Forget Crash - either one – Grand Theft Auto (1977) is the real movie about the human need for collision in a world of detours and wrong turns. Its title more readily associated these days with the über-violent and multi-sequeled Rockstar video game, Grand Theft Auto is remembered by older film fans as Ron Howard's directorial debut. Howard had by the mid-70s made the transition from precocious child actor (The Music Man [1962], The Andy Griffith Show) to highly salaried star of the hit ABC sitcom Happy Days. Although producer Roger Corman couldn't afford Howard's asking price for New World's car crash comedy Eat My Dust (1976), he sweetened the pot by giving Howard a percentage of that film's profits and by agreeing to finance his first go in the director's chair. Although Howard and his actor/writer father Rance pitched a number of viable exploitation ideas, all involved settled on the relatively safe car race/crash subgenre, popularized by the likes of Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974), the Corman-produced Death Race 2000 (1975), Cannonball! (1976) and The Gumball Rally (1976). Corman staffer Frances Doel (who had cowritten Big Bad Mama [1974] a few years earlier) worked with Howard per et fils to ensure that Grand Theft Auto hewed closely to the Corman paradigm, while Corman himself advised Howard to plan his shots, keep movement in the frame, chase the sun and wear comfortable shoes.

The working model for Grand Theft Auto was Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Lacking that mega-production's star wattage, Ron Howard compensates with energy, resourcefulness and speed. Wisely, he rarely pauses long enough for breath let alone exposition, meaning that character development is skin-deep. Besides directing, Howard took the central role of Sam Freeman, an affable environmental resources major who elopes to Las Vegas with the only daughter (Nancy Morgan) of a Beverly Hills millionaire cum political hopeful (Barry Cahill). Dubbed "the runaway lovers," the pair's flight in a "borrowed" Rolls Royce becomes a cause celébrè, attracting a steady stream of hirelings, mercenaries and media vultures after a promised $25,000 reward. While the stunts won't make anyone forget Mad Max (1979) any time soon they are expertly photographed by Howard and second unit director Allan Arkush and snappily edited by Joe Dante. Throughout the humor is broad but never mean spirited, unlike a lot of the car chase copycat movies that followed.

An old school humanist in the style of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges, Howard lacks the absurdist bent of Paul Bartel (Death Race 2000) or the balls-out anarchy of John Landis (who effectively capped the car chase craze with The Blues Brothers in 1980) but he does pull off some novel stunts, staging a moving bus-to-car dialogue scene 17 years before Speed (1994) and plowing a speeding car through the middle of a balsawood house a couple years ahead of Mad Max (1979). Another nice touch is the customary destruction of a fruit stand, which Howard doesn't merely knock over but blows up with dynamite. In its own little way, Grand Theft Auto is as deserving of the mantle of seminal 70s cinema as Chinatown (1974) or Taxi Driver (1976). Its capital asset is the expansiveness of the American road, where the cost-effective amalgamation of light and air evoke a sense of wonder all too lacking in modern motion pictures which, for all their millions spent, feel as airless as a canned ham.

Executive Producer: Roger Corman
Producer: Jon Davison
Associate Producer: Rance Howard
Director: Ron Howard
Screenplay: Ron Howard, Rance Howard
Cinematography: Gary Graver
Film Editing: Joe Dante
Second Unit Director: Allan Arkush
Music: Peter Ivers
Cast: Ron Howard (Sam), Nancy Morgan (Paula), Marion Ross (Vivian Hedgeworth), Paul Linke (Collins Hedgeworth), Barry Cahill (Bigby Powers), Elizabeth Rogers (Priscilla Powers), Rance Howard (Slinker), Don Steele (Curly Q Brown), James Ritz (Officer Tad), Clint Howard (Ace), Peter Isacksen (Sparky), Hoke Howell (Preacher), Ken Lerner (Eagle One), Garry Marshall (Underworld Boss), Paul Bartel (Groom), Karen Kaysing (Bride), Leo Rossi (Gangster), James Costigan (Hiram), Cal Naylor (Car Salesman), Allan Arkush (Clown).
C-84 minutes.

by Richard Harland Smith