I’ve heard of spaghetti Westerns, but a spaghetti car chase???

This rather baffling car chase comes from a movie titled, in English, “Strange Shadows in an Empty Room“.  In Britain it was re-titled “Blazing Magnum”, and in Italy, “Una magnum special per Tony Saitta”.  It wasn’t well received.  According to Wikipedia:

In a retrospective review, AllMovie stated that the film has “plenty of slick visuals and action but makes little sense: The script is a chaotic jumble of half-baked mystery” and that it is “never convincing or believable for a second and is further hurt by a lack of sympathetic characters”. The review concluded that “Strange Shadows in an Empty Room can only be recommended to hardcore Eurotrash buffs.”

The car chase certainly seems to fit that description.  (It’s from the Italian version of the movie, hence the dialog.)  I’ve never seen cars so badly damaged continue to run for so long!  I wonder how many were used up while filming it?

Oh, well.  That’s entertainment, I guess!

Peter

10 comments

  1. Spaghetti car chase. I like it! Was this from the award winning film A Fistful of Fenders, or its sequel For a Few Fenders More? The chase sure wasn't Bullitt, but look! Mustang!

  2. I've read that the better way to knock down a door is to kick it with your foot. Shoulders gonna be bruised!

  3. Is this the movie with a '71 Mustang, with a Buick or Olds chasing it? That's an old movie, made shortly after Bullitt, IIRC. The cop in the GM car is a famous actor, and the driver of the Mustang was the driver of the Dodge in Bullitt.

    That's what came up when I clicked on it, might be a glitch on u-tube.

  4. No. I remember seeing somewhere back then. Did you catch all the rust in the one wheel well? Those cars where cheap back then. They would have had to have rocks in the trunk to make the come off the jump level.

    All those old cars where at best 60/40 past the center point.

    Fun chase though. Running it down the side of the mountain is still something different.

  5. This auto-da-fe reminded me of someone. I had a now-deceased friend who cursed up a blue streak (normally not user of profanity) whenever "The Dukes of Hazard" was mentioned. The hobby was Chrysler muscle cars, and the cursing was on the number of Dodge Chargers that got totaled for the show, with no attempt to strip valuable parts before or after stunt shots – just straight to the crusher. When I saw two Chargers and a Fury with some gaping tranny and engine gaps, and heard about the trade or swap prices for rebuilds, I understood why.

  6. I love the formation turn at 2:44. The whole thing is insane, but interesting.

    Will, I'm not sure who the guy in the Buick is. I recognized his face. The actor in the yellow jacket at the door was John Saxon.

  7. Peter, I've had worse daily drivers than that. You Yarpies are too picky when it comes to a bingle in the mudguards. Car Chase Wonderland finds some old beaters of movies alright.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *