Tuesday 8th October 2013

The Marseille Contract: Time For Tea?

A film with a car chase featuring a 911 and an Alfa Montreal? Where's this been hiding?

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Ah, the veritable treasure trove that is YouTube. Today's delight? A car chase from a 'The Marseille Contract', a 70s crime caper also known as The Destructors.

It stars Michael Caine but, far more importantly, an early 911 and an Alfa Montreal also. We'll gloss over the fact it appears to be a Targa and instead focus on the positives: Fuchs wheels, driving lamps and some fabulously French yellow headlights.

The Montreal is pretty special too. In a very dark bronze with a beautiful wooden steering wheel (Michael Caine of course wears leather driving gloves), it cuts quite a dash through rural France.

There's even some half-decent driving; it's no Ronin but, given the film is 40 years old, The Marseille Contract's chase is fairly good. It has been suggested it inspired the Goldeneye opening sequence, and we can see a few similarities.

It's a shame then, that whoever produced The Marseille Contract decided on some utterly ridiculous music to accompany the car chase. Where we should have flat-six and V8 there's what sounds like fairground music. That the top YouTube comment says 'I could see Benny Hill in a Fiat 500 with this soundtrack' probably says it all.

Still, it's an intriguing little film excerpt to accompany your afternoon brrew.

 

[garypotter]

A true piece of 1970's cheese fest

[jazzdevil]

..as above.

Continuity bod needs shooting though - how did she manage to remove and stow the targa roof by the time she stopped?

[graeme4130]

Awful music, decent bird

[soxboy]

As much fun as each of those cars look, I'm sure he would have really preferred a shag.

[Bencolem]

Hilarious music, certainly made me smile!

[soad]

soxboy said:

As much fun as each of those cars look, I'm sure he would have really preferred a shag.

[GBB]

graeme4130 said:

Awful music, decent bird

Says it all.

[rogerhudson]

I hope you have also seen 'The last run', a George C Scott car chase movie featuring a lovely BMW (with a supercharger?).
Plus another fit young lady.
That 911 targa, S spoiler, seems must be the Sportmatic gearbox version, look at the brake pedal. Now a Sportmatic Targa is a lovely South of France car but the handling of that gear lever might be a problem in the twisties, keep the hand away if not changing gear.

Edited by rogerhudson on Tuesday 8th October 23:19

[carinaman]

Great theme tune. Hasn't it been sampled:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ute99FPI-s8

It's almost as good as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rur-kHG2zwg

Nice.

[carinaman]

Three impossibly cool cars in one sequence.

jazzdevil said:

..as above.

Continuity bod needs shooting though - how did she manage to remove and stow the targa roof by the time she stopped?

Checking IMDB

IMDB said:

When Anthony Quinn is sitting at the desk in Briac's office talking about getting a hit man, a cigarette in his left hand appears and disappears between shots.

soad said:

soxboy said:

As much fun as each of those cars look, I'm sure he would have really preferred a shag.

She looked better with the sunglasses and top on.

Matt Bird said:

There's even some half-decent driving; it's no Ronin but, given the film is 40 years old, The Marseille Contract's chase is fairly good. It has been suggested it inspired the Goldeneye opening sequence, and we can see a few similarities.

Both were done by Rémy Julienne who did another film with Michael Caine involving Minis and a Lamborghini Miura. Quite a lot of people know that.

Edited by carinaman on Wednesday 9th October 02:47

[heightswitch]

If we are doing Roy Budd then this has to be one of the best cinematic endings with music to any film....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ORXejNlcrQ

[neutral 3]

Great to see this little known film featured here . I first saw it as an Alfa Montreal mad teenager, loved it then and still do now.

The Montreal sadly got very little film exposure when it was launched in 71 and through the rest of the 1970s and while I can vividly remember seeing many exotics during that period a Montreal was a very rare sight here, so for a lover of one of these very underrated cars it's a treat.

Great shame they didn't use an Orange Montreal as that Metalic brown isn't the nicest color for one.

Have to agree re the soundtrack it is pretty poor, particularly when both a 2.4 911 and the Alfa sound fantastic when being driven hard.

As for the beautiful girl, forget her name and I don't think she appeared in many more films.

[Raudus42]

Have to disagree neutral 3 on the colour - I think it looks great in bronze.

First Montreal I saw was bright green, parked behind a yacht in Monaco harbour in the 80s. Unbelievably cool.

[possibletowel]

graeme4130 said:

Awful music, decent bird

doubt shes decent now

[AdvocatusD]

This is a proper Montreal. Beautiful work.

http://www.alfaholics.com/our-cars/completed-build...

[Ex Boy Racer]

A few thoughts:
Firstly, how identical it was to the Goldeneye car chase! Take away the rubbishy OTT modern stunts/CGI and they are the same (Mission Impossible 2 also).
Secondly, how much cooler Mr Caine was than Mr Brosnan (or Cruise for that matter)
Thirdly, just how nimble that Porsche looks - a real light, agile sportscar

[CooperD]

I suppose a lot of people don't know about this film!

[clubsportguy]

Saw a different car chase on a TV advert the other week featuring a Ferrari Daytona !! not sure which advert it was maybe a 118 type phone advert

[aarondbs]

Brilliant, I too noticed the two pedal Porsche, I just wasnt sure whether it was the camera angle obscuring the clutch pedal.

What a great sequence. I watched with sound down as I'm sure others in the office may have mistaken music from a 70's porn film rather than a car chase.

That Montreal does look fantastic..... (goes to car and classic classifieds)

ETA

£8250.00

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car-advert/alf...

Apparently just a respray away from perfection.....that is some respray! Looks good though.

Edited by aarondbs on Wednesday 9th October 10:13

[gofasterrosssco]

You can also see where F&F got their inspiration for excessive gear change shots...