May 26, 2025 • 43 mins
Roadracers (1959)
AIP Production #319
Jeff and Cheryl head to the track and get revved up for Roadracers.
Directed by Arthur Swerdloff
Written by Stanley Kallis and Ed Lakso
Based on an original story by Stanley Kallis
Produced by Stanley Kallis
Starring
Joel Lawrence as Rob Wilson
Marian Collier as Liz
Skip Ward as Greg Morgan
Sally Fraser as Joanie Wilson
Mason Alan Dinehart as Kit Morgan
John Shay as Harry Wilson
Irene Windust as Alice
Gloria Marshall as Sally, the Waitress
Michael Gibson as the Bartender
Richard Pharo as Wilkins
Sumner Williams as Johnny, the mechanic
Haile Chace as McKenzie
A Catalina Production
An American International Picture
View the Roadracers trailer here.
You can stream Roadracers on Tubi, Shout Factory TV, Xumo Play, Philo or rent on Prime Video.
Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast
Get your American International Podcast merchandise at our store.
Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)
AIP Production #319
Jeff and Cheryl head to the track and get revved up for Roadracers.
Directed by Arthur Swerdloff
Written by Stanley Kallis and Ed Lakso
Based on an original story by Stanley Kallis
Produced by Stanley Kallis
Starring
Joel Lawrence as Rob Wilson
Marian Collier as Liz
Skip Ward as Greg Morgan
Sally Fraser as Joanie Wilson
Mason Alan Dinehart as Kit Morgan
John Shay as Harry Wilson
Irene Windust as Alice
Gloria Marshall as Sally, the Waitress
Michael Gibson as the Bartender
Richard Pharo as Wilkins
Sumner Williams as Johnny, the mechanic
Haile Chace as McKenzie
A Catalina Production
An American International Picture
View the Roadracers trailer here.
You can stream Roadracers on Tubi, Shout Factory TV, Xumo Play, Philo or rent on Prime Video.
Visit our website - https://aippod.com/ and follow the American International Podcast on Letterboxd, Instagram and Threads @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast
Get your American International Podcast merchandise at our store.
Our open and close includes clips from the following films/trailers: How to Make a Monster (1958), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), High School Hellcats (1958), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), The Wild Angels (1966), It Conquered the World (1956), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Female Jungle (1955)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[BRACKING]
(00:03):
Roadracers.
Like the pony express riders of frontier days,
they're a special breed of men dedicated
to ever increasing speed, disdainful of danger.
[BRACKING]
Men like Harry Wilson.
You love racing, don't you?
Laguna Seika.
(00:23):
Seabring.
The Grand Prix?
I know they're magic words to you.
It's my whole life.
Rob, his son, born and bred to win, or to kill or die trying.
Liz, a woman of the world.
Tell me about Rob.
(00:45):
He needs me.
Joanie, living at racing speed.
Greg, a racing engineer, caught between decency
and an irresistible desire.
You lousy tramp!
Stop it.
Stop.
I'll be gunning for you from the second you get behind that wheel.
(01:05):
I'll kill you, Morgan.
Dangerous men and a dangerous game.
Challenging the very elements to speed over the Earth,
faster than man has ever traveled before.
[BRACKING]
We're not talking about actors.
We mean a real monster.
(01:26):
And brought her back.
She'll live and I'll get her another body.
I know they're gonna catch me, but don't let anyone see me
like that! Please, Doctor!
Help me!
Biologically speaking, it's a primary importance
that man should want to mate.
Hey, that's right.
You don't get all your kicks from surfing, do you?
We want to be free to ride our machines without being
hassled by the man.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(01:48):
And we want to get loaded.
You think you're going to make a slave of the world?
I'll see you in Hell first.
The American International Podcast.
Are you ready?
Hey, movie fans.
You found the American International Podcast.
I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And I'm Jeff Markin.
And today we're taking a spin with the Roadracers
from 1959.
