Corvette Summer is a 1978 American adventure comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It marked Mark Hamill's first screen appearance after the unexpected success of Star Wars the previous year. Hamill stars as a California teenager who heads to Las Vegas to track down his beloved customized Corvette Stingray. Co-star Annie Potts, playing the quirky young woman he meets along the way, was nominated for a Golden Globe award in her first movie role.
Corvette Summer was a box office success, making about $36 million at the worldwide box office, on a relatively high budget (for that era) of $9 million. The film however, received a divided response from critics, and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Video Corvette Summer
Plot
Kenny Dantley is a car-loving Southern California high school senior. For a project in his shop class, Kenny helps build a customized Chevrolet Corvette Stingray with a right-hand-drive. Shortly after the new set of wheels is unveiled, the car is stolen from the streets of Van Nuys. After hearing that the car is in Las Vegas, Kenny immediately sets out on an adventure to take back the stolen car. On the way, he meets the seemingly confident Vanessa, who is a self-described "prostitute-in-training."
Kenny finds work in a Vegas car wash, and spots his car on more than one occasion. He tracks it down it to a local garage, where he has an incident with the garage owner, Wayne Lowry, before being bailed out by Vanessa. Kenny's high school teacher, Ed McGrath comes to Las Vegas, and Kenny is upset to learn that the teacher he once admired had arranged for the theft of the Corvette to help supplement his low earnings as a teacher. McGrath arranges for Kenny go to work for Lowry. On behalf of himself and his family, McGrath begs Kenny not to take the matter to the police. McGrath also ominously notes that if Kenny doesn't agree, one of Lowry's men will "handle it his way." Kenny agrees, but secretly plans to take the Corvette back.
Eventually, Kenny completes his plans, takes the car back, saves Vanessa from an unusual scenario in a hotel, wins a wild car chase, and returns in triumph with the Corvette--and Vanessa--to his old high school. He keeps McGrath's secret, but rebuffs his attempts to repair their friendship. He gives the car back to the school, but walks away with Vanessa and his freshly-earned high school diploma.
Maps Corvette Summer
Production history
Working titles for the film were Stingray and The Hot One. Scenes of Kenny's high school were filmed at Burbank High School (Burbank, California) in the San Fernando Valley, and Verdugo Hills High School outside of Los Angeles.
The novelization of Corvette Summer was written by Wayland Drew. The book was published by the New American Library of Canada in 1978.
The film's theme song, "Give Me the Night", was sung by Dusty Springfield.
Cast
The Corvette
There were two Corvettes made for the film (both 1973 model years): a main car and a "backup" model, both built for MGM by Dick Korkes of Korky's Kustom Studios. The main car was often displayed during the film's publicity tour, and both cars were later sold by MGM to private parties. The original car was sold to an Australian collector and "restored" to look different from how it appears in the film. An original mold of the car was displayed at the Corvette Americana Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and is now part of the collection of the National Corvette Museum. The "backup" car remained in the U.S., was owned for a while by Mike Yager of Mid America Motorworks in Effingham, Illinois, and was on display there between periodic car shows. Yager sold the car to a private collector in late 2009. That car is now believed to be in New Zealand.
Critical reception and box office
Critic Frank Rich of Time magazine thought the movie was an appropriate summer "popcorn flick." He wrote "As long as one doesn't demand too much of it, Corvette Summer delivers a very pleasant two hours of escape." TV Guide agreed, calling the film "all in all a very funny movie with enough solid, believable story to take it beyond the realm of teenage summer fare."
Janet Maslin of The New York Times, however, was not as taken with the film. She wrote, "The movie takes a slender, boyish conceit--of the sort that is suddenly so popular among Hollywood's current batch of boy wonders--and invests it with silliness rather than whimsy."
Overall, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 57% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on seven reviews.
Corvette Summer generated a total domestic gross of $15,500,000.
Awards and nominations
In 1979 Annie Potts was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Motion Picture Acting Debut--Female" for her work in the film.
Allusions in popular culture
In Episode 513 ("The Brain That Wouldn't Die") of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mike Nelson exclaims, "Luke, join me or you'll star in Corvette Summer." This is an allusion to Mark Hamill's role in the Star Wars films. The Beck song "Corvette Bummer" is an allusion to the film.
In the 2017 Justice League Action mini episode "Missing the Mark", Trickster (voiced by Hamill) mentions Corvette Summer as his favorite movie to an animated Mark Hamill.
References
External links
- Corvette Summer on IMDb
- Corvette Summer at the TCM Movie Database
- Corvette Summer at AllMovie
- Corvette Summer fan site
- Korkys Kustom Studios
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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