Re: alfa-digest V7 #902

[jack@domain.elided (Jack Hagerty)]

>From: "Ian Preece" <ian_preece@domain.elided>

>Have to disagree with "Consolieri" Simon, the Villa D'est was definately in
>the first Godfather movie, and it was indeed Michael's new wife who was
>killed.  I can't believe it was a 'real' Alfa, would be interesting to know
>how it was done...

I dimly remember reading that they pulled some fiberglass casts off of
a real V d'E and made a crude copy that could be blown up convincingly
(the real car was used up until a few frames before the detonation and
the quick cut wouldn't be noticed by most people). It was this article,
in fact, that told me it was a Villa d'Este, otherwise I wouldn't have
had a clue.

Coppola used this technique again in "Tucker" to produce the long line
of cars that surrounded the courthouse at the movie's climax. There are
only a dozen or so real Tucker Torpedos in existence (all of the real ones
were put at the front of the line), so he made some molds and cast enough 
hoods, fenders and trunks (uh, that's bonnets, wings and boots for our 
English bretheren :-) to do a convincing job. I beleived he used Studebaker 
Champions as the base for the phony cars which have a similar overall shape 
and roofline. Studes aren't all that plentiful themselves, but at least he 
wasn't blowing them up!

- - Jack

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| Jack Hagerty                |    "If this rocket stuff is so important    |
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