''Pink Cadillac'' is a 1989 American

action comedy film Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of acti ...

about a

bounty hunter A bounty hunter is a private agent working for bail bonds who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as bail enforcement agent, or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated outsid ...

and a group of white supremacists chasing after an innocent woman who tries to outrun everyone in her husband's prized pink Cadillac. The film stars Clint Eastwood and

Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters ( ''née'' Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo co ...

and also has small cameo appearances by Jim Carrey and

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

. ''Pink Cadillac'' marks the third and final collaboration between Eastwood and director Buddy Van Horn, following ''

Any Which Way You Can ''Any Which Way You Can'' is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Buddy Van Horn and starring Clint Eastwood, with Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith, and Ruth Gordon in supporting roles. The film is the sequel to the 1978 hi ...

'' (1980) and ''

The Dead Pool ''The Dead Pool'' is a 1988 American neo-noir vigilante action thriller film directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by Steve Sharon, and starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. It is the fifth and final film in the ''Dirty ...

'' (1988), as well as Van Horn's final film as a director.

Plot

A white supremacist group is chasing Lou Ann (

), whose husband Roy (

Timothy Carhart Timothy Carhart (born December 24, 1953) is an American actor. He starred in the CBS drama ''Island Son'' (1989–90) and has had recurring roles in ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (2000–03) and '' 24'' (2002). He also starred in the 1992 ...

) is a member. She has inadvertently taken counterfeit money from them by running away with his car (the pink Cadillac), which held the supremacists' stash. Tommy Nowak ( Clint Eastwood) is a skip-tracer whose speciality is dressing up in disguises, such as a rodeo clown, to fool whomever he is after. Tommy takes on the job of finding Lou Ann because she skipped bail. When he finally finds her in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

, Tommy slowly becomes enamored. Roy and his gang kidnap her baby, whom Lou Ann has left with her sister (

Frances Fisher Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...

), so Tommy decides to help Lou Ann get the baby back instead of turning her in. While driving through the West, seeking the baby, romance blossoms. They eventually fight the white supremacists and retrieve the baby.

Cast

* Clint Eastwood as Tommy Nowak *

as Lou Ann McGuinn *

as Roy McGuinn *

John Dennis Johnston John Dennis Johnston (born May 14, 1950) is an American film and television actor. Career He appeared in a number of feature films including ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', '' Streets of Fire'', and '' Flesh+Blood'', as well as various T ...

as Waycross *

Michael Des Barres Michael Philip Des Barres (born 24 January 1948), the 26th Marquis Des Barres, is an English actor and rock singer. He appeared as Murdoc in the original '' MacGyver'', Nicholas Helman, Murdoc's mentor, on the new reboot of '' MacGyver'' (2016 ...

as Alex * Jimmie F. Skaggs as Bill Dunston * Bill Moseley as Darrell *

Gerry Bamman Gerald G. Bamman (born September 18, 1941) is an American actor and playwright. He is best known for playing Uncle Frank in the films ''Home Alone'' (1990) and '' Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'' (1992), and has also guest starred in several te ...

as Buddy *

Michael Champion Michael Edward Campbell Champion (born November 3, 1946 in Anderson, Indiana – died June 16, 2021) was an American singer, songwriter and musician who started his public career in Detroit. In 1967, with a short-lived band called 'The Abstra ...

as Ken Lee * William Hickey as Mr. Barton *

Geoffrey Lewis Geoffrey Lewis may refer to: * Geoffrey Lewis (actor) (1935–2015), American character actor * Geoffrey Lewis (scholar) (1920–2008), British professor of Turkish * Geoffrey Lewis (philatelist), Australian philatelist * Geoffrey W. Lewis (died ...

as Ricky Z *

Dirk Blocker Dennis Dirk Blocker (born July 31, 1957) is an American actor. He earned his first regular TV role on '' Baa Baa Black Sheep'' (1976–1978), playing pilot Jerry Bragg. From 2013–2021, he starred as Detective Michael Hitchcock on the Fox/NBC c ...

as Policeman #1 *

as Dinah *

Paul Benjamin Paul Benjamin (February 4, 1938 – June 28, 2019) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades. Benjamin appeared in dozens of films and television shows beginning in the late 1960s. Biography Born to Fair, a Baptist preacher (1890– ...

as Judge *

as Gas Station Attendant *

Mara Corday Mara Corday (born Marilyn Joan Watts; January 3, 1930) is an American showgirl, model, actress, ''Playboy'' Playmate, and 1950s cult figure. Early life Corday was born in Santa Monica, California. Wanting a career in films, she came to Hollywoo ...

as Stick Lady * Jim Carrey as Lounge Entertainer * James Cromwell as Motel Desk Clerk *

Bill McKinney William Denison McKinney (September 12, 1931 – December 1, 2011) was an American character actor. He played the sadistic mountain man in John Boorman's 1972 film ''Deliverance'' and appeared in seven Clint Eastwood films, most notably as Capt ...

as Coltersville Bartender

Production

Filming began in late 1988, and took place in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

.Hughes, p.129 Parts filmed in Quincy, Cresent Mills, west shore lake almanor, all Plumas County

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack features ten songs, all done by various country and rock artists. The album peaked at number 45 on the '' Billboard''

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales ...

in July 1989.

Track listing

Reception

The film received generally poor reviews. Caryn James wrote: "When it's time to look back on the strange sweep of Clint Eastwood's career, from his ambitious direction of ''Bird'' to his coarse, classic

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir action thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the ''Dirty Harry'' series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department (SFP ...

character, ''Pink Cadillac'' will probably settle comfortably near the bottom of the list. It is the laziest sort of action comedy, with lumbering chase scenes, a dull-witted script and the charmless pairing of Mr. Eastwood and Bernadette Peters." (''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', May 26, 1989.) Hal Hinson praised the performers: Peters "...plays her comic scenes with a vivacious abandon..." She "loosens him (Eastwood) up... and humanizes him. These two make a nifty comic team." ''Pink Cadillac'' was released in May 1989, opening against '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''. The film eventually grossed $12,143,484. In contrast, the movie Eastwood made just prior to ''Pink Cadillac'', the fifth Dirty Harry movie, ''

'', grossed $37,903,295. Perhaps due to the poor reviews and meager box office, the film is, as of 2021, Eastwood's last action comedy. It has a 24% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

from 21 reviews. It also went direct to video in the United Kingdom, without a cinema release.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pink Cadillac (film) 1989 films 1989 action comedy films 1980s chase films 1980s musical films American action comedy films American chase films Cadillac Country music films Films about automobiles Films directed by Buddy Van Horn Films produced by David Valdes Films scored by Steve Dorff Films set in Reno, Nevada Malpaso Productions films Warner Bros. films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films