VWs in Movies / Films / TV / etc.

[Evil Clown]

[Rome]

I remember watching "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" on TV in the late 1960's with my parents. Regular cast member "sad faced" Pat Paulsen had a new Beetle on the studio floor, which he started bashing the front fender with a sledge hammer. I can't remember what the "skit" was about. My dad shouted at the TV in anger, since he worked for VW of America and saw this as a senseless attack. Surprising that the one brother/show host Dick Smothers would condone this, since he was an amateur race driver and probably had considerable "respect" for automobiles.

[René R.]

I hadn't heard of that (though I was a fan of the Smothers Brothers back in the day) so I looked it up. It turns out this was on the "Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour" show, which was a spin-off of the Smothers Brothers. The original SB Comedy Hour ended in June 1969. The Pat Paulsen VW episode aired on Feb. 26, 1970. (It's available on IMDb.) It is definitely not funny, even overlooking the callous damage to a new 1970 VW. The premise was testing three different sledge hammers to determine which was best -- sort of a Consumer Reports takeoff.

Pat Paulsen's star faded after the original Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour went off the air. I can see why. This wasn't the only unfunny skit on the show.

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Gone but not forgotten: 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1966) - another 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1996)

[Rome]

Good researching, Rene. Yeah, it hurts to see this done on an obviously very new Beetle. A neglected one would've been sufficient "if" he wanted to bash the brand. Maybe he could relate to the "droopy" front appearance of the Beetle that reminded of his own face.

License plate appears to have "DLR" stacked letters on the left, or "1 _(letter)". Would indicate a temporary dealer plate. The large blank space between the left stacked characters and the 4 numbers could be another set of small stacked letters or numbers that have been covered with black electrical tape...

[Rome]

Early 1960's Ghia Coupe in the NASA Cape Kennedy, Florida parking lot in the mid 1960's TV show "I Dream of Jeannie". This scene is often shown to set the location. Tony Nelson's (actor Larry Hagman) blue GTO convertible is driving in from the left. The airplane on the pedestal appears to be the rocket-powered Bell X-1E (confirmed in Wikipedia).

[finster]

pick-up in the film avanti!

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"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[EverettB]

Taking that corner hard!
It looks like he might be scraping the tire on the dog leg
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[Rome]

VW engine in the French entry in movie "Those Magnificent men in their Flying Machines" (1965). In this adventure-comedy movie about an international race to be the first to fly over the English Channel, I remember clearly seeing the stamped metal valve covers and the single-port intake manifold in the plane's "in-flight" scenes. Now I found some still publicity shots. This cab-underslung plane design was a replica of the French plane "Demoiselle" originally built and flown by Alberto Santos-Dumont. in the movie the pilot is named Pierre Dubois, played by Parisian actor Jean-Pierre Caselle.

The engine appears to be a 1300 cc or larger single-port as seen by the inward/downward curve of the intake manifold above the head. Possibly a Type 3 1500 cc single carb engine, due to the carburetor lying flat instead of a Type 1 1200 engine with its upright carb? The 1300 Type 1 engine was not introduced until August 1965.

IMDB "Trivia" writes that the plane could not leave the ground with the original pilot, so the pilot Joan Hughes was hired to fly.

[EverettB]

It could be an early Type 3 sidedraft / single carb. manifold but the curvature going into the heads looks weird to me for some reason.
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[paulpaffett]

[finster]

acción! romance! acrobacias espectaculares! el hombre de la ametralladora!!1961
yes that is a helicopter just above the bus! ay, caramba!

see more in the trailer here

Link

_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[Da TOW'D]

FBI agent Bert Lancaster and his love interest Gal getting plugged in and by Scorpio

at least the blood will not show
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'57 type 1 Blackberry
'58 SC Ruf
'62 type 3 Notch
'92 Eurovan Willy DD
and NUTS

[Rome]

"Charlie's Angels", 1981 episode "Hula Angels". Takes place in Honolulu, Hawaii. The antagonist Stacy Parrish (Joanna Cassidy) is monitoring the ransom money drop-off in her '79 Super Beetle Cabriolet. Color appears to be K6V River Blue metallic, though at the end of the car chase the color looks much more like 97B Ancona metallic which was not offered for '79, but for '78. In the background on the other side of the street is a white 1960's Ghia Coupe, and a blue 411 Sedan .

Angel Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) was riding a pedal ricksha and nearly catches up as Stacy and her accomplice Amy (Patch Mackenzie) quickly leave. The other 2 angels (Kris Munroe, Julie Rogers) along with Bosley commandeer the white truck and give chase. The VW is not damaged during the chase.

During this sharp left turn into the warehouse where the hostages are being held, you can briefly see the left rear tire standing still, indicating a handbrake-assisted turn. The left front wheel appears dirtier than during the other shots, supporting the idea of a different car.

[Zundfolge1432]

Here’s Elvis’s 14 year old girlfriend Later his wife leaving Germany. Somehow this was ok for a 20 something year old man but when Jerry Lee Lewis did it that ruined his career. People really liked Elvis. Oh and don’t miss the trucks at the airport.

[Fish]

[Fish]

A Hidden Life, 2019. The Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector, refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II.

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# 303 and #156

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[EverettB]

[Zundfolge1432]

1962 science fiction classic “Hand of Death” there’s one old bus and one oval to see. Very scary old movie will give nightmares 😀

Good shots of PCH as it looked in early 60s. All star cast of people you’ve never heard of.

[Rome]

EMPI Sportster buggy in "The Six Million Dollar Man" TV show, 1974. Season 2, episode 11 named "The peeping blonde". Col. Steve Austin (actor Lee Majors) is driving reporter Victoria Webster (Farrah Fawcett, Majors' actual wife at the time) in the desert in a nicely built red/orange Sportster. You can see the orange plastic wind wings on the sides of the windshield, also a holder for arrows. Large capacity "quiet" muffler, and large pulley guard with NASA decal.

The 2 bad guys ambush them and steal the buggy. Austin runs X-country and passes them, causing them to stop by rolling a boulder into their path at a narrow point on the road. He pulls off the Sportster's roll bar (!), hammer-drills it into the rock face with his bionic arm, traps the 2 guys and bends the bar around them to restrain them.

[Fish]

The People vs. Larry Flynt. 1996.

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# 303 and #156

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