(02:08):
Roadracers was directed by Arthur Swerdloff ,
written by Stanley Kallis and Edward J. Lasco,
based on original story by Stanley Kallis,
and was produced by Stanley Kallis for Catalina Productions.
Roadracers stars Joel Lawrence as Rob Wilson,
Marion Collier as Liz, Skip Ward as Greg Morgan,
Sally Fraser as Joani Wilson, Mason Alan Dinehart as Kit
(02:29):
Morgan, John Shay as Harry Wilson, Irene Windust as Alice.
Also appearing our Gloria Marshall as Sally, the Waitress,
Michael Gibson as the bartender, Richard G. Pharo as Wilkins,
Sumner Williams as Johnny, the mechanic,
and Haile Chace as McKenzie.
Now we open with a bell dinging and the logo coming up.
And then we hear a race car revving.
(02:50):
We see the title, then a race photo collage
with the song "Leadfoot" by Jimmy Maddin playing.
This is a really interesting opening
because we haven't seen anything like this from AIP.
And especially this early.
The titles were by Ed Martin and their credit
is as coming from photographs by Bob Rofolson.
And they're kind of drawings of photographs,
and then they go negative.
It's kind of a weird effect.
(03:12):
Yeah, I would almost say animated.
They're not really animated, but they do change
from the positive to the negative image,
black and white and black.
And it is kind of arresting and we will see it later.
And besides Ed Martin, who is
quite with the titles, they also quite
had sports car graphics to Jay Connors.
The aforementioned Ed Martin,
big Fisher Howard Maxwell and Pat Shields.
(03:35):
Yeah, it's pretty involved.
And it takes quite a while to get through them.
And as for the song "Ledgefoot,"
that's kind of strange too.
Yeah, I think it's pertinent to the plot.
However, it's not a great song.
It sounds like somebody doing a bad,
Louis pre-mammitation.
It's a very growly tone of voice.
Almost like Tom Wates would sound in 15 years hence.
(03:56):
So once we're through this unusual opening credit sequence,
the movie proper starts.
We meet Rob Wilson.
He's sitting in a race car.
He's there waiting when two cars drive up,
when containing Rob's mother, sister and friend.
Ephesus on the friend.
And the other are two men who are there to time him.
He's trying to qualify for this race.
And he missed the actual qualification race, I guess.
(04:19):
So they're making a special exception for this.
His mom, Alice, tells us and them that he just got off a plane
and he couldn't make the actual time trials.
Rob's sister, Joanie, is there, as you said.
And his friend Liz, who we're going to find out
is his emotional support animal, is also watching.
And then Rob takes off.
The two men timing discussed how they're surprised
(04:41):
to see that Rob is back in the game, especially at this track.
Because apparently he killed a guy here earlier.
This gets mentioned a lot throughout the film.
And they're not going to let him forget it.
No, and I think the lead foot from the title song
is what they call him due to this incident
that happened earlier, where he went too fast.
(05:02):
And he killed one Billy Johnson, who
is mourned throughout the film.
I think Billy Johnson has used more as a cudgel
to control Rob, rather than anyone actually
caring about his life and death.
Joni asked her mother when she's going to be able to see her dad.
She says it will be nice to see her parents together again.
It's been a long time since they've been a family.
(05:24):
So Rob completes the time trials,
and he will make it into the race, according to the officials.
However, this opens up a new array of problems.
Rob's dad Harry is going to be at the track tomorrow.
Joni wants her parents back together,
but Rob is apprehensive about seeing his dad again.
Because dad blames Rob for the crash that killed Billy,
and he just can't move past that to forgiveness.
Rob's mom wants him to make up to his father,
(05:47):
and Rob says that he'll meet his dad halfway, but no more.
He says the incident is like something
from a bad dream to him, and he's gotten past it.
Or so he says.
Alice and Joanie leave, and Liz, Rob's special friend,
stays behind, and says that his mother
keeps looking at her like a bride.
She wonders if she should have gotten on the plane
with him in Milan, where they're coming from.
(06:08):
But Rob tells her to give it time,
and maybe she'll come around.
