Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)

The story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill-fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

Arnold Schulman, David Seidler

Stars:

Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 11 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeff Bridges	...	Preston Tucker
Joan Allen	...	Vera Tucker
Martin Landau	...	Abe / Voice of Walter Winchell
Frederic Forrest	...	Eddie
Mako	...	Jimmy
Elias Koteas	...	Alex Tremulis
Christian Slater	...	Junior
Nina Siemaszko	...	Marilyn Lee
Anders Johnson	...	Johnny
Corin Nemec	...	Noble Tucker (as Corky Nemec)
Marshall Bell	...	Frank
Jay O. Sanders	...	Kirby
Peter Donat	...	Otto Kerner
Dean Goodman	...	Bennington / Drew Pearson's Voice
John X. Heart	...	Ferguson's Agent

Storyline

Based on a true story. Shortly after World War II, Preston Tucker is a grandiose schemer with a new dream, to produce the best cars ever made. With the assistance of Abe Karatz and some impressive salesmanship on his own part, he obtains funding and begins to build his factory. The whole movie also has many parallels with director Coppola's own efforts to build a new movie studio of his own.

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Plot Keywords:

car | factory | industry | dream | police | 

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Taglines:

When they tried to buy him, he refused. When they tried to bully him, he resisted. When they tried to break him, he became an American legend. The true story of Preston Tucker.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 August 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tucker - Ein Mann und sein Traum

Filming Locations:

City Hall - 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$23,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$19,652,638 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lucasfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael McShane's film debut.

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Goofs

The transport plane that the car is loaded into on the ground is a C-123 Provider, which made its first flight in October, 1949. The particular variant depicted (with jet pods) did not appear until the 1960s. The air-to-air footage shows a different airplane, a DHC-4 Caribou, which first flew in 1958.

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Quotes

Preston Tucker: [revealing his graphics] The car of tomorrow... today.

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Crazy Credits

Photographs of the real Preston Tucker appear during the closing credits.

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Connections

Spoofed in The Simpsons: Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk (1991)

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Soundtracks

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
Written by Louis Lambert (as Patrick Gilmore)
Band arrangement by Mark Adler
Courtesy of Tusken Music

User Reviews

The magic of dreams

A beautiful film which captures the spirit of a man's struggle to make his dream come true. Jeff Bridges is invincible in the role of Preston Tucker and effortlessly pulls the viewer inside the mind and spirit of this maverick entrepreneur who brought to the automotive industry seat belts, fuel injection, pop-out windows and most of all a legend called the Tucker Torpedo.

Acting just oozes out of this fine actor and id consider it as his best performance ever. Excellent direction,screenplay and soundtrack. great duologue's too. especially "can any one in this room look me in the eye and say we cant do it" and on hearings a non-affirmative he replies "except you".

The courtroom speech is something which recharges your spirit and fills your body with passion. Very true as he puts it " fifty or fifty million...thats only machinery..its the idea that counts..the dream.."