Remember the 1971 movie Harold and Maude? Silly question. If you saw it, you’ve never forgotten it. And if you’re a Car Guy like me, you consider its star not Bud Cort or Ruth Gordon, but the hearse that Harold fabricated from a beautiful black XK-E that had been a gift from his mother. Sadly, when the hearse was sent off a cliff in the movie it was no special effect–they really did send the hearse over the edge to its demise.
Four decades later, the Jag seems to have influenced at least one hearse stylist, as this Cadillac CTS conversion attests. Pretty slick, isn’t it? Well, as they say, Cadillac Style is the only way to go.
And a happy, haunted and safe Halloween to all!
Thats a terrible thing to do to an innocent E type. A hearse for midgets.
I remember 2 things about that movie:
1. Obviously that hearse.
2.That Maude carried one HUMUNGOUS key ring with keys for nearly any make of car. She never bought gas…when the car she had “liberated” ran out of gas, she liberated another nearby..
That Cadillac is the worst thing I’ve seen today.
Beats the hell out of this:
Anything does!
Its a photoshop, not an actual hearse and the CTS isn’t used for a Proffesional Vehicle up-fitter option, the XTS is whats used as a hearse base for modern Cadillacs, replacing the DTS.
Here’s a production XTS hearse and 6 door family car by Armbruster-Stageway.
Photoshop or not I think that CTS hearse looks pretty damn cool. For a hearse, that is 😀 .
I had not thought about this movie in years….Thanks.
Oddly we were subjected to this movie in English class in high school (no way that would happen now). Ah the 70’s.
Forget the Jag, give me that ’62 Country Squire hiding in the garage 🙂 .
Yep, my thought exactly.
Am I perverse if I only have eyes for that old Ford in the background? It’s sickening, I know, but I can’t help the way I feel.
Upon seeing that Ford in the background, I had a flashback to someone I knew years ago who used a 1964 Country Sedan in his side business as a pipe organ builder. I’m sure it was perfect for hauling some of the larger pipes!
+1
Personally, I’d take the ’59 Caddy Superior Hearse in this film over the Jag. More room to spread out for the driver, big American V8 power, and of course those fantastic fins. I cringed when it was destroyed in the movie, but according to Grimrides, it still exists:
http://www.grimrides.com/haroldmaudehearse/cootrue.htm
This one’s for sale here in So Cal…only $125K!
https://www.facebook.com/charlesphoenix.usa/photos/a.378890579425.160195.153552674425/10152514022744426/?type=1&theater
. . . It’s been many years since I watched Harold and Maude and now that I think about it. . . was the Caddy towed off to the scrap yard and picked up by an electromagnet, dumped in a pile? Better go watch it again. . .
Nope, in the movie the mom mentions she had the caddy towed off when she gave Harold the Jag he turned into the hearse above.
You’re probably thinking of the scene when he buys the caddy from a junkyard, I believe there is a shot of the magnet picking up another car at the yard before they cut to the scene of him buying the hearse.
Yup . . .That was it. Just watched it again for Halloween – I forgot about the scene where they rescue the tree in the stolen ElCamino and drive that poor California cop crazy- that had me in stitches. Such a great movie : )
’68 or ’69 El Camino, wasn’t it?
It’s been decades since I’ve seen that movie. Gotta watch it!
This hearse is the only thing from this movie that I remember,other than the fact that it was pretty depressing for a “black comedy”.
Isn’t that the whole idea, or are you thinking of the other type?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, ROFL!
That movie is depressing too….
The Jag hearse is a great idea. There should never be funerals on rainy days anyway. 🙂
If Lane Price had used the XK-E hearse and gotten it started, it would have saved a trip.
+1
Thanx for the memories , I don’t know if my Son would sit and watch Harold & Maude….
-Nate
One of my desert island movies being the taphophile and auto nut oddball that I am. The soundtrack by the musician formerly known as Cat Stevens is perfect as well. Harold is the inspiration for my handle. As Harold went “harolding” – poking around cemeteries, I do the same. I don’t do stranger’s funerals, mock suicides, or 80 year old women. I do wish I had the generous filthy rich mother that would let me slide into such eccentricity however. Such is life.
I think Cat Stevens calls himself Yusef Bin Islam-or something after his conversion to Islam
Is that even big enough to fit an adult-sized casket?
Brendan, you might well ask that same question about this one.
Presenting a photochop doodle I did at the end of the day while waiting for my commuter mate:
“Ladies and Gentlemen: the Janus Hearse.”
Ha! Good one. And since it can be loaded from either the front or back, there’s never a need to turn it around.
If it had better brakes you could unload it without the help of pall bearers, redneck style.
(Halloween is my excuse for this horrible joke.)
…I hear they make a 1/8 sized version for weiner dogs.
And the reason for the choppy and incomplete filming of the Jag going over the cliff in the movie, was because the main camera jammed during the take. No retakes with only one car!
An old girlfriend used to think I looked like Bud Cort. She married me anyway. Can no longer pull off that hairstyle, which is probably just as well.
Though chopping up an E-Type for this doesn’t seem too wise, it appears to be pretty well done. IMO if it started as a 2+2, no huge loss.
Did someone at Jensen see this and crib the roofline for the GT?
I fully agree. the 2+2’s were nasty looking abortions!
Someone needs to take an old 2+2 and re-create the Jag hearse.
I believe the Jensen you speak of could be their “shooting break” type model – probably done by an outside coach builder..
Shooting break was an old coach building term for sports-car-tuned-station-wagon…basically. (assuming you didn’t already know.)
And hello to Mr. 73ImpCapn.!
On second thought, the Harrold & Maude XKE was NOT a 2+2.
The 2+2s were much longer in the door area. (Longer wheelbase)
I l met the mortician that created the XK-E hearse. He was helping me find a hearse to buy for a project. He hooked me up w/a couple that had one that I bought and started getting it worked on. He called me and said bring it out to my funeral home and I’ll take the back tables out of it for you. You’ll get much better gas mileage w/those out. So my friend and I drove to L.A. and while he was removing the tables he had to use a jack hammer to remove them, I looked at my friend and asked her,”makes you wonder what he has to use that for,huh?” He was one of the first to rent to movie studios for coffins,embalming equipment,faux body parts,funeral set ups,etc. He had some good stories about what made him get into the mortician field, funerals, and mix ups.He was really nice.