But Liz is going to hold him in the friend zone,
which is the place that she's openly acknowledged
that is his only option, no matter what
Rob would like to believe.
Then Liz Pat's Rob on the head and tells him
that they're going to be late for dinner
if they keep hanging around here.
Then we cut to the next day we're at Monterrey,
and cars are racing.
Rob gets notification that he's officially qualified.
(06:29):
Apparently the timing he did yesterday
was just to make sure he could qualify timewise,
but the officials still had to acknowledge
that he could be in the race.
So he applied yesterday, and today found out he got the job.
Then a voice comes over the loudspeaker announcing
that Rob Wilson would be driving in the race.
You may remember a few years ago
when he killed a guy on the track
and left the sport in disgrace.
(06:52):
Thanks Captain Exposition.
Harry years this announcement, and it stops him in his tracks.
This is Rob's father.
It's hard to convey this in just talking about it,
but everyone gives the camera the most dramatic looks
at all times.
Liz arrives at the track, but no longer has any time for Rob.
Now that she spots the other racer, the Hunky Greg.
(07:12):
This is Greg Morgan, and she sees him working
on a car.
As we'll find out, they have a past.
And Greg drives for Harry, who, as we said, is Rob's father.
And now is his rival.
Alice and Joanie go over to Harry,
Kit pops up from under the car,
and he tries to coax the kids from Joni,
but she treats him like he's joking and just blows him off.
(07:33):
Kitt is Greg's little brother,
and he also works as a mechanic for Harry.
Harry's clearly not going to meet Rob halfway,
or even one third of the way.
He also dredges up the passes and excuse
for not trying to talk to his son.
Joanie and Alice try to make a case for Harry to forgive him,
but Harry won't budge.
Rob won that big race in Milan, so what?
He won the race where he killed Billy too.
(07:54):
He's such a sourpuss.
He knows that Rob was never interested in racing anyway.
And neither was his mother for that matter,
so it's a little strange that she brought him back into it.
Alice says that she had to.
Rob will not give up until he wins back Harry's approval,
but Harry's not going to offer that,
even if Rob drives the car that Harry built for him.
Harry would give a dozen gold cups for one Greg Morgan,
(08:15):
he says.
Alice applies gentle emotional blackmail.
Rob wants to forgive him, and so does Alice,
because they've been estranged for a while.
Harry softens a bit like he is willing to go along with us
to get back in Alice's good graces,
so he agrees to see Rob after the race.
Then Alice goes to leave, but Joni hangs back to talk to Greg Morgan.
While Kitt has eyes for her, she seems to have a thing for Greg.
(08:39):
And she apologizes to Greg for having to listen to all this family talk.
And he says he's sorry too.
But it's only beginning.
And he asks Joanie to make sure that her mother knows
that he's not trying to replace Rob,
but Joni says that she knows that.
It's kind of a weird family dynamic.
Yeah.
And this movie also sets up two different love triangles.
(09:02):
And it's very seen.
Greg has become like a surrogate son to Harry,
because Rob has been disgraced.
And this whole incident has split up the marriage
between Harry and Alice.
And everybody has really complicated backscoreies.
Joanie asks Greg to give her a call later.
Kitt slides back from under the car and says
(09:23):
that Joanie would be surprised to hear that he knows how to use a telephone.
I mean, I know I am.
And Joanie says that she likes him too.
But again, reiterates she wants Greg to call her.
Greg says that they can all get together later after the race.
And Joanie scampers off.
Greg tells his brother to keep at it.
She'll come around.
But Kitt says it's hard because she can't take her eyes off Greg.
And Greg tells his brother to keep dialing.
(09:45):
She'll get your call.
But Kitt says he's always getting his abyssenal
because Greg's tying up the line.
[LAUGHS]
What an aptum metaphor.
And Harry comes over and tells Greg that if Rob gives him any trouble
on the track to pull in, he doesn't want to repeat
of what happened with Billy Johnson.
Now with his surrogate son.
