Car Oscars: 5 British films in which the motors are the real stars

[Dani ♡]

 

The 89th Academy Awards on Sunday are a reminder of how many great performances are not even nominated for an Oscar. For those of us who watch films largely – or even or solely – for the cars on display, here is a biased, subjective and completely partial selection of cinematic masterpieces in which the car really is the star.

As a drama, Checkpoint is somewhat lacking, but for anyone who appreciates magnificent cars plus various tweed-jacketed Rank contract players saying “Gosh!” it is compulsive viewing. The production was assisted by Aston Martin and the central vehicle is the Lagonda, appearing under the nom-de-film of Warren-Ingrams. Much of the acting is fairly stagey, but this matters little in a production that makes extensive use of footage from the 1956 Mille Miglia road race in Italy and features two DB2/4 Mk1s plus the Lotus Mark Ten. Plus such very 1950s lines as “Women are as tricky as the devil and best driven fast”.

This year is the 60th anniversary of this great British film noir, in which various no-hopers and drifters sell the last vestiges of their dignity to a corrupt haulage firm. Their pleasures are restricted to driving like maniacs through the Home Counties, starting fights in dance halls and 1/6d worth of egg and chips at the local transport café. The incredible cast includes Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan, Peggy Cummins, William Hartnell, Herbert Lom, Sid James and a very young Sean Connery, while the action sequences are as well-crafted as any major Hollywood production. Just ensure that you are never issued with the keys to truck number 13…

School For Scoundrels (1960) – Aston Martin DB3S “Bellini”

Few actors could outshine Terry-Thomas but the automotive star of School For Scoundrels comes close as his onscreen transport is a “Bellini” – aka a disguised 1953 DB3S that was once the personal transport of Sir David Brown before it was raced by Stirling Moss, Roy Salvadori and Pete Collins. The plot has Terry-Thomas playing Raymond Delauney, a bounder prone to uttering “Hard cheese, old boy” when he is not otherwise engaged in attempting to seduce Jannette Scott’s heroine or merely laughing at Ian Carmichael’s “Swiftmobile” (actually a modified 1928 Bentley 4 ½ litre Le Mans Tourer). In fact, this is a picture in which cad and car are in perfect harmony.

The Fast Lady (1962) – “Red Label” Bentley 3 Litre Speed Open Tourer

One of the many joys of The Fast Lady is its seemingly effortless air of joi de vivre. The chase between a Jaguar MkVII, a Wolseley 6/99, a Park Ward-bodied Bentley R-Type Continental Drophead and the eponymous Red Label (which was then fitted with a 4½-litre engine) took weeks to shoot while the stars, especially Leslie Phillips and James Robertson Justice, give masterclasses in the art of light comedy. Then there is the Morris Cooper driven by Julie Christie, the driving school Austin A40 and the trad jazz theme tune, all of which combine to create a picture that only a curmudgeon would dislike.

Catch Us If You Can (1965) – Austin Mini Moke and Jaguar E-Type Roadster (joint nomination)

A thoughtful and downbeat British road movie thinly disguised as a vehicle for the Dave Clark Five pop group and the film that introduced the Mini Moke to the big screen. The plot has a stuntman (band leader Dave Clark himself) and a model (the delightful Barbara Ferris) escaping the capital for the Devon coast in a borrowed E-Type and the scenes of the Jaguar speeding along the London Wall have a fascination of their own. The Moke was a pre-production model and it was chosen by the director John Boorman for its resemblance to a “toy jeep”, a description unlikely to have pleased BMC’s marketing team.

The Italian Job (1969) – Austin Mini Cooper 1275S Mk1

No matter how many times you have winced at the fate of the Lamborghini Miura during the opening credits or watched Michael Standing blowing more than “the bloody doors off” a Morris-Commercial LC5, The Italian Job is always worth watching. Yes, it is unlikely that a Mini Cooper S laden with bullion could outrun an Italian police Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti but in a production with music from Quincy Jones and Matt Monro, guest appearances from a Fiat Dino Coupé and Noel Coward, as well as featuring Benny Hill in particularly good form, this is of little importance. Best line: “In this country they drive on the wrong side of the road.”

Villain (1971) – Rover 3.5 Litre Coupé

A great crime drama in which a bank messenger’s Vanden Plas Princess 3 Litre is hijacked by a Jaguar S-Type, a Ford Zodiac MkIV and a Triumph 2000 Mk1 in a heist controlled by Richard Burton’s gang boss. The actor saw Villain as the chance to appear in “the kind of ‘bang bang - calling all cars’ stuff that I’ve always wanted to do and never have”. His character, gang boss Vic Dakin, is a patriotic, Rover-driving gangster much given to moaning about the decline of standards. There are no Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels-style faux Cockneys here, just a calculating amoral figure who regards his P5B as proof of his status and who enjoys nailing people’s heads to a Vauxhall Viva.