For me, the supreme movie car chase takes place in the 1969 film THE ITALIAN JOB. Red, white and blue Mini Coopers race through Turin with their cargo of gold, stolen under the noses of the police and the mafia.
You’ve probably seen the film, but here’s a clip of the chase.
The best bit comes a little later, when the drivers race through a sewage pipe (suspiciously clean, except for what hits the windscreen). This was filmed not in Turin but on the outskirts of Coventry, in the English midlands, from the back of a Mini Moke.
This wasn’t the first time British-made motors drove through sewage pipes. In 1924, the Bradford and Esholt, Yorkshire sewage system was extended. To lay the last brick, the mayoral party needed to travel three miles down a narrow tunnel in cars. Step in the Jowett brothers.
Sons of a blacksmith, William and Benjamin Jowett were ace car designers and engineers. They also possessed a genius for public relations. Noel Stokoe, author of several books on the Jowett, says that owners were encouraged to write in to the company describing what feats they had accomplished with their Jowett, and how reliable it was. Testimonials were published and sent to prospective buyers. They supplied four long-fours for the sewage opening ceremony and chalked up another p.r. coup.
The Jowetts claimed that their cars had ‘all the best bits of Yorkshire except the pudding,’ and ‘the pull of an elephant, the appetite of a canary, the docility of a lamb.’
In 1926, Jowetts crossed Africa in forty-nine days. Their Jupiters and Javelins took part in rallies in Monte Carlo and Famagusta, Cyprus.
Kate Shackleton, supporting local industry, drives a Jowett, ‘the little engine with the big pull’, that runs on a penny a mile.
There’s a great collection of these motors in the Bradford Industrial Museum and one fine day I’ll be taking one out for a spin.
Good blog.I too like the Italian Job,but American remakes of our treasured films annoy me.Like The Lady Killers.They talk as though these films are theirs
Favourite film of mine too, Frances, especially as my Dad helped build the treatment centre where it was filmed…which explains the clean pipes – newly laid! One of Coventry’s more bizarre claims to fame.
Great blog, Frances. I love the pics.
Eddie, I’m trying to remember a film that did work better as a remake, but there aren’t many.
Julia, that is a little gem of information about your dad and the treatment centre!
Thanks, Penny.
The Italian Job is also my favourite car chase in a film also. They must have got the idea from the epic trip made underground in respect of the opening of the new sewer system at Esholt, Bradford in 1924, as mentioned by Frances at the start of this blog. The organisers of the opening ceremony wanted transport for the mayoral party so Jowett Cars Ltd provided four Long-Four Tourers to make the three mile trip underground where the last brick was laid. The cars could only drive at 10mph, as the cars were prone to climb the sides of the sewer wall if they went any faster. When they drove out of the sewer, Mrs William Jowett was heard to say, “the first load of s— has arrived!
Noel Stokoe
Press Officer & Librarian
Jowett Car Club
Thanks for the extra information about the Jowett subterranean tour, Noel. It must have been a strange experience, with only the glare of car headlamps and weird noises from the exhausts.