(10:05):
Greg feels differently, however.
He believes that what happened between Rob and Billy
Johnson was an accident.
And until approving otherwise, he's
going to give Rob the benefit of the doubt.
Harry says that he'll never forgive Rob for this.
And then he gives us a graphic 3D representation
of the accident that killed Billy.
He sets up something on top of the hood of the car,
where one car represents Rob and one car represents Billy.
(10:25):
And then shoots Billy's car over the top of the hood
of the car, representing how Billy crashed and burned,
thanks to Rob.
And he roared right over to Cliff, he says.
Kit picks up Billy Johnson's car.
And warns Greg, he'd better watch himself.
Greg says he will.
The announcer calls for a driver's meeting
in Greg leaves his gelopy.
(10:45):
And he marches right past Liz, who was staring at him all starry
eyed.
She calls out his name and is headwips around dramatic chipmunk
style.
I'd hoped he would meet me at the airport, she says.
Greg tells her the cable came too late.
He says he almost went after her, but common sense took root.
Apparently that cable came two years too late.
His interest has waned since then.
(11:07):
She wants to know that she's never forgiven herself for that.
But Greg says he doesn't believe her.
He doesn't trust her.
But she tells him she'll wait for him anytime, any place.
He says that he'll see her around, but not by choice.
And then he storms off.
Liz looks hurt.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And now we're off to the races.
(11:29):
The announcer says that all qualifying cars are in for this 25
lap race.
Greg Morgan is driving car number 70.
Rob Wilson is driving car number 204.
Then the car's race.
They make a lot of left hand turns.
The track's pretty long.
It's not just a circle like a NASCAR race.
It goes through the landscape of wherever
(11:50):
they are, Monterey, California.
Yeah, there's a lot of shots of the car's driving.
And people's heads whipping from one side
to the other as the cars go by.
And we find out from the announcer that one turn
on this racetrack is called Ledfoot Alley.
As only one driver at a time can go through it.
And I believe that's where the accident happened last time.
I was wondering, wouldn't bottleneck Alley be a better term
(12:11):
for it?
Anyway, the race seems to be presented in real time,
because this eats up a lot of the movies run time.
Toward the end of the race, as they head into Leadfoot Alley,
Rob has to pull back.
Because as we said, only one car can make it through.
And Greg's in the lead.
This makes Harry smile.
Now Rob pulls alongside Greg's car
and time to finish a close second behind him.
(12:33):
Everyone drives in and Rob congratulates Greg on the win.
Greg admits it was neck and neck
and if Rob hadn't pulled back and let foot Alley,
one of them would have been run off the road.
Rob says that once Greg showed him his tailpipes,
he didn't feel he had a choice but to pull back.
Yes, Greg was got under that hood.
Greg says his blood and sweat and hairy spare parts.
Sounds kind of homoerotic.
(12:56):
It's not though.
Harry comes running up.
“Great race, Greg!"
But he stops when he sees Greg talking to Rob.
There's a tense moment when Harry and Rob see each other at last.
They face off with a parking space between them.
And then they rush into each other's arms.
But this happy reunion lasts 1.8 seconds.
And then Dad starts to pressure Rob to join his racing team.
He wants to start a new lap chart for the two of them.
(13:18):
Rob says he doesn't want to race against him.
But Harry met on the same team like the old days.
Rob wants to talk about this later,
but Harry doesn't understand the word.
Rob thinks racing as a team won't be good for their relationship,
but Harry is a dog with a bone on this.
This is a very dramatic conversation judging by the overacting.
Rob tells his dad he knows racing is his whole life, but it's not Rob's.
(13:40):
He doesn't fit in here.
Harry says, "What are you talking about?"
"You just almost won here.
You did win a Milan."
And Rob's like, "Yeah, but..."
And Harry jumps in again.
He's got a surprise.
He wants Rob to quit the team that he was on in Milan,
which Rob was going to do anyways.
And Harry wants him to drive for his team in the Grand Prix next week.
In the car, he and Greg both built together.
