Eat My Dust! (USA, 1976) 89 min color DIR-SCR: Charles B. Griffith. PROD: Roger Corman. MUSIC: David Grisman. DOP: Eric Saarinen. CAST: Ron Howard, Christopher Norris, Dave Madden, Clint Howard, Rance Howard, Paul Bartel, Corbin Bernsen. (New World Pictures)
This slight but enjoyable good old boy yarn became one of Roger Corman’s biggest hits for New World Pictures: he attributes the combination of action and comedy for its success. Much to Corman’s delight and surprise, Happy Days star Ron Howard (his first choice for the lead) agreed to appear in this movie, despite that it was for a fee much less than his usual salary. Perhaps Howard knew of Roger Corman’s tradition in giving a big break to up-and-coming directors (from Coppola to Scorsese), and secretly agreed to making this movie in the hope that he would be able to start his directing career under Corman’s banner- and he did, with Grand Theft Auto in 1977.
Howard plays the amiable dimwit Hoover, who swipes a race car from stock car superstar Bubba Jones (Dave Madden from TV’s The Partridge Family and Alice!) in order to impress good time gal Darlene (Christopher Norris, later to appear in TV’s Trapper John). By breaking the speed limit and causing mass destruction in their wake, the redneck police are soon on their tails. The county sheriff also happens to be Hoover’s dad! I guess no allowance for a few weeks…
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this one… just one cartoonish chase scene after another. Considering that a restaurant gets demolished, and cars constantly pile on one another (second unit work by Barbara Peeters!), it is a miracle that no character gets killed in this amiable mayhem. Surprisingly, once it is all over, Hoover isn’t really punished for his acts. Like Corman’s later hit Rock ‘N’ Roll High School, the world is a big playground, and adults are powerless to stop or discipline the youngsters. Instead there is an interesting segment where Bubba just lets Hoover drive around the racetrack incessantly, while the surrogate father figure looks on, and David Grisman’s acoustic score plucks merrily on the soundtrack.
The movie isn’t that funny, considering Griffith’s earlier work as a screenwriter for such gems as Little Shop of Horrors, but most of the fun comes from the in-jokes that Griffith has thrown in. A restaurant with a name of “Bucket o Blood”, and a silhouetted figure in the jail uttering: “Feed Me!” are among the quirks woven into the action. Like Grand Theft Auto, this too is a Ron Howard family affair, as parts are given to father Rance, and brother Clint.
Shout! Factory paired Eat My Dust! and Grand Theft Auto on DVD in the Ron Howard Action Pack (there’s a phrase you don’t hear every day), as part of its smashing Roger Corman’s Cult Classics collection, presenting many of the master’s New World drive-in favourites.