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We love our classic movie car chase scenes, especially when they involve hot rods. One of the classics? The final chase scene from The California Kid, which we have here for your enjoyment. So sit back, take a load-off at the end of your work week and enjoy the chase in its entirety without having to browse through DVD chapters or dust off the old VHS player and try to remember how to rewind one of those ancient tape relics to see it.
Released as a TV movie in 1974, The California Kid was based in 1958 in Clarksburg, CA, a small town with a sheriff (played by Vic Morrow) that had a tiff with speeders. As the story goes, the sheriff’s family had been killed by a speeder so he was out to punish every one of them that came through his jurisdiction by pushing their cars off the mountain highway with his 1957 Belvedere cop car.
After killing two young soldiers who were speeding back to base, a stranger in a 1934 Ford arrives in town and stakes out the speed trap, establishing himself as a hot rodder and speeder with the cop. The young hot rodder (played by Martin Sheen) ends up being the older brother of one of the soldiers killed out to get revenge on the sheriff that pushed their car off the mountain.
While trying to run the rodder out of town, the sheriff makes a fatal mistake, taking a curve too fast for his vehicle. While the young rodder is able to keep his ‘34 Ford on the road, the sheriff flips his car off the edge and ultimately suffers the same fate as all of his victims. Check out the final riveting scene above.