(14:02):
Harry's really excited by this idea.
The problem is Harry still doesn't get it.
So Rob has to try and say this in a way that won't hurt Harry's feelings,
but that's not possible.
So he just blurtts out, "I hate racing."
Harry is a gassed, and he can't hide his disappointment.
Nobody doesn't say anything for once.
It takes him a while to process the nonsensical words
(14:24):
that just came out of his son's mouth.
Rob says he's sorry.
He's glad that his father wants him, but does he have to be hurt?
He gives kind of the petulant silent treatment to his son.
Then he turns away from him and says,
"Kids are supposed to love cars.
I couldn't wait to give you one, and you ate them."
[laughs]
Rob is new at tears.
Isn't it enough that I tried?
(14:46):
I tried so hard.
I don't know anything but cars.
I think Harry feels by extension that by hating racing, Rob hates him.
He's taking this very personally, and Rob calls him on that.
It's ridiculous that he's taking this as a personal insult,
but Harry's kind of a ridiculous person.
After all I've done for you, Harry complains bitterly.
(15:07):
Rob's angry that he was never allowed to be himself,
but when Harry asks, "Okay, who are you?"
Rob really doesn't have an answer.
He does. He says, "Someone who hates you."
[laughs]
Then Rob storms off to be comforted by his mommy.
Alice asks what happened, and he tells her what happened,
and she tells him that that's Harry's loss.
She's washing his face this whole time too.
Rob leaves himself for her and her dad's situation,
(15:29):
but she tells him that it's not his fault.
She doesn't want Harry this way, and she can't change him,
but at least Rob doesn't have to race anymore.
Yeah, but that's not what's going to happen,
because now wants to stick it to the old man.
So he's going to do the thing that will hurt him the most,
race against him and win.
Well, don't expect me to watch, says Alice.
I never want to see you in a car again.
(15:52):
And she storms off to be comforted by, I don't know,
cats, secret boyfriend, who knows.
Now we go to one of three locations in this entire movie.
Liz walks into a bar.
This is actually the grand pre-restaurant.
They have a special credit at the beginning,
with special things given to Mary Davis and Bob Drake,
who must be the restaurant's owners.
They probably allowed them to film there,
(16:12):
because this is a sound stage.
This is a real restaurant.
It seems to be racetrack adjacent.
Liz asks the bartender if he's seen Rob Wilson.
He hasn't, but he just free hung Ralph's picture on the wall,
giving him a place of honor that he lost when he killed Billy Johnson.
All this for given, I guess, we set the grand pre.
Then the bartender invites her to go watch some racing films
(16:33):
that are screening in the other room.
I think it's the race that Rob was in in Milan,
because he calls it the Milanese 500 or something.
She spots a piano and starts to endlessly playing it.
And then we see that the rest of the cast is also at the restaurant.
I guess it's most of the rest of the cast.
Joanie is at a table with Greg and Kit.
Sally, the waitress, comes to take their order.
(16:53):
Johnny orders a coke on the rocks.
Greg has his old-fashioned.
And Sally says she's going to bring milk for Kit.
Yeah, he tried hitting on her.
I'll have what you're having, but it didn't work.
She shuts them down hard.
But Kit changes his order to cream in Baleys.
But he might not be of age.
The waitress goes and Kit says that she's crazy about him.
Joanie laughs and says, "What Kit needs is a steady girl."
(17:16):
And he accepts her proposal, and then Joanie laughs at him like the clown that he is.
[LAUGHS]
I don't hear Liz singing some melancholy tune in the back.
It's called "Here You Are."
Greg hears this and gets up.
Sally tells Greg to invite her to come sit with them.
She's probably waiting for Rob anyhow.
Greg listens to the lyrics of "Here You Are."
And when the song finishes, he says, "I wish I could believe you."
(17:39):
But he knows that she's here waiting for Rob.
Greg won't share her with Rob.
Liz says that she's just taking care of him emotionally for his mother's sake.
His mother wants Rob to quit racing.
