'EAT MY DUST'........RON HOWARD ENROLLS IN CORMAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE.......

Eat My Dust (1976)    First.....a vital BQ statement......

               It is positively evil, toxic and malicious that the Academy Awards shuffles off the lifetime achievement Oscar winners to some un-televised, unseen ceremony before the big awards show.......

               So we never, ever get to see cinema icons duly honored....

               We do, on the other hand, get to see Jimmy Kimmel shlep celebrities over to some movie theater to surprise people in the middle of a showing of "A Wrinkle In Time"........(but the sight of Donald Sutherland awarded for his lifetime of memorable roles is for Academy attendees eyes only.....)

               Among other filmmakers condemned to this secret unheralded  'by-invitation-only' ghetto was Roger Corman, not only the undisputed Lord and Master of quickie shlock movies, but the mentor and one man Kickstarter for a host of A-Listers......Francis Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Jonathon Demme, Jack Nicholson, James Cameron, Bill Paxton......and Ron Howard.

               Howard was already firmly established as America's 'Happy Days' boy-next-door when he signed on for "Eat My Dust", a typically slapdash Corman car-crash crapfest............written and directed by one of Corman's most legendary, prolific alter-egos, Charles B. Griffith. ("Little Shop Of Horrors", "A Bucket Of Blood", "Not Of This Earth", "Death Race 2000", etc, etc......)

               The 1970's became the Golden Age Of Automobile Destruction for grindhouse filmmakers and the one and only purpose of something like "Eat My Dust" was providing the spectacle of rebellious teens crashing cars into buildings, gas stations, stores......and each other.

               Ron Howard had more on his mind than merely toplining one of Roger Corman's many disposable drive-in movies.........he recognized a chance to enter the unofficial Corman College for Fledgling Directors.....

               Corman offered his young and hungry 'students' a sink-or-swim course of study......giving them enough raw film stock to make an 80 minute movie and about 2 weeks time to shoot it.

               Usually, this resulted in a win-win for everybody.......Corman got his fast 'n cheap little movie......and the film's director got a crash course in filmmaking that served him well after graduating to bigger and better movies for major studios.

               You could consider "Eat My Dust" as Ron Howard's Freshman year at Corman College prior to Corman letting him take the directorial reigns over the almost identical follow-up, "Grand Theft Auto"......

              The movie?  Easily described.......Ron sees a race car, Ron sees a cute blonde......Ron steals the race car and Cute Blonde hops in for the ride. Many cop cars, led by Ron's father, the Sheriff, chase after him.......many cars crash......and crash some more......and keep crashing.

              That about covers it.

              Sure, it's the most raggedy, slapped together piece of nonsense you could ever hope to watch, but Corman knew his audience and knew how to assemble and market his product like no other producer.......

              And no other producer so astutely took advantage of the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of the  neophytes who worked under him........if you consider all the films made by the directors who jump-started their careers at Corman's Krazy Kollege.......then stuff like "Eat My Dust" would turn into a win-win for audiences as well......

              For Ron Howard, the movie served its purpose as a Freshman Orientation.......and we promise to cover "Grand Theft Auto", his Corman senior year Directing Final Exam in a future post.
For "Eat My Dust", we'll pop the clutch and rev up 2 & 1/2 quickie stars (**1/2).......it's entirely possible we spent more time writing this post than the movie's shooting schedule........