Vanishing Point **** (1971, Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger, Charlotte Rampling) – Classic Movie Review 3,239

Director Richard Sarafian’s modish 1971 car chase action thriller film Vanishing Point is still exciting and intriguing, and has now a reputation as a favourite cult hit of its era.

It has pretensions of reaching out into another dimension with its symbolism and surreal meanings, but it’s best just to sit back and enjoy it as the ultimate car chase movie, as Barry Newman stars as car delivery driver Kowalski who delivers hot rods in record time but runs into trouble with the highway patrol.

To win a bet, Kowalski tries to deliver a 1970 Dodge Challenger car from Denver, Colorado, to San Francisco in less than 15 hours, the kind of short time that obviously attracts police attention. But blind disc jockey Super Soul (Cleavon Little, the Sheriff from Blazing Saddles) has a handy police radio scanner and helps old Kowalski out with warnings about police signals.  Cue gay hitch-hikers (Arthur Malet, Karl Swenson) and a naked woman riding a motorbike.

Vanishing Point may be often quite baffling, mystifying and essentially quite empty, but, boy, it’s entertaining! The great stunts, stupendous chase sequences, the Seventies rock music, the dazzling visuals by ace cinematographer John A Alonzo, and director Sarafian’s compelling sense of cinema keep it as mesmerising as a piece of cheap glass glinting in the sun.

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends appear. Also in the cast are Dean Jagger, Victoria Medlin, Paul Koslo and Robert Donner (as deputies), Charlotte Rampling (see below), Timothy Scott, Glida Texter, Anthony James, Severn Darden and Rita Coolidge.

The UK version runs nearly seven minutes longer than the US version and is featured on the US DVD, which has both versions. It features the missing cut Charlotte Rampling hitch-hiker scene.

Barry Newman (November 7, 1930 – May 11, 2023) was best known for Fear Is the Key (1972) and the 1971 film Vanishing Point, as well as the 1970s TV series Petrocelli.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,239

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/