She begs Greg for just one week to prove herself.
And then Johnny and Kit join them drinks in hand.
Johnny tells Greg as she comes back to the table.
His drink is getting warm.
But really, she isn't want Greg speaking with Liz.
(17:59):
They seem a little too chummy.
Yep, there's a little date blocking here.
Kit, who can't read a room, suggests Liz play Auld Lang Syne,
and he pushes her aside to start pounding on the tune.
And singing it, unfortunately.
That's when Rob enters.
What's with the Auld Lang Syne bit?
He asks.
To all the acquaintances says Kit.
Rob seems like he's already pretty lit when he arrives,
(18:20):
but he orders a bourbon in Johnny goes to fetch it.
Greg asks Rob about Milan.
And then Rob has some sort of twilight zone moment
where he's dramatically recalling something about his eyes burning in the rain.
He seems to have some PTSD from racing.
Kit says that he was lucky, but Rob disagrees and just leaves them.
He goes back to the entrance of the restaurant, and Liz goes after him.
(18:42):
Rob says he knew about Liz's past, but he never knew the guy's name,
and now he's here.
And he's real.
Yes, if he wants her back.
Liz says yes if she proves herself, and then explains her dilemma.
Greg won't wonder if she cares too much about Rob, but she doesn't care.
She wants Rob to end his pity party once and for all.
Walk away from racing.
(19:02):
Rob refuses.
Then do it fair, she demands.
Will you stay with me till I do, he asks, but Liz is not able to answer this
and the scene fades out.
[Music]
And now more racing.
Yay.
Greg is running the track.
(19:23):
Harry is watching along with Kit and Joanie.
My boy is going to win the exclaims, Harry, as Kit and Joanie stand by awkwardly.
Greg asks Kit.
Yes, of course Greg says Harry.
Joanie drops the news that Rob's going to be gunning for him in the Grand Prix.
Harry doesn't care that he could end this.
He thinks Rob should fight him like a man.
Johnny tries to tell her father that he's making a mistake in being a horrible person, but
(19:46):
he just feels she's turning on him the way her mother and brother did.
Greg's coming in, so Johnny and Kit back away from the track.
Greg's made good time and Johnny and Kit's share in her brace.
It's a little awkward.
Every interaction in this movie is quite awkward.
But before it can verge on romance, Rob pulls up in his race car and Liz drives her
car up there too.
Rob sees Liz go up to Greg and starts obnoxiously revving his engine so that nobody can hear
(20:10):
what they're saying.
Rob starts pushing his father into racing against him now.
Greg would rather wait until the Grand Prix when it's official, but Harry wants to face
this challenge.
He volunteers Kit.
He always wanted to be a driver.
Kit jumps into the car and Greg tries to stop him saying that it's okay, he'll drive.
But Kit says no, this is my turn.
(20:30):
Then the race is on and they go around the track for a while and Rob crowds Kit off the track
by bumping his car and Kit spins out into the field.
Rob drives over to him, jumps out of the car and asks Kit, are you all right?
Kit responds by punching Rob in the face.
A couple of times.
Kit gives him a beat down.
Joanie goes over to Kit to get him to lay off her brother.
(20:52):
Harry looks pittingly at his son and Rob absorbs this and climbs back into his car.
Joanie implores Liz to help him.
But when Liz takes one step towards Rob, Greg pulls her back.
Greg barks face it, Johnny.
He's sit and Rob drives away as Joanie walks off by herself into the field.
Kit tells Greg to lay off the Johnny.
She wasn't the one who was driving.
So Greg tells Kit to run after her and apologize for him and to offer her his shoulder.
(21:16):
She'll need it.
Maybe you did this just to set them up.
Harry starts up the car.
Those are some expensive noises, says Greg.
Harry asks Greg if he can fix it for him.
Greg says he's here to make a name for himself.
So I race in the grand prix tomorrow.
And we cut to a new scene where it tells us the answer is yes.
Because we see Greg helping with the car repairs.
Later, we see Joanie and Kit having a moment sharing high school memories.
