Car Crash (1981)

WHO: Italian cult director Antonio Margheriti directed this.

WHAT: An early eighties car chase film with lead actor Joey Travolta (elder brother to John) behind the wheel and a synthesizer score? Sounds like a slice of action-packed schlock of the most easily digestible order to me. I don't believe it's available on DVD in this country, and I've never seen it (I almost said "of course" but I truly do sometimes go in for this kind of stuff). So here's a clip from a review by John Cooke:

Joey Travolta is as endearingly wooden as an Eric Estrada Chips guise clone extracted from two wheels to four but, unlike his more famous brother in recent years, keeps his spare tire in the back of the on screen vibrant red road rooster for all not to see. The blistering good looks of the car shine on screen as it eats up the road both in and out of chase sequences but it is the scene stealing qualities of John Steiner, as the loopy Kirby, which will delight and raise a smile for all in highlighting what a wonderfully accomplished and consummate character actor he had become by this time in his illustrious career.

WHERE.WHEN: 9PM tonight only at the Vortex Room.

WHY: The last few weeks have seen a flurry of local film organizations announcing their Fall programs, and there's more to come. I've been trying to keep readers of this blog and/or my twitter feed abreast of all the notable screenings but worthy events do slip through the cracks. Neither this week's SF Weekly Fall Arts Preview, and last week's Bay Guardian equivalent had much information you wouldn't already know if you read Hell On Frisco Bay as devotedly as I've been writing it this year, but the latter reminded me of a venue I've rarely mentioned on this blog and have only been to once. I wish The Vortex Room had more than a Facebook page as a linkable online presence, but that prejudice shouldn't prevent me from steering cinema lovers to an intimate space decorated like an Esquivel album cover (check out this Jackson Scarlet article on the venue for images and a description of the space and its philosophy) that plays 16mm prints of films just about no other Frisco Bay venue would dare to.

Their on-film presentations are meticulously recorded in the Film On Film Foundation calendar, but for posterity, the other 16mm titles in their current Antonio Marghereti series running each Thursday of September include 1975's Take A Hard Ride (playing with Naked You Die, the latter presumably digitally) September 12th, 1983's Yor, the Hunter From The Future (playing with The Wild Wild Planet, again presumably digitally) September 19th, and 1979's Killer Fish (playing with Cannibal Apocalypse you get the picture) September 26th.

HOW: 16mm print on a double-bill with another Antonio Margheriti action movie, a James Bond knock-off called Lightning Bolt, which I believe will screen digitally.