88 posts tagged “retro”

Isn’t it far too early to be nostalgic for a Beverly Hills, 90210 revival?
   American networks don’t think so: it’s back in the (northern) autumn, called 90210 and produced by Rob Thomas (who’s also doing the US version of Outrageous Fortune, called Outrageous Behavior).
   More at Canada.com.
   Normally revivals take some 20 years though they seem to come around the time of Hollywood writers’ strikes.
   And will fans of the old watch the new if it doesn’t have returning stars? That would be like Grease 2 not having Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

What fictional character do you relate to most and why?

Let’s see: what Chinese fictional character had to operate in the west, deal to the establishment, drive a rare two-door car, impersonate others, and have his adventures chronicled?
   Simon Templar.
   Pity he was always played by Caucasians on the screen, but I always thought he was Chinese, since his creator was. A new pilot is being made now, which, inter alia, Sir Roger Moore and his son Geoffrey are producing.

   TV trivia buffs might notice John Steed’s Rover SD1 from The New Avengers in the last car chase, reused here. It was also George Cowley’s Rover SD1 in the first season of The Professionals. Stingey British Leyland!

Way too tired today. Got up early to take Dad to hospital for a check-up, and it’s amazing what missing half an hour of sleep can do to you. And the check-up was surprisingly quick: here I was, armed with laptop and about six hours’ worth of work packed—only to return by 10 a.m. and needing sleep—and refusing to take it.
   So, tonight, instead of more intelligent blogging (did that already on the other blog), I decided to carry on from my discussion with Nick in the comments to the last entry and hunt for a few more cheesy old movie trailers. As threatened, Hanoi Jane in Barbarella is next: note that the scenes are all from the opening striptease and not the Excessive Machine. That French husband of hers was a bit of a perve. OK, he was a total perve. Then, his first name was Roger.

   I should note that I am not really a Barbarella fan, though I do love the cheesiness today. I guess it was the whole Vietnam thing and selling out US troops that spoiled Hanoi Jane for me. I know the lady has apologized, but if I was that upset as a civilian, what do the vets think?
   Next, a film I am a fan of, big time. Probably another of my top five:

Now, this is well edited and as a trailer it does stand up well, apart from the narrator’s VO. I’d imagine these days he’d have an American accent. There’s so much to say about this film that maybe I shouldn’t in this post.
   Here’s one which young people might know as I Am Legend. But when it wasn’t named after the original book, it was The Omega Man, with our old friend, Charlton Heston.    All we need is for Hollywood to ruin this next one and some aspects are dangerously worrying for life in 2008. The “future”, 2022, is not that far off. Remember this film talks about environmental disaster as well as the widening gap between rich and poor. Back to a serious narrator here and Herb Lubalin’s Avant Garde typeface:  The scene where Chuck watches Edward G. Robinson dies is poignant. Apparently, Heston was one of the few that knew Robinson was terminally ill and legend has it those are real tears. What we need is a remake with Will Smith in it. Or maybe not.
   I always thought a good name for a cross-country race transporting Soylent Green to various cities could be called The Cannibal Run.
   Finally, something to liven up proceedings after a couple of downers. Welcome back, cheesy narrator, and the word sexcapade (oooh):

She makes movies, she sings, she’s easy on the eyes—and she ain’t J. Lo. Not that much new under the sun.

Les publicités des années 50 et 60 pour les films hollywoodiens classiques.

The trailer to one of my favourite films—but it’s very 1960s. A modern audience won’t exactly get excited over this. That’s ironic though: if you see the film, there are plenty of scenes which could be edited in a modern fashion to create a very impactful trailer. But since it was the 1960s, this was perfectly acceptable and there’s just enough of Sophia Loren in a state of undress to get her fans along. And plenty of Christian Dior dresses and shoes (oh, the shoes—they were in Loren’s contract and written in to the script as a fetish of Alan Badel’s character). Gregory Peck, meanwhile, is still one of the top stars of the time—doing a role originally written for Archie Leach (Cary Grant to the rest of us). Note the prominence of Henry Mancini’s name, too. 
   As a movie it holds up remarkably well, far better than the trailer.

