# What was this movie I saw as a child? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733 "2008-04-02T22:21:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/1 "2008-04-02T22:21:53Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/2 "2008-04-03T00:20:44Z")
What decade were you younger than five in? Was the movie in colour? ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/3 "2008-04-03T00:22:20Z")
[QUOTE=PastAllReason] What decade were you younger than five in? Was the movie in colour? [/QUOTE] I remember the movie was in color, but who knows if that’s accurate? The decade was probably the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/4 "2008-04-03T00:28:26Z")
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](http://www.astralresearch.org/mysticalmovieguide/mmlist.pl?exact=Winter%20of%20the%20Witch&year=1969&master=1&index=2). Thanks for jarring this odd memory! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/5 "2008-04-03T00:33:50Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/6 "2008-04-03T01:26:29Z")
Could it have been [Scavenger Hunt](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079858/)? ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/7 "2008-04-03T01:55:30Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] 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. [/QUOTE] How different? I think you’re on to something here. _Scavenger Hunt_ is much too recent. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/8 "2008-04-03T02:11:16Z")
[QUOTE=Fiver] _Scavenger Hunt_ is much too recent. [/QUOTE] Much too recent? It was 1979… ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/9 "2008-04-03T02:27:04Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] Much too recent? It was 1979… [/QUOTE] And? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/10 "2008-04-03T04:40:31Z")
… 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. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/11 "2008-04-03T04:40:57Z")
[QUOTE=Fiver] And? [/QUOTE] And 1979 is in the '70s, and it was decades ago. That fits the criteria. No need for the wiseassery. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/12 "2008-04-03T21:14:30Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/13 "2008-04-04T00:06:20Z")
[QUOTE=wheresgeorge04] And 1979 is in the '70s, and it was decades ago. That fits the criteria. No need for the wiseassery. Joe [/QUOTE] Mea culpa. I thought I’d specified **early** 1970s, but see now I hadn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/14 "2008-04-04T00:14:26Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] 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. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/15 "2008-04-04T01:20:21Z")
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. > **[Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Vacances_de_Monsieur_Hulot)** > > Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (French: Les Vacances de M. Hulot; released as Monsieur Hulot's Holiday in the US) is a 1953 French comedy film starring and directed by Jacques Tati. It introduced the pipe-smoking, well-meaning but clumsy character of Monsieur Hulot, who appears in Tati's subsequent films, including Mon Oncle (1958), Playtime (1967), and Trafic (1971). The film gained an international reputation for its creator when released in 1953. The film was very successful, totalling 5,071,9... 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. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/16 "2008-04-04T02:56:10Z")
I found it, or almost, [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/d1IVSBBQIjA/hqdefault.jpg "Driving with a half car") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1IVSBBQIjA) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/17 "2008-04-04T14:52:29Z")
How about [Le Ceveau (The Brain)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064146/) with David Niven? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/18 "2008-04-04T16:16:15Z")
And another possibility. . . “The Love Bug” (1967). ---
**Author:** ![A\_qui\_profite\_le\_crime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@A\_qui\_profite\_le\_crime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_qui_profite_le_crime)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/19 "2008-04-04T16:53:49Z")
Could it have been [Le Corniaud](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057967/) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-movie-i-saw-as-a-child/443733/20 "2008-04-04T20:30:18Z")
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.