..... It was the directors daughter doing a retrospective of the movie and the car.
I have to stop you right there. It was his wife, Denise Shakarian Halicki. Toby and Denise were barely married for 6 months and Toby (supposedly) never had any children. If he did, none have come forward.
Secondly, don't believe a word she says. She's the Yoko Ono of the Halicki story. They didn't even become an item until sometime in 1986 so she has no first-hand knowledge of the filming or anything like that.
She's the reason the Halicki estate which was once valued at around 19 million was later deemed insolvent and most of Halicki's assets were sold off for pennies on the dollar. There's a reason there's no Halicki museum that houses his toy collection - it was all sold off.
She's also the reason the original soundtrack was not used in the remastered version of the film. The original soundtrack featured half a dozen songs written and performed by Phil Katcheturian and brother Ron Halicki. Since they owned the songs outright, she had to approach them for permission to use in the film. The short version is she asked Ron & Phil to DONATE their rights to the songs to her, so she could use them in the movie as it used to be. Now to their credit, they did briefly consider the option as, it would make legal matters infinitely easier, however when they asked if they'd get any proceeds from the film afterwards, Denise's reply was: "No" as through several court battles, she wrangled the rights to the films away from the Halicki family. When Ron and Phil were told they'd never see a penny, they told her to pound sand. I can't watch the "porno music" version today. The original music is timed perfectly to several scenes and these scenes make NO sense without the music which renders the scenes virtually pointless.
Also, with the original sound, you get to hear actual tire screeches, actual crashes.... EVERYTHING was recorded live as it happened. To wit, Eleanor sounds like an absolute PILE by the time she pulls into the Rosecran's Car Wash! When Toby shuts her off and gets out, the engine diesels for a few seconds. It's absolutely priceless and MAKES the scene real. That car is USED UP by the end of the film!
Incidentally, when they first steal Eleanor with the oddly bent screwdriver, the location is 18511 Mariposa Ave in Gardena. That was Toby's house at the time! They even mention the address later in the film.
The house still looks very much the same.
I've been thinking about getting in touch with Ron Halicki. I'd love to chew his ear off about the film but I don't want to bring up any bad blood about Denise and the court cases. From the few people who HAVE given me the opportunity to talk with them about Toby's films, it's apparently still a very touchy subject with the family.
