Van Nuys Blvd. (film)

Van Nuys Blvd. is a 1979 comedy film written and directed by William Sachs and released by Crown International Pictures.[1] It features 1974 Playboy Playmate of the Year Cynthia Wood.[1] The film's tag line is: "The Greatest Cruisin' in the Land Takes Place on the Street -- Where it all Began ..."

Van Nuys Blvd.
Film poster
Directed byWilliam Sachs
Produced byMarilyn Jacobs Tenser
Newton P. Jacobs
Michael D. Castle
Written byWilliam Sachs
StarringBill Adler
Cynthia Wood
Dennis Bowen
Melissa Prophet
Music byKen Mansfield
Ron Wright
CinematographyJoseph Mangine
Edited byGeorge Bowers
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The film tells the story of a small-town boy who hears about the wild nights of cruising Van Nuys Boulevard in California. He drives out there to check it out, and gets involved with drag racers, topless dancers and bikers.[1][2]

Because director William Sachs' style is often rather surrealist, a number of comedic scenes of a police officer on a beach, being handcuffed to his car, show a gradually more and more surrealist tone as the film progresses. In the course of the film, he gets approached by a mysterious biker stealing his possessions, a dog and ultimately, towards the end of the film, his own mother who is worried about her boy while police searches for his location.

Cast

The cast includes:

Production

The time between the initial ideas for the film and its release was merely three months. It was filmed in eighteen days. For the scene in which two cars are smashed, the director originally wanted the cars to be wrecked completely, with doors flying off and other parts being destroyed. He jokingly recalls that while filming, they discovered that modern cars were better built than expected, so the damage done with hammers and other tools turned out to be not as severe as originally planned.[3]

Quotes

[A] good natured summer season comedy ... Writer-director William Sachs has taken a fast, light touch.

— Los Angeles Times, review of Van Nuys Blvd.[4]

A film that Sachs intended to be something of a satire of "car movies," and easily the most technically competent Vansploitation film.

— Jason Coffman, article about Van Nuys Blvd.[5]

Sachs has directed the proceedings with an affecting light touch.

— The Hollywood Reporter, review of Van Nuys Blvd.[4]

References
  1. "Internet Movie Database: Van Nuys Boulevard".
  2. Trailer for Van Nuys Blvd. on YouTube
  3. Audio commentary by William Sachs on the DVD by BCI Eclipse / Mill Creek
  4. "VFTLA.org: Resume of William Sachs (PDF)" (PDF). Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  5. "medium.com: Article about van films of the 1970s". Retrieved May 27, 2016.
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