Friday, January 21, 2011

The Endangered List (Case File #94)



TOWING
(1978)


Starring
Jennifer Ashley (Jean)
Sue Lyon (Lynn)
Bobby Di Cicco (Tony)
Joe Mantegna (Chris)
J.J. Johnston (Butch)
Audrie J. Neenan (Irate Lady)
Steven Kampmann (Irate Man)
Don DePollo (Pizza Man)
Nan Mason (Nan)
Mike Nusbaum (Phil)
Susanne Smith (Lois)
Jake Stockwell (Tow Truck Driver)
Lee Stein (Mayor)
Sandy Halpin (Waitress)
Bob Wallace (News Reporter)
Joe Brown (Bathroom Man)
and
Dennis Franz

Written and directed
By
Maura Smith

Produced by
Frederick A. Smith

Executive Producers
Alan Gelband
Bob Greenberg

Cinematography by
Hal Schullman

Edited by
Bernard Caputo

Music by
Martin Rubinstein

Sound
Kurt Kreutz
Art Ziemke

Running time: 85 minutes
MPAA rating: PG

from
Sibling Productions

Released by
United International Pictures

Re-released in 1979 as WHO STOLE MY WHEELS?

Re-released in 1981 by Condor Films as FUN GIRLS








4 comments:

Marty McKee said...

Dennis Franz is in this? Amazing!

Temple of Schlock said...

Yup! But you had to dig deep to find him. I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that. I just added him to the cast list. :)

Mike Mac said...

I remember when Towing played in Indianapolis! Since I was at the Indianapolis Central Library when I saw this post- and since the Central Library has the Indianapolis papers on microfilm (?) reels, unlike the branches- I went searching through the papers from 1978.

Since the review from the Kokomo paper was dated June 2, I checked out The Indianapolis Star for that day- and found that that was when Towing opened in Indy, at two theaters. I saw the display ad, but I could have sworn that there also was some sort of interview with Sue Lyon and/or Jennifer Ashley and/or writer/director Maura Smith as well- and I didn't find that. Maybe it appeared in a late May paper, or maybe it was in the old evening paper, The Indianapolis News; I didn't have much time yesterday, so I checked only the Indianapolis Star. I'll look again the next time I'm at the Central Library.


Also, it looks like producer/actor Alan Gelband (or somebody related to him, perhaps) has a copy of the film- although from the looks of these clips on Youtube, it's a video copy with some rough spots:

http://www.youtube.com/user/gelband01#p/u

(I contacted the person who runs this channel via Youtube just before I made this comment, by the way, and included a link to your post on Towing.)


And what was "Roughnecks w/ Keir Dullea"? An alternate title for Welcome to Blood City was my best guess- but I've never seen that one, so maybe not...

(And I never did see Towing when it played here back in the day, unfortunately. I was a few months away from getting my license to drive, and my parents didn't take me to that many movies.)

CMG said...

It's too bad a half-way decent copy of TOWING/WHO STOLE MY WHEELS?/FUN GIRLS hasn't turned up anywhere. That's the kind of movie I'd have bought had it been released on video at any time. I found 2 different video releases of another drive-in flick directed by Charles Band called CRASH (1977) which starred SUE LYON. I hope TOWING will turn up at some point; I reckon I shouldn't hold my breath, though!