Tucker: The Man and His Dream

In postwar America, Preston Tucker sets out to build a car with seatbelts, disc brakes and a headlight that turns with the wheels. Detroit's big three move against him, then the SEC does, and he ends up on trial for stock fraud. Coppola conceived the project in the seventies as a dark musical with a score by Leonard Bernstein. That collapsed when American Zoetrope ran into financial trouble. George Lucas revived it in 1986, persuaded Coppola to rebuild it as a tribute to Frank Capra, and personally covered the 24 million dollar budget. It was shot in California, in Richmond, Oakland and San Francisco. Twenty-one Tuckers from the Tucker Automobile Club of America were used, some as set dressing and some in starring roles. Coppola and Lucas each owned two Tucker 48s. Jeff Bridges plays Tucker. Martin Landau won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar, with further nominations for cinematography, art direction and costume design. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 82 percent, though the box office did not follow: 19.65 million dollars. It became a cult film later and drove up collector interest in Tucker cars considerably. Who it is for: viewers who like the American entrepreneur myth and period design. Who it is not for: anyone wanting distance from the hero. The film defends Tucker to the end and puts the commercial failure almost entirely on outside forces.