Saw this as a kid at a matinee session at the Port Macquarie Cinema, NSW Australia in 1966. Spent lots of time in that part of the country as my mothers parents lived near there. Not a lot to do in that part of the world if you aren't a surfer or love fishing. My actual grandparents house was some 14 miles north at a 15 house town called Telegraph Point. Absolutely nothing there, except not that far from the railway track, so even though you were in the middle of NOWHERE, you would still be woken up at 2AM by a freight train rattling the little wooden house. They had tank water, that collected the rain water. No hot running water, and a wood burning stove in the kitchen. And the outhouse toilet was down the backyard.
I was 8 years old when I saw that movie and mostly remembered the ZZR car. I remember it was funny too. Anything else about it was very fuzzy. It was just really great to actually get to do something there. So this cinema trip was something of a childhood highlight in my memories.
The ZZR was a George Barris built hot rod. Barris was the guy at the time, doing the BATMOBILE, MONKEE MOBILE and many others. Very much an American Pop culture iconic Hot Rod maker.
I had remembered this movie for decades and had wanted to see it again. I had seen it available from a website in the USA around 2015, but they only took credit cards. I didn't want to risk that then. In 2018, found it on TRASHPALACE, they took PayPal and I bought a DVD. One of the wonderful things about the Internet.
7 NEW SONGS, is proudly displayed on the poster and DVD cover.
Like a lot of things, your view as a child is different seeing it as an adult. It is a cheap B movie cynically after the "teen beach" market.
The music in it though is really good. All the bands "performing" the songs. As a kid I hadn't remembered anything about the music. The car is still fun.
Not a great movie, but glad I saw it again, and we live in a time where the Internet allows you to track down things like this, and some guy with a passion for old movies can build a website and sell them.
And I see someone has uploaded the whole widescreen release on YouTube at the time of posting.
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