Now Playing! "The Van," 1977

[Mike999]

The Sony Movie Channel is showing some great drive-in movies from the 1970s right now, including "The Pom-Pom Girls."  That one ends with a fatal drag race between a ratty '55 Chevy and a very young Robert Carradine in a '64 Ford.

Also showing is "The Van" (1977).  The human star is Stuart Goetz, most famous for the "Brady Bunch" episode where Marcia gets whacked in the nose with a football.  And "The Van" was one of Danny DeVito's first movies; he's in it for about 5 minutes total.

But the REAL star is the 1977 Dodge B200 Tradesman van named "Straight Arrow."  It was customized by Barris and has all the stuff inside it that made the 1970s fun - a waterbed! 8-Track! Mirrored ceiling! A big round picture window on the driver's side!  And SHAG CARPET EVERYWHERE!  (The movie is crammed full of other stuff that made the 70s fun: sex, drugs and rock...well, scratch that. No rock and roll, but we do get Sammy Johns singing "Chevy Van" a bajillion times on the soundtrack.)

I'm surprised MPC didn't release a model kit as a movie tie-in.  With its Screaming-Yellow-Zonker paint and blinding graphics, "Straight Arrow" would have been a serious competitor for "Gold Dust" or some of MPC's other Wretched-Excess 1970s van kits.

One movie scene is a tour of a van show at Malibu where we get to see lots of other cool '70's vans.  And the movie ends with a completely unrealistic van drag race. 

Anyway, lots of fun and worth looking up:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075378/

 

[Jordan White]

I found that DVD on a rack in the grocery store of all places, and figured it would be a good watch for a few bucks. It isn't a bad movie, just more of a product of its time. I do enjoy seeing the vans though, and do like the look of the Straight Arrow.