Un pub pour le film Arabesque, de Stanley Donen, avec Gregory Peck et Sophia Loren.

What was your first car?

That was a 1977 Triumph Toledo 1500 (a 1500 was indeed offered in New Zealand). Meaty car: it had a lot of pulling power. But it was laboured with an unfortunate colour which British Leyland called Bitter Apricot. It was a shame to see it go because I worked on that car like crazy. It’s probably worth zero now if I had held on to it, but I loved that wooden dashboard and it wasn’t even that bad to drive.
   Incidentally, this QotD seems awfully familiar. Have we had it before?

A selection from older entries in Autocade, for British readers. Even as a child I didn’t like these cars. Looking back I don’t even have rose-coloured fond memories of them.

Austin Allegro (Mk I). 1973–5 (prod. 642,350 incl. Allegro 2 and 3). 2- and 4-door saloon. F/F, 1098, 1275 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV), 1485, 1748 cm³ (4 cyl. SOHC). Podgy, undesirable replacement for successful 1100 and 1300 (ADO16), but often mocked as worst car made by BL. Compromises in design process led to bloated appearance. Dynamically, no improvement on its predecessor. Quartic steering wheel meant to be high-tech, came to represent the car’s ills—the item was criticized and BL reneged on its promise to remove it for launch. Still sold well in some countries at first due to value. No hatchback, despite appearance.

 

Austin Allegro 2. 1975–9 (prod. 642,350 incl. Allegro Mk I and 3). 2- and 4-door saloon, 3-door estate. F/F, 1098, 1275 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV), 1485, 1748 cm³ (4 cyl. SOHC). Improved version of Allegro (benefiting suspension, driveshaft, engine mounts, rear legroom), but not improved enough, with similar dumpy looks. Only model of note to some collectors may be the 1979 Equipe, with garish stripes that were always compared with those on the Ford Gran Torino of Starsky & Hutch. Four round headlights on some export models. New estate had some similarity in appearance to contemporary Alfasud Giardinetta, but little more.

 

Austin Allegro 3. 1979–3 (prod. 642,350 incl. Allegro Mk I and 2). 2- and 4-door saloon, 3-door estate. F/F, 998, 1098, 1275 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV), 1485, 1748 cm³ (4 cyl. SOHC). Facelift with plastic bumpers and air dam (and four-headlamp treatment on high-line models) helped improve Allegro looks, but it was far too dated to deal with newer competition from Ford, Vauxhall and the Japanese. Introduction of base one-litre model with A-Plus engine. Sold without Allegro name in some Continental markets.

 

Morris Marina (ADO28). 1971–9 (prod. 950,000 approx.). 2-door coupé, 4-door saloon, 5-door estate, 2-door pick-up, 2-door van. F/R, 1275, 1798 cm³ petrol, 1489 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHV), 1695 cm³ (4 cyl. OHC). Developed as British Leyland’s answer to Ford Cortina, Marina was cheap and conventional, but suffered from quality bugs as with most BL products of the era. Unrefined, poor handling, terrible understeer. Increasingly dated as 1970s wore on, considering it was intended as a stopgap only. Two-door coupé strangely shared doors with saloon. Estate launched 1973. Marina Mk II launched in 1975 but changes mostly cosmetic; diesel from 1977; greater changes for 1978 as O-series 1·7-litre installed and some trim upgrades. Sold as Austin Marina in North America, Morris 1300 and Morris 1700 in New Zealand from 1979 to 1981, though some left NZMC with Marina badges. Australian model built as Leyland Marina, with six-cylinder at top of range.

 

Leyland Marina. 1972–5 (prod. unknown). 2-door coupé, 4-door sedan, 2-door panel van. F/R, 1485, 1748 cm³ (4 cyl. OHC), 2623 cm³ (6 cyl. OHV). E-series Austin Maxi engines powered Australian Marina, plus six-cylinder 2·6 used to challenge local Ford Cortina TC and Holden Torana. As a vehicle, the bid failed: take a worse car and make the front end even heavier. Marina, however, allowed Leyland Australia to field a relatively full range from Mini at bottom end to P76 at top, if only for a brief period. A replacement was planned (P82) but it never saw the light of day. Production shifted to South Africa after Leyland Australia’s collapse in 1975.

 

Morris Ital (ADO28). 1980–4 (prod. unknown). 4-door saloon, 5-door estate. F/R, 1275 (4 cyl. OHV), 1700, 1994 cm³ (4 cyl. OHC). A horrid car in its last appearance before meeting the Grim Reaper. The Morris Marina facelift of 1980 was not designed by ItalDesign, which only handled the productionization; this was a British effort headed by Harris Mann on a shoestring budget. However, the car was named after Ital—probably to founder Giugiaro’s horror. No new front wings—Mann found a way to give the car a sloping grille for the 1980s. Rear end more upright. Underneath, a simple car with a live rear axle. At least they were cheap, and sold on that basis. Two-litre at least one step better than Marina, but it was a rough unit; the 1·3 A-series engine, dating back to the 1950s, was underpowered.  

This was my set of wheels when in Auckland. A great little car, and thanks to Piers, Kelly and Grant for their help at BMW. And thanks in addition to Kelly for sending back my Italian Job CD, which I left in the CD player. A full review in an upcoming Lucire.

There’s now a second video from the documentary The Saint Steps in … to Colour on YouTube, detailing how scriptwriter Terry Nation would rehash his scripts for different series. This would be fine years apart, but one week he got caught out on US television when The Saint was rerun with a new episode of The Baron.
   Goodness, de Vere before he met Audrey!
   Ian Ogilvy provides the narration.

I may have hung out with plenty of the ladies from Miss Universe New Zealand 2008 but in between times, I did work. And on my travels I saw this slightly worn Jensen C-V8 in Ellerslie, Auckland. It’s still a glorious shape. I drove to the end of the street after recognizing its tail end.

For some reason I enjoyed researching these US-built cars on Autocade. Some are forgotten for very good reasons, others out of unfairness. Not a complete list by any means, but hopefully I can challenge some memories out there.

Eagle Medallion. 1988–9 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan, 5-door wagon. F/F, 2165 cm³ (4 cyl. SOHC). Renamed Renault Medallion, an Americanized Renault 21. New marque after Chrysler bought AMC in 1987, but cars quickly cancelled in favour of Mitsubishis. Actually a good car compared with its competition, but AMC’s small size and rumours of takeover damaged its chances; and the problems were not solved with the change of marque.

Cadillac Cimarron (J-car). 1982–8 (prod. 132,499). 4-door sedan, F/F, 1796, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV), 2837 cm³ (V6 OHV). A good idea: build a Cadillac that could take on the BMW 3-series, and do it cheaply, on J-car platform. Seville showed that Cadillac could go smaller and succeed, but at least that car did not look like the Chevrolet Nova. Here, Cimarron was essentially a Chevrolet Cavalier clone, yet the price was nearly double. Few were fooled into buying the smaller Cadillac—at least not at the prices the company wanted to charge. Four-cylinder engines did not help perceptions, though V6 arrived in 1985 and was standard from 1987. Final year production of 6,454; cancelled afterwards. Sector not filled till European-market BLS launched.

Ford Falcon (1970½). January–August 1970 (prod. 26,000 approx.). 2- and 4-door sedan, 5-door wagon. 250 in³ (6 cyl. OHV), 302, 351, 429 in³ (V8 OHV). For half a model year, Ford transferred its Falcon nameplate from the compact model to the intermediate Torino–Fairlane bodyshell (117 in wheelbase for sedans; curiously, the wagon was on 114 in), making the Torino’s engine options available. Still marketed as an economy car, the last American Falcon is characterized by its swooping design. After 1970, Falcons were made only in Australia and Argentina (with an assembly plant for Australian models in New Zealand).

Chrysler Imperial. 1990–3 (prod. 41,276 approx.). F/F, 3301, 3778 cm³ (V6 OHV). Last cars to wear Imperial badge. Upscale Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue of these years, with 3·3- (1990) or 3·8-litre (1991–3) V6. Y-body developed as largest version of K-car platform. Different nose and tail which made it longer than New Yorker by 4 in, though wheelbase stayed the same. Not that refined, with poor performance, suspension and transmission.