Supervan (1977/Cheezy Flicks DVD)

 

Picture: C-     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

Considered by some one of the dumbest films ever made and by others one of the most unintentionally hilarious, Lamar Card’s Supervan (1977) crosses the bandit/chase films that were hugely popular in the 1970s with the Science Fiction and fun vehicles trend.  Hit TV shows like Ark II already had vehicles that could use nuclear and solar power, so the makers got legendary George Barris (along with Sterling Frank) to create the (supposedly) solar-powered Vandora and built the hick formula around it.

 

For a van competition called the Freakout, Vandora will take on some of the best customized vans (in both their engines and custom body work) to win a big prize, or so the plot goes.  However, the film becomes constantly distracted by drug use, sex, wet T-shirt contests, the Vandora riding all over the place and sounding more like a 1950s UFO, plus the police get to chasing everyone and even Charles Bukowski shows up!

 

The young leads bicker often, while Vandora has all kinds of gadgets.  It is basically a Plexiglas see-through rectangular body lined with the kind of soundproofing materials that looks like egg cartons, then the dashboard has every CB radio and analog gadget of the time you can think of and some that make no sense.  Essentially, the makers decided to throw in everything but the kitchen sink (unless it is hidden in the van too) and make a formula film that seemed spaced-out in all kinds of ways.  Down to its abrupt ending, Supervan is a howler of a time capsule film you have to see to believe.  To say any more would ruin it.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is very soft and suggests the film was shot in soft matte so it would look good on TV but also look good at 1.85 X 1.  Director of Photography Irv Goodnoff does an ambitious shooting job and would next lens The Van (aka Chevy Van, even though the van in the film was from another company, they wanted to use the hit song).  This film deserves to be restored just because of all the great footage of vans and the country.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is a little cleaner and clearer so you can hear all the funny dialogue and wacky sound-a-like songs that want to sound like actual Super Hits of the 1970s.  Trailers and Intermission shorts are the only extras in all cases.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo