HTF DVD Review: Eat My Dust

Ron Howard spent twenty years of his acting life playing the wholesome boy next door in three consecutive television series: The Andy Griffith Show, The Smith Family, and Happy Days. So, it’s understandable that he’d be looking around for a film project in which he could play someone maybe not quite so wholesome. Producer Roger Corman came to the rescue with Eat My Dust.

In it, Howard plays Hoover Niebold, son of the local sheriff Harry Niebold (Warren Kemmerling). Trapped in a nothing job replacing paper towels in restroom lavatories, he’s looking for some excitement. He’s also seriously infatuated with local town beauty Darlene Kurtz (Christopher Norris) whose tight green sweaters and yellow hot pants have most of the town’s male population panting. At the local speedway after the evening’s main race has concluded, Hoover gets the bright idea to borrow winner Big Bubba Jones’ (Dave Madden) race car from right in front of the race crowd to impress Darlene and take her on a little joy ride. The joy ride turns into a full blown manhunt led by his father all over the neighboring counties.

Eat My Dust is part of the “chase and destroy” school of filmmaking. After those initial expository scenes, the film for the most part is merely Howard and Norris being chased at high speeds by every police car the small budget can afford and wrecking every car, fruit stand, shed, and barn in its path. It’s not funny, the stunts are not particularly well staged or shot, and the whole idea was executed ever so much better the next year in Hal Needham’s Smokey and the Bandit. Apart from Howard joining Norris in the shower for a quick break between chase scenes, the film couldn’t be more predictable or lame.

Despite his best efforts, Howard remains the wholesome boy next door with perhaps just a touch of rascal in him, but he’s the only actor in the picture who makes a firm impression. Christopher Norris is certainly an eyeful as Darlene, but her line readings are flat and rather lifeless. Dave Madden gets off a couple of zingers as the star stockcar driver, and Warren Kemmerling manages to do a reasonable slow burn as his son continues to outdrive his patrol officers (but his rising ire can‘t begin to match Jackie Gleason‘s frustrated hilarity in the Bandit films). Look quickly and you’ll see two other members of Howard’s family in the cast: brother Clint and father Rance.

Other than Ron Howard’s work, the film’s only other claim to fame is the well done point of view driving sequences. The opening credit sequence brings to mind those Cinerama roller coaster scenes as the camera strapped to the front of a speeding car twists and turns over narrow roads and misses by inches some oncoming cars. This same first person camera view is used at a couple of other shorter intervals during the movie, and it’s always effective. It’s a shame the stunt work is so flat and unspectacular. The limited budget and a first time director (Corman’s longtime screenwriter Charles Griffith getting his first chance behind the camera) do the movie in.



The movie’s 1.33:1 aspect ratio is presented in a very flat looking DVD transfer. Color is lackluster, and sharpness is only fair. There is a dated appearance to the entire video presentation which is not aided by occasional dirt and a fleeting tear or two. The film has been divided into 12 chapters.



The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound is decoded by Prologic into the center channel. Lacking fidelity and zip, it’s a lackluster audio presentation not helped by some low level hiss at various intervals.




“How to Crash on a Dime: The Making of Eat My Dust” is a 9½ -minute featurette featuring the film’s editor, director of photography and co-star Christopher Norris discussing the restraints of making a film on a tiny budget and with stunts that go wrong and have to be fixed in editing rather than in reshooting. It’s a standard but reasonably interesting look at true independent filmmaking in the 1970s. It’s presented in 4:3 and color.

The theatrical trailer included with the set lasts barely one minute and is dirty and filled with scratches and tears. It’s also a full frame presentation.





At the time a big hit with the teen drive-in crowd, Eat My Dust is all about chases and crashes. For some, that’s enough.


Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC