Cobb (1995) - Tommy Lee Jones plays an aging Ty Cobb in poor health, but feisty enough to chase his biographer's '57 Buick down a snow-covered mountain in his 1959 Imperial.
Below are several screen captures taken from the movie. In order to play the whole chase scene, just click any of the pictures below--click on a small picture for a small (4.7 Meg) movie, or a large picture to view a larger, high quality clip suitable for viewing in "full-screen" mode; file size is 30 Meg. Left click to view the movie directly, or save to your hard drive by right-clicking and selecting "Save Target As". If you need help viewing the movie clips, go to our "How To Play Imperial Movies" page. Enjoy!
| The author ("Stumpy") who will write Ty Cobb's biography pulls up next to Cobb's '59 Imperial in his '56 Buick. | |
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| Cobb announces to Stumpy that they will drive to Reno to see some, er, "ladies", despite blizzard conditions. | |
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| "Get the hell out of the way!" Cobb screams at Stumpy, who's going too slow in his Buick to keep ahead of Cobb's charging '59 Imperial. | |
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| Tommy Lee Jones keeps the pressure on as the '56 Buick skids through a curve. | |
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| "Get off my ass!" shouts Stumpy, as Cobb's imposing '59 Imperial barrels down on him. Cobb's reply is to nail it while muttering "All right, little girl, I'll take you to school...." | |
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| The formidable 1959 Imperial grille as seen through the 1956 Buick's rear window. | |
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| The Buick is nearly turned sideways as Tommy Lee Jones gives chase in the '59 Imperial. | |
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| After bumping a petrified Stumpy into the tight curve, Cobb gleefully exclaims "Ha ha, that's your first driving lesson, Alice!" | |
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| Cobb's recklessness leads the '59 Imperial off the road, into a snow bank.... | |
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| ....giving Stumpy the chance to claim victory: "Too bad! Couldn't take it, huh?".... | |
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| ....but moments later the Imperial is back on his tail. Tommy Lee Jones gives the Buick a bump.... | |
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| ....and taunts Stumpy with a cry of "Driving lesson number two!" | |
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| After some more wild driving.... | |
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| ....Cobb finally passes Stumpy with a defiant shout of "Follow the leader, young man!" | |
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From Robert Metz:
Anyone seen the movie called Cobb?
There's this great scene where Ty (played by Tommy Lee Jones), is driving his '59 Imperial down a snowy mountain road. It's a great scene 'cause you can really tell how big the car is.
The bad thing is that he crashes it, so I suppose there should be some "Hollywood" spare parts out there!
Check out this great movie, even if it is just for this one scene.
From Dave:
Upon purchasing the '59 custom 4dr, the owner related this story.
He said that he had advertised the car in Hemmings and one day got a call on it. The caller asked if the car was still available and when John said yes and began to tell the guy a little about the car, he interrupted and said "OK, I'll take it..." John said he would be happy to send some pictures of the car and that there was no need to make a decision so quickly. The caller said there was no need and that a check for the asking price ($2500) would arrive Fed Ex the following morning and a driver would arrive the next day to pick it up.
This seemed strange and when the Fed Ex envelope arrived the following morning as promised with the check inside, John noticed a Hollywood address on the envelope and an address of an exclusive neighborhood (can't recall the name) on the check, which set him to thinking. Realizing finally that this was a movie production company and that his '59 (Queen Bea) was going to be a movie prop and then, in all likelihood, discarded, he called the guy back and asked him what movie he was making.
John told me he will always remember the silence of the next few moments, after which, realizing he was discovered, the mysterious caller said it was a movie named Cobb and that it was about the baseball player and that he had owned a '59 Imperial (etc.etc.).
John replied that the '59 was not for sale to be used as a movie prop and that for the $2500 he would sell 3 '59s, all beyond repair, that could be used to make one good one or refund the money.
An argument ensued which was finally resolved when John found out that the trailer the movie company was sending would hold 3 cars. John told me that he and a couple of neighbor kids then got the 3 wrecked Imperials stripped of everything he knew would not be needed for the prop and sent them on their way to California.
From Jeff Stork:
Regarding the '59 mule in Cobb, your car certainly was rescued from a sad ending. When I visited Cinema vehicle after the film has been completed, there were Imperial appendages everywhere.
They also purchased at least three 1956 Buicks for the film, one very nice car for glamour shots, one rougher car for driving, and a shell to build on the Suburban chassis.
I was involved in the promoting the movie Cobb while working for Brand X and met the man who built the car in question. For the snow driving scene, both the Imperial and the 1956 Buick were body shells mounted on new all-wheel-drive Chevrolet Suburban chassis. If you watch the scene carefully, all four wheels are driving. The cars were produced at Cinema Vehicle services in Van Nuys.
