The Dirty Mary Crazy Larry 1969 Charger

[SRT-440]

thats was intresting ! talk over with the director !!  need to watch it a few times to take it all in !! i guessed that was filmed at reel speed , thats what makes it soo real ! none of tis modern day camera trickery

BTW:  there was plenty of undercranked (fast-forward) chase footage in DMCL if you know how to spot it.  I think DMCL looks better than the average chase because it was fast driving + moderately undercranked footage.  Lots of modern movies give us slow driving + severely undercranked footage.


Real speed chase footage is so rare in Hollywood that I think it visually stands out more than the faked stuff.  In honest-to-god real speed the cars look kind of sluggish & heavy compared to what we're used to seeing.
 
 

I've always wondered or assumed that in the movie The Blues Brothers that there are a couple scenes that they are really going fast no "movie magic"...like towards the end the monaco looked like it was bout to take flight..lol.

[69 OUR/TEA]

Watch the version with commentary too, that is interesting (to me).

 ok will do Ghoste  

thats was intresting ! talk over with the director !!  need to watch it a few times to take it all in !! i guessed that was filmed at reel speed , thats what makes it soo real ! none of tis modern day camera trickery ,
 mentioned 6 chargers i think  
   heres a couple of screen shots i took last night !!( will resize more later)    both of the 68  , one looks like it had a roll bar( see bottom picture) or could be the edge of the side glass ! but looks too thick  & the other ! dont think it has  

Actually tantop,that looks like the rear side window is rolled up and you are looking at the reflection and is making it look clear thru ,and what appears to be thick is just the black interior in view on the other side of the window.You can tell by following the edge of the back window right around and down.

[69 OUR/TEA]

Meaning,no rollbar,just the way it happens to appear.

[Ghoste]

The 68 car definitely had a roll bar in it.  IF there were two 68's then it may be possible that one did not but as far as I know, there was a single 1968 Charger used for some of the hairier stunt scenes and it very much did have a roll bar.
I'll find a publicity still that shows it.

[69 OUR/TEA]

IMO,this car in both of tan tops pics,on the bridge and the second pic on the street does not have a roll bar.Look at the pic on the bridge and look thru the back window,you do not see a bar coming down from the roof to the floor on the drivers side interior about where a bar would.You can see the guardrail and the water though.Also,the pass rear side window IS rolled up.
Second pic,on the street,the angle it is being shot at looking up,would make the interior sailpanel area headliner area way to thin if this was a rollbar,again window rolled up.
If you do have a shot of a 68 with a roll bar it is one of two things,either another car,or this one and it was put in after this scene was filmed.

[Ghoste]

I think that is the gist of what he was saying, that there could be a second 68.

[Khyron]

wasn't model maker on the set?

[Ghoste]

I don't think so, I forget now but he'll likely chime in soon and set the record straight but IIRC he bought the car after the movie was done and there were still notes in the trunk.
If you have the dvd, carefully look at the cover and you will clearly see the rollbar inside the car, then take a look at where the door lock buttons are on that car. 

[Ghoste]

You can see it here.

[69 OUR/TEA]

Yup,I agree,def a 68 w/ a rollbar.But not the one from the pic on the bridge,clearly you can see thru the back window out the drivers side,the guardrail and even the concrete pillar for the guardrail,no rollbar.This pic of yours could be the 68 car with the  69 tailights hacked in that they show hobbling into the trees.The one on the bridge has 68 tailights.

[Ghoste]

Which would make sense because my understanding was always that the rollbar car was for stunts (as mentioned before).  The rollbar car is also used to shove the cop car into the canal or river or whatever it was and when it slams it in it appears to have the 69 taillights in it.

[69 OUR/TEA]

So does this mean there could have been 4 cars,2 68's and 2 69's?Cause 2 69's were definite,an R/T  and a non R/T.

[squeakfinder]

Yeah, door locks to the rear of those doors....

[DC_1]

You can see it here.

Definately a 68.......look at the door lock buttons

[Ghoste]

So does this mean there could have been 4 cars,2 68's and 2 69's?Cause 2 69's were definite,an R/T  and a non R/T.

I think there could have even been 3 69's.  Not sure though.  This will give me another excuse to watch it again  and maybe this time do a lot of frame by frame stuff.

