I’ve been chewing the fat over the Blogosphere with Cormac Brown. Cormac, as you are no doubt aware, really knows his stuff and he has a post up at his blog on “Noir and San Francisco”. Pop over there if you have not read the post already and also here at The Rap Sheet. The subject is all about films that have been set in the fantastic city of San Francisco.
Cormac kindly posted a link for me (in the comments section) to that thrilling car chase from Bullitt, again shot in San Francisco, featuring the wonderful Steve McQueen.
Well, watching that chase scene stirred my old brain cells and up popped a memory of when I was a lad and the great John Wayne came to this part of South London to shoot a film called Brannigan.
I can recall queuing up with a load of other kids and getting an autographed card from the big man himself – oh the memories.
There is a super car chase in this film and, watching it again, at one point the two cars involved, a Jag and a Ford Capri, come flying down the very road where I now live – it’s a small world. Click HERE; it’s a belter.
The car chase scenes were stitched together around different areas of Battersea/Wandsworth but the chase suddenly concludes on Tower Bridge, which is a good six miles away from here as the crow flies – but I guess that’s show business folks!
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I like Brannigan. I know he was trying to be Eastwood but the change of pace and location served him well.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing the movie years ago. Wow, memories indeed. Bullitt's a cracker as well. Watched it the other night. I'll re-live a few memories, Alan, and watch the Brannigan chase again. Nice one, mate.
ReplyDeleteKeep on writing!!!
P.S. How cool is that music?
ReplyDeleteDavid C, thanks for taking the time to pop over and comment. Yes I agree maybe not a patch on the first Dirty Harry movie but Brannigan is a good movie nonetheless and brings back fond memories of the 70’s.
ReplyDeleteDavid B, thanks also to you and for your words of encouragement – I’ll be blowing the dust off my keyboard soon mate! Yeah, the soundtrack is cool in Brannigan and also in the Bullitt car chase.
Cheers guys.
Wow, I've never seen that and to think that villain in a Jag could barely outrun a Yank driving a right-hand drive Capri...shameful. If the British villains were unionized back then, they should've pulled his card.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout-out, and for the "Brannigan" viewing. Here's The Seven Ups and To Live And Die In L.A.
Ha ha, you are probably spot-on there, Cormac.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the two extra links; both fantastic and a big shout out to the stunt drivers, now they really earn their pay-checks, unionised or not!
On the Brannigan set they had two identical yellow Ford Capris that were used in the shooting, one was literally “skipped” (trashed) in the final chase scene.
Cheers.