What was this movie I saw as a child?

Cafe Society
1

It was decades ago, and I think I saw it at a drive-in with my parents, but I couldn’t swear to that. I would have been younger than five, I think.

I think it was set in Europe, and was maybe a heist comedy, like the Pink Panther films.

I only remember one scene. A car is driving down a road, and I remember it as a boxy little Eurotrash car like a Citroen. Two men are in the car, one driving and one in the back seat.

The car is zooming along; the men are in a hurry. Suddenly it breaks in half. The back half bounces on the front of its floorboards a few times and then skids to a stop, like a rickshaw that’s just been abandoned by its coolie.

The driver, in the front half of the car, goes another few dozen yards before stopping his half of the car.

The passenger gets out and looks at his half of the car in confusion. The driver does the same.

Then the passenger dashes down the road and hops into the front passenger seat. The driver gets back behind the wheel. Then the front half of the car continues on its way amid a shower of sparks from its trailing frame.

What movie was this?

2

What decade were you younger than five in? Was the movie in colour?

3

I remember the movie was in color, but who knows if that’s accurate?

The decade was probably the 70s.

4

I know this is not the movie, but your post made me think of a bizarre film I saw in grade school during “indoor recess” on rainy days. All I remembered, and searched on, was magic pancakes. Thanks for jarring this odd memory!

5

It sounds a bit like the end of the big race in the Herbie movie The Love Bug, but it’s not an exact match - the action is a little different.

6

Could it have been Scavenger Hunt?

7

How different? I think you’re on to something here.

Scavenger Hunt is much too recent.

8

Much too recent? It was 1979…

9

And?

10

… and you said it was in the 70s, and 1979 is in the 70s, last I looked.

All I had was Malcolm, but there the car splits in half longways, not across.

11

And 1979 is in the '70s, and it was decades ago. That fits the criteria. No need for the wiseassery.

Joe

12

This thread is driving me nuts. I’ve seen this movie. I seem to recall it was a full size Citroen, not a 2CV. I kept thinking it was The Longest Yard, which has a Citroen Maserati, but apparently it doesn’t get cut in half. I spent an hour checking movie and Citroen websites, but to no avail. Someone help us out!

13

Mea culpa. I thought I’d specified early 1970s, but see now I hadn’t.

14

Plus, The Longest Yard isn’t a comedy, is it? I wouldn’t think such an absurd scene could appear in a non-comedy. Plus, my parent’s wouldn’t have taken me to a movie like that.

Thanks for joining the effort. Two heads, and all that.

15

Perhaps one of Jacque Tati’s hilarous flicks, though they were in French. He was in a lot of Citroens. *Jour de Fete * became available in a color version.

or your thought about *The Pink Panther * series may be on the right road as Peter Sellers was in at least one car that fell apart and I think it drove away.

16

I found it, or almost,

17

How about Le Ceveau (The Brain) with David Niven?

18

And another possibility. . . “The Love Bug” (1967).

19

Could it have been Le Corniaud with Louis de Funes? The movie does have one scene similar to what you describe.

It’s in color, but it was made in 1965 though.

20

I think I perceive a problem with me making this thread: I’m not going to recognize the title of the movie when I read it. So unless someone can post video of the scene in question, there’s no way to know if we’ve found the right film.