Grand Theft Auto is a 1977 American road action comedy directed by and starring Ron Howard, in his feature film debut.
It follows a rich girl (Nancy Morgan) running off to Vegas to marry her true love (Howard) and is chased by those after the reward set by her parents (Barry Cahill and Elizabeth Rogers).
The movie also stars Rance Howard, Paul Linke, Marion Ross, Don Steele, Jack Perkins, Paul Bartel, Garry Marshall, Leo Rossi, Allan Arkush, and Clint Howard.
No relation to the video game franchise Grand Theft Auto.
Tropes for film:
- The Alcoholic: Shadley from Velvet Net. To be fair, this trope does not come into play until after his car is crashed in the desert.
- Alliterative Name / Alliterative Family: Paula and Priscilla Powers.
- Color-Coded Characters: The members of Velvet Net wear gray, blue, and brown, respectively.
- Faith–Heel Turn: The preacher, once he hears about the reward money.
- Fruit Cart: There is a chase scene where a crazy hillbilly family attempts to stop Sam and Paula's car with thrown sticks of dynamite. Then one of them inexplicably yells "frickin' fruit stand!" and proceeds to detonate one that is just lying the by side of the road.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Ace admits it "cracks him up" when Sparky engages in this trope.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Ace and Sparky. Not even a (stolen) camper with JUST MARRIED on it could convince you otherwise.
- Hollywood Police Driving Academy: Subverted with Officer Tad, as he's from Azuza note .
- Potty Emergency: A man loses his truck to Collins because of one.
- The Precious, Precious Car: The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud owned by Paula Powers' parents. True to the film's tagline, it, like many others throughout the story, were utterly destroyed.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Collins Hedgeworth's entire family runs on this trope.
- Tagline: "See the greatest cars in the world destroyed!".
