Film 31/52: Eat My Dust! (1976)

Vonna and I recently enjoyed listening to the audiobook of Ron and Clint Howard's memoir, The Boys. In it, we learned how Ron Howard came to direct his first feature for Roger Corman, Grand Theft Auto. Once we started the second half of our 52 Pick-Up series, I had already decided that would be our 'G' film. When I realized it was paired on disc with the film Ron Howard starred in for Corman after his role in George Lucas' American Graffiti, Vonna suggested that it would be appropriate that Eat My Dust! be our 'E' film.

Now, Eat My Dust! is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination. But from the opening POV shots of a car racing down country roads, it's clear that this is a love-letter to driving. It plays like any number of outlandish movies full of crazy car stunts and crashes. Which I imagine was the target demographic.

The threadbare plot has Hoover (Ron Howard), the son of the sheriff (Warren J. Kemmerling - guest star in countless TV shows in the 60s through the 80s, and recognizable role in Close Encounters as the military man who attempts to keep people from approaching Devil's Tower), stealing a race car to impress a girl. The race car driver he steals it from is Big Bubba Jones (Dave Madden — Reuben Kincaid from The Partridge Family). It's not giving much away to say Hoover will soon learn that Darlene (Christopher Norris) is far more interested in riding in the car than she is in getting closer to him. By the time they have managed to all but wipe-out the sheriff departments fleet of pursuit cars, Big Bubba enlists the aid of the other race car drivers to help him get his precious 'Mable' back. 

The film arguably goes nowhere by the time it's over, but if you can appreciate the zany antics along the way, it's a reasonable diversion, albeit one I won't be immediately drawn to revisit. And considering what he's given to do in the film, Ron Howard does an admirable job with the material, as does most of the cast. A product of its time, it's somewhat amusing to see how much alcohol is consumed behind the wheel of almost every car in question!

I have higher hopes for Howard's directorial debut, Grand Theft Auto. We'll find out how that compares in just a few weeks!


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