MovieChat Forums > Death Race (1973) Discussion > Another Good Movie of this Vein....

Another Good Movie of this Vein....

posted 15 years ago by Onecanuck2001
7 replies | jump to latest

This was one of my all-time favourites for a TV movie. I also felt this way about another chase movie aired around the same time titled "Birds of Prey". It was a movie about a radio traffic reporter in a small helicopter that witnsses a bank robbery and hostage taking, follows the car as it is chased by the police. The robbers enter a multi-level parkade and as the reporter watches them drive up to the top level, they are picked up by an old military helicopter and the chase begins into the desert.

These are great movies!

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] The_Khazi 14 years ago

Have a look at "Sole Survivor" with William Shatner-another cracking TV film.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] yatman56 12 years ago

Here is some obscure trivia for you. At the beginning of "Birds of Prey" they show a P-40 being towed down a highway. It is the same P-40 Doug McClure "flew" in "State of Division"!

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] yatman56 12 years ago

Also the P-40 "flown" by Doug McClure (and at the begiining of "Birds of Prey") is a TP-40N-40, two seat trainer version. Its Curtiss Wright serial number is 33915; USAAF serial Number 44-47923. It still exists and is with Kermit Weeks in Florida.
A link between "Tobruk" and "Tora, Tora, Tora" is the P-40 used to strafe the raiders by mistake was also used in "T,T,T". It is a Kittyhawk Mk.IA; RAF serial number AL152; RCAF serial number 1082; Curtiss Wright serial number 18796. It still exist and is with the War Eagles Air Museum in New Mexico.
The P-40s that were destroyed in "T,T,T" had fiberglass fuselages and wings with Beech C-45s.

[–] mailhandler1959 12 years ago

Regarding "T.T.T.": buy a current version of this on DVD, and watch w/ the commentary enabled. A WWII historian and the movie director discuss numerous fascinating aspects of the movie (i.e. the director was guaranteed that those exploding P-40s could never fly. Yet that one gets airborne, and they had to explode it prematurely. The men scrambling from the exploding fuel tanks were surprised stuntmen who really WERE running for their lives!) I loved the commentary on that movie.
Regarding "Birds of Prey": growing up, David Janssen was one of my favorite actors; he died too young.
Regarding "Death Race": even as teens, my brother and I cracked up when Lloyd Bridges thoughtfully pats his vehicle and emotes "Jah. Ist goot Cherman tank!" We both could see that it was a U.S.-made Sherman tank!
-- Dopey