It’s a pretty obscure movie, but King of the Mountain remains one of our favourite car flicks out there.
The film, directed by Noel Nosseck, focusses on a real life scene of the late seventies in which street racers would go head-to-head up Mulhollund Drive high up in the Hollywood Hills.
At the core of the film is the relationship between a bunch of street racers fighting for dominance. The payoff is that the old guard as represented by Hopper and his hulk of Detroit steel, ebbs into a technologically adept, youthful future. This was, after all, the eighties.
There is a delectable selection of onboard and heli shots that capture the contortions of a particularly phat Porsche Speedster driven by by fro-rocking leading man Harry Hamlin and a brilliantly eschatological Dennis Hopper at the helm of a battered, stripped down street racing ‘vette.
A fairly long but engaging sequence is featured below. Stick with it for the brilliant, schlocky end punctuation that starts the scrolling credits and period authentic Carly Simon theme tune.