The Gumball Rally is a 1976 film directed and co-written by Chuck Bail about a coast-to-coast road race. It was inspired by the actual Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash run held by Brock Yates that inspired several other movies, such as Cannonball with David Carradine, also from 1976. While Cannonball is an action film, The Gumball Rally is both a comedy (like the later The Cannonball Run, starring Burt Reynolds, and its se...
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The Gumball Rally is a 1976 film directed and co-written by Chuck Bail about a coast-to-coast road race. It was inspired by the actual Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash run held by Brock Yates that inspired several other movies, such as Cannonball with David Carradine, also from 1976. While Cannonball is an action film, The Gumball Rally is both a comedy (like the later The Cannonball Run, starring Burt Reynolds, and its sequels) and a tribute to the supercars of the era.
The film begins as Michael Bannon (Michael Sarrazin), a wealthy but bored businessman, issues the code word "Gumball" to his fellow automobile enthusiasts, who gather in a garage in New York City to embark on a coast-to-coast race "with no catalytic converter and no 55-mile-per-hour speed limit." Their nemesis, NYPD Lieutenant Roscoe (Norman Burton), also learns of the race and most of the film is devoted to the adventures of the various driving teams and Roscoe's ineffectual attempts to...
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