Movies - Cannonball Run

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	Movies - Cannonball Run

Category:1981 films

Cannonball Run was a campy, screwball comedy movie released in 1981 that starred Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise and Farrah Fawcett. Hal Needham was the director and had an uncredited role as an emergency medical technician. The premise is very similar to the earlier Cannonball
and The Gumball Rally
(both 1976). It also has a sequel, Cannonball Run II

Plot details

Reynolds and DeLuise play has-been race car driver "J.J. McClure" and his mild-mannered mechanic "Victor Prinzim" (with a superhero alter ego, "Captain Chaos") who run the Cannonball in an ambulance, a heavily modified Dodge Tradesman van which was actually used in the original running of the Cannonball. In an attempt to appear legitimate to law enforcement, Victor hires "Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing," an inebriated physician of questionable skill played by Jack Elam. They kidnap young photographer "Pamela Glover" (Farrah Fawcett) nicknamed "Beauty" to be their "patient." Though Beauty protests her apprehension at first, she eventually comes around to the idea of being a participant in the race. A scene where the ambulance is stopped by law enforcement for speeding to California since the patient was "unable to fly" is based on an actual event.

Based on a true story, See Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, the movie is based on a cross-country rally from Ohio to the pier at Redondo Beach, California organized by automotive journalist Brock Yates.

Cast

Cannonball Run had its share of stars. Among them:

Dean Martin
and Sammy Davis, Jr.
respectively as aging and perpetually inebriated ex-Formula One driver "Jamie Blake" and Las Vegas gambler "Morris Fenderbaum" who run the race in a Ferrari while disguised as Catholic priests. Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder played their bookie.

George Furth
played "Arthur J. Foyt." Despite sharing a name with racing legend A. J. Foyt, Foyt was an anti-automobile fanatic who tried to have the race stopped. Instead, he wound up in a number of hilarious predicaments.

Roger Moore
played "Seymour Goldfarb, Jr." as a self-parody of his role as James Bond. Goldfarb is a character who thinks he's Roger Moore
and who therefore stylizes himself as James Bond. His car is an Aston Martin DB5 like the one in the original Bond films. Molly Picon
portrayed his mother, who referred to her son "as if he were some goy movie star named Roger Moore
".

Jackie Chan
played the driver of the Japanese entry, a Subaru that was constantly getting lost despite all the high-tech gadgetry aboard. Michael Hui
played the Japanese engineer and navigator.

Jamie Farr
appeared as "Shiek Abdul ben Falafel," a wealthy Arab determined to win the race even if he has to buy it. Bianca Jagger
makes a brief appearance as his sister. Farr's racer is a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. This character is the only one to appear in all three films in the Cannonball Run movie continuum.

Terry Bradshaw
and Mel Tillis are a couple of "good ol' boys" whose thinly disguised Chevrolet Malibu NASCAR stocker .

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Movies - Cannonball Run

Plot details

Cast

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