[69 OUR/TEA]

NTM,take note on their 65 Chevy in the begining,sometimes shown with all its hubcaps,other times missing one here or there.(very begining going up the hill.)

[Ghoste]

I think they may have used more than one of those too.  It wasn't 65 though was it, I thought it was 67?

[model maker]

When they were rolling into Linden, Ca. on the way to the pool hall, look at the drivers door mirror and you will see a yellow charger along side of it in the reflection, they used the other charger as a camera car and being yellow would not be noticible in the yellow paint of the onscreen car. Also look in peters glasses and you can see the camera & lights reflected. Try & get a screen grab of the charger as it limps off the road into the grove to "fix the wheel" as it rolls through the camera view, look at the quarter panel & notice NO red reflector and in the stripe next to 440  you can see the round 68 fender lamp, then take a look at the hack job taillights and missing reverse lights in the lower pan. In the chase scene after the chopper lands and the charger makes a squealing hard right past the farm workers and thier farm truck parked on the side of the road, zoom in and get a screen grab of the 6 ft. stainless steel CB antennae that shows up in that 1 scene only, the smaller CB antennae is also on the rear side window. after all these years i had forgotten where i got it in the first place. I have held onto it all these years and never noticed it in the movie until i freeze framed & zoomed in. I was very happy I decided to watch the movie again that day last month.

[Khyron]

thats all cool and stuff, but how many Chargers where used?

[Mike DC]

                

I've always wondered or assumed that in the movie The Blues Brothers that there are a couple scenes that they are really going fast no "movie magic"...like towards the end the monaco looked like it was bout to take flight..lol.

Everyone who was there agrees that they had that car going 100+ mph in downtown Chicago numerous times.  And watching the footage I am inclined to agree.  My guess is that they got that car up as fast as they realistically could (maybe 80-110 in those circumstances) and the final film looks like maybe 1.5 times that.



What's really goofy is how fast Akroyd & Belushi themselves were going in some of those shots.  You just don't do that with the real actors when anyone from the studio is watching the production.  (And those pillars on either side of the downtown Chicago streets for the el-train tracks . . . think of that Olympian that just got killed on the luge track . . . )  

   

[tan top]

Watch the version with commentary too, that is interesting (to me).

 ok will do Ghoste  

thats was intresting ! talk over with the director !!  need to watch it a few times to take it all in !! i guessed that was filmed at reel speed , thats what makes it soo real ! none of tis modern day camera trickery ,
 mentioned 6 chargers i think  
   heres a couple of screen shots i took last night !!( will resize more later)    both of the 68  , one looks like it had a roll bar( see bottom picture) or could be the edge of the side glass ! but looks too thick   & the other ! dont think it has  

Actually tantop,that looks like the rear side window is rolled up and you are looking at the reflection and is making it look clear thru ,and what appears to be thick is just the black interior in view on the other side of the window.You can tell by following the edge of the back window right around and down.

yeah looking at it again i think your right Paul

I think that is the gist of what he was saying, that there could be a second 68.

yes Ghoste , thats how it looks to me

So does this mean there could have been 4 cars,2 68's and 2 69's?Cause 2 69's were definite,an R/T  and a non R/T.

i think that might be the case , going to do more screen shots

[squeakfinder]

I think they may have used more than one of those too.  It wasn't 65 though was it, I thought it was 67?

It was a 66. I owned a 66 Impala 2 door back in the 80's. I think the dispatcher calls it a 67 though. Might be a Bis cane or Caprice?

[Ghoste]

Impala for sure, or at least the one they do the repairs to inside that barn because there are a couple of good shots of the Impala badge on the fender.

[69 OUR/TEA]

I always get those 65,66 impalas mixed up,the diff in the tailights and other very slight things always gets me.But yeah,def knew it was never a 67 as said in movie.

[troy.70R/T]

Real great story. Any VIN# yet?   I do have one idea how you might passably find the vin #. I know that the department of motor vehicles will not let me do a title search on a car that I just bought. However when I was in there last time the were able to tell me the vin # to a Monte Carlo that I had long since gotten rid of. just thought That might work I know it a long shot especially if it was not entered in to a computer back then.