, well known as Danny "Danno"
Williams on the longest running police drama of all time, Hawaii
Five-O.
During the opening credits, where Sidney Poitier is on a
bus, a 1967 Chevelle hardtop is seen in a row of parked cars on a Chicago
street corner.
Trivial note: directed by Sidney
Poitier. The opening scenes take place in Chicago, but all of
the subsequent scenes were filmed in Los Angeles and Burbank, CA.
The picnic scene was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, and the bridge that
is seen is familar to TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard.
There is a scene in which Victoria Principal (with a big
Afro) in which she runs out of a movie theater, and in the next shot, a
maroon 1965 Chevelle is seen, parked. The Chevelle is missing a RH taillight
lens. There are several Bowties seen, from a few Impalas (a 1960,
1963, and a 1965 fastback hardtop), a 1963/64 Chevy II, and a few 1973/74
Chevrolet pickups (which includes a silver Blazer with a Safari top, probably
a movie car used by Universal Studios). A 1974 Camaro and a Vega are seen
as picture vehicles, which was parked in the Wilson Plaza parking garage,
in which an aftershock levels the entire edifice (a horrific scene).
Trivial note: Victoria Principal and George Kennedy
also starred on Dallas, but George Kennedy came in the following season
(1988) after Victoria Principal (Pamela Barnes Ewing) left during the end
of the 10th season.
When Mack "Truck" Turner (Issac "Shaft" Hayes), is in hot
pursuit of a fugitive (Paul Harris, portraying a pimp), a bar scene takes
place.. Truck's partner is outside, and a 1966 Chevelle hardtop coupe
is seen, parked outside. In a later scene, where a hitman spots Truck
and Annie with grocery bags, Truck kills the hitman, and a black 1968 Chevelle
is seen in a parking lot. Several first generation A-bodies are spotted,
which include a 1970 Pontiac Tempest coupe, a couple of 1965 Vista Cruisers,
a 1968 Buick Special, and a 1972 Cutlass sedan.
Trivial note: Nichelle
"Uhura" Nichols is REAL slutty and mean as a madam who avenges her
pimp's death. Star
Trek fans wouldn't miss this classic.
Classic car enthusiasts will run to the restroom after seeing a 1967 Mustang
totalled (during the pursuit scene, a 1965 Continental is totalled, and
rams the Mustang twice).
80's-Era
Movies
1990s
and Beyond
A-Car
Sightings
*Listed in WhoWhere
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