Since their evolution began near the time of the origin of the motion picture camera, cars have been part of movie history from its earliest days. Our look at "Cars in the Movies" is divided into categories beginning with The Dawn of the Automobile Age. The silent comedy-drama The First Auto (1927) tells of the impact of the first "horseless carriage" in a small town and also features legendary race-car driver Barney Oldfield recreating his setting of a 60 mph speed record in 1902.

The Chase Is On in such films as The French Connection (1971, TCM premiere), remembered for its Lincoln Continental with a hidden stash of heroin and for one of the most harrowing car chases ever filmed as Gene Hackman goes careening after the drug smugglers in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Accidents Will Happen, as they frequently do in such film noir dramas as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), in which a car crash figures in the fate befalling Lana Turner and John Garfield after the pair commits murder.

American Graffiti (1973) focuses on Teenage Drivers and their vintage cars¿most memorably the 1956 T-Bird driven by a mysterious blonde who captivates Richard Dreyfuss. Driving Through Europe is one of the pleasures of To Catch a Thief (1955), in which Cary Grant and Grace Kelly tool about the French Riviera in a gorgeous Sunbeam Alpine roadster convertible. In Grand Prix (1966), the command to "Start Your Engines" is heard by James Garner and Yves Montand, who were trained by celebrated driver Bob Bondurant in the mechanics of handling their Yumaras and Ferraris.

Hitching a Ride often leads to no good in movies - especially the cult thriller Detour (1945), in which Tom Neal lives to regret picking up troublesome hitchhiker Ann Savage while driving a dead man's Lincoln Continental convertible. Among those On the Road are Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger as a Bonnie-and-Clyde-like pair of bank robbers in They Live by Night (1949), in which cars play such an important role that film historian Rose Capp describes the film as "a paean to the power and dynamism of the automobile."

Fully Loaded autos include the red 1955 Lincoln Futura "concept car" won by Glenn Ford as an Air Force sergeant in It Started with a Kiss (1959). Six years later, noted automobile customizer George Barris painted the Futura black and transformed it into the famous "batmobile" of ABC-TV's Batman series.

by Roger Fristoe