http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25M_XEf-o38 never seen before, would be great to have a real high def clip Jeffrey Vogel Bridgehampton
Sadly, "Never Steal Anything Small" wasn't one of Cagney's greatest efforts, so it's not available on DVD (yet).
I've waited 10 years to run across this clip and can only say: that Ferrari sure as hell ain't a 2-year-old used import. That's a brand new car. It seems that somebody jumped into false conclusion about that one being Cagney's own car. They probably borrowed a brand new Boano from Hollywood Sports Cars, who had them coming and going at the time. Best wishes, Kare
It could even be from Chinetti. The bulk of the film was shot in New York (the plot centers on NY Longshore Unions) tho' the cars on the street have yellow plates, which would match California in 1957. According to the AFI, production began Oct 30, 1957 and ended Jan 31, 1958.
Funny, looking at people's clothing in the opening scene I already decided it was likely shot around august/september/october - leaving enough time for release in february. With this piece of information it is even more likely that they shot one of the five cars destined to von Neumann/Hollywood Sports cars around that time. Chinetti seems to have sold none! The scene may very well have been shot in New York; the cars came in through New York anyway!
With a closer look at production schedule I would say that Boanos in s/n range 0675gt..0701GT were all completed during summer of 1957 and they would have been available as brand new cars at the time of filming in 10/57..01/58. If we believe what Coys cited Sergio Scaglietti saying (when they had 0627GT up for sale in 2002), 0627GT was crashed in Italy and came in for a rebody when California Spider production had just started. Coys even said Scaglietti thought that to have been the 2nd or 3rd California spider body ever built, but judging by body features that is incorrect. At the time I thought this was just sales talk, but after seeing that clip I've changed my mind. Make that body #10..#20 and I'll buy it. I think that is within a margin of error taken into concideration that an artesan was asked about things he did for more than 40 years earlier and had little if any significance at the time. FWIW, I think the bodywork is very correct except for the low quality closed headlight repair/conversion (the headlights are too set back!). If that was my car I would convert it to have open headlights. I also think that weird story of Scaglietti shipping body panels for an American body shop who did the rebodying in early-to-mid 60's is nothing but a desparate attempt to patch up a major problem created when 0627GT was confused with the car used for that film. Why would Scaglietti have stored body panels for a 1958 California spider? It just doesn't make any sense. Best wishes, Kare
That was great! I found this vintage clip listed by the same guy. Old movie w/ Miura P400 & 250 California spider racing through the coastal mountains of italy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXq5Irkn81Y&NR=1 Good stuff except for the bus...
Great clip - And what a showroom! Just for fun, I plugged the $14,000 purchase price for the Ferrari (in 1957 dollars) into the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic's Consumer Price Index calculator, and got an equivalent price of $103,302 in 2007 dollars. And that $3299 Alfa Romeo would be $24,342 in today's dollars. Here's a link to the CPI calculator: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Cheers! Peconga
It is an interesting showroom. Anyone know the rest of the cars in the clip ? I think I have most of them but I'm missing a few. 1) VW Common Gear 2) 1940 Olds ??? 3) Alfa Giulietta Spider 4) The Boano 5) 190 SL 6) MGA 7) Citroen ID19 8) XK 150 9) Fiat 1100 10) Berkeley ??? 11) Isetta BMW 12) Morris 1000 13) Austin Healey 100-6 14) Borgward Isabella ??? Any ideas?
Hi Kare When I bought 0627 in 1970? it had open headlights. They were set quite far back. Might have been covered originally. The car had been bopped in the right nose and maybe repaired different, or maybe broke the headlight cover at a time when those were harder to replace, so they weren't. Rich