Corvette Summer (1978) on Netflix
Kenny Dantley, a high school senior, helps his shop class rebuild a customized Corvette Stingray. When it is stolen, he heads to Las Vegas and meets Vanessa, a self-described prostitute trainee.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb5.7/104,351 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes56%
Trailer
Plot summary
Kenny Dantley, a high school senior in Newhall, California, lives for cars. For a shop class project he pulls a 1973 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray from a car crusher at a scrapyard, and with his classmates rebuilds it as a customized right-hand-drive car with flashy vents, pipes and bodywork. Soon after the finished Corvette is unveiled, it disappears from a street in Van Nuys. Word reaches Kenny that the car is in Las Vegas, and he sets out to bring it home. On the road he meets Vanessa, a confident drifter who calls herself a prostitute trainee and drives a customized white Chevy van with a waterbed, red interior and curtains. In Las Vegas, Kenny takes a job at a car wash.
Cast
- Clifford A. Pellowas Older John - Rosalind's Admirer (as Cliff Pellow)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Corvette Summer (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Made on a relatively small budget of $1.7 million, Corvette Summer was a box office success, taking about $36 million at the worldwide box office.
- Green Day's 2024 album Saviors contains a song titled "Corvette Summer", and the band used an altered vintage poster of the film to announce the song's music video, which features Hamill himself as well as Hannibal Buress.
- Corvette Summer was the first screen appearance Mark Hamill made after the unexpected success of Star Wars, which had been released the previous year.
- The main Corvette was sold to an Australian collector and altered to look different from how it appears in the film, while the backup car stayed in the United States. Mike Yager of Mid America Motorworks in Effingham, Illinois, owned it for a while and sold it to a private collector in late 2009.
- In episode 513 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mike Nelson exclaims, "Luke, join me or you'll star in Corvette Summer", an allusion to Mark Hamill's role in the Star Wars films.
- In 1979, Annie Potts was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Acting Debut - Female for her work in the film.
