Cannonball [Carquake] *** (1976, David Carradine, Bill McKinney, Veronica Hamel) – Classic Movie Review 9320

Co-writer/ director Paul Bartel’s 1976 Cannonball [Carquake] is a follow-up in similar action vein to his 1975 hit Death Race 2000, this time a full-on Seventies-style slap-up comedy action adventure about the ruthless people, chiefly Coy ‘Cannonball’ Buckman (David Carradine) and Cade Redman (Bill McKinney), who compete for a $100,000 prize in an illegal cross-country car race – a sort of The Cannonball Run five years before that movie.

Cannonball is full of lots of crashes, cussing, stunts and violence, while Carradine and Veronica Hamel (as Linda Maxwell) raise some laughs too in an entertaining, dynamic if chaotic movie. Among the cameo players are Sylvester Stallone, James Keach and Dick Miller, and directors Roger Corman, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Kaplan, Allan Arkush, Paul Bartel and Joe Dante.

The screenplay is by Paul Bartel and Don Simpson.

Also in the cast are Gerrit Graham, Judy Canova, Robert Carradine, Carl Gottlieb, Belinda Balaski, Archie Hahn, David Arkin and Wendy Bartel.

Cannonball was released as Carquake in the UK on 21 May 1977.

Deathsport (1978), again with David Carradine, is the sequel to Death Race 2000, with motorcycles instead of cars.

Cannonball [Carquake] is directed by Paul Bartel, runs 93 minutes, is made by Cross Country Productions, Harbor Productions, New World Pictures and Shaw Brothers, is released by New World, is written by Paul Bartel and Donald C Simpson [Don Simpson], is shot by Tak Fujimoto (Metrocolor), is produced by Samuel W Gelfman, is scored by David A Axelrod and designed by Michel Levesque.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9320

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