(21:40):
Kit says that in ninth grade, he was in love with her, but Joanie calls him out because I
guess he read a love poem to another girl.
But that fight soon over and then they kiss.
And it looks like they succeeded repairing the car because it's good to go tomorrow.
Harry tells everyone to get cleaned up.
They're going to go out and celebrate.
Now we're back at the grand prix restaurant.
It seems Rob has lost his place of honor on the wall due to the day's incident.
(22:01):
Yeah, he's there drinking up a storm and that's not good.
He drunkenly banters with Sally the waitress when Greg lives Harry, Joanie and Kit come in
and they take a table.
Rob gets up and staggers over to them.
On his way to the table, he asks the waitress to play a specific song on the jukebox.
He says he was looking for something he lost.
He picks up a lamp that's on the table and examines everybody.
(22:23):
Oh, there it is.
He says, I lost my father.
And I lost you too, didn't I, Liz?
And then the jukebox kicks in with the song that was his and Liz according to Rob.
Harry sees what's going on here and sends everyone away except himself so that he can confront
his son.
And that's when Sally the waitress comes over to put five drinks on the now nearly unoccupied
table.
(22:43):
Buying me anymore Rob asks.
Harry says that Rob has already cost him his whole man and his wife.
What else does he want from him?
Money, love, suggests Rob.
Harry says he's beginning to like the idea of Rob quitting racing.
It's what Rob wanted anyway.
But Rob tells him not yet one more race.
He'll never beat me.
Harry says, mostly pushing the table and toppling the drinks and then Rob slumps down in
(23:06):
the booth.
And now we see where Greg and Liz have gone off to.
They're having an intimate dance by her pool, his pool, somebody's pool.
First, I thought they were naked, but they're just in swimsuits.
Drunken unstable Rob pulls up in the driveway.
Liz hears this and her of the changes into a house stress to go greet him.
Rob says he needs her help.
(23:26):
He feels like he's spalling and he needs someone to hold on to.
He's being really weird.
And kind of scary.
She tells him to go see a doctor.
A head doctor.
Just then Greg throws open the door, get out of here Rob.
Rob calls Liz a lousy tramp and Greg grabs Rob and flings him against the wall and slaps
him silly.
Liz tells Greg to stop.
(23:47):
Rob can't help himself.
"Why not?" asks Greg.
Greg wants to know why Liz has to help Rob function.
Rob needs a psychiatrist.
Rob maintains that there's nothing wrong with him.
And then he threatens to kill Greg and tomorrow's race.
Greg says bring it and then make some profound comment about how it's the horsepower inside
a man that counts, not under the hood.
(24:07):
And then Rob tears off.
Liz tells Greg that Rob won't back down.
So maybe Greg should.
Greg tells her that he came from nothing.
He was racing and scrapped together beaters back when Rob was racing in custom jobs.
Rob needs to work too hard to back out now.
He's not some spoiled racing Brett.
And now finally it's the day of the race.
It's the big grand prix.
(24:28):
Contrary to what she promised earlier Rob's mom has shown up.
But she wants to pull Rob's car out.
It is hers after all.
She's the one putting up the money for all this.
Rob pleads with her not to do that.
He says it came back from Europe at her request and did everything as she asked.
He just needs to race one more time.
Rob's mom caves and allows it after Rob promises that after this he'll never race again
(24:49):
in an ominous there.
Meanwhile Harry and Liz go over to Greg's car.
Greg is mad because he told Liz not to come.
But she not only came she tattled on him.
Liz told Harry what happened last night.
So Harry says he isn't going to let Greg race today.
They're going to pull him from the race for his own protection.
But Kit is ready and able to take his place.
(25:10):
Yep Rob's beef is not with Kit.
It's with Greg.
Greg refuses to do this.
But Harry threatens to give him the black flag that will disqualify his car and then
nobody can race.
Unless Greg gets out of the car.
Kit gets behind the wheel and before he drives off Greg advises him to use his position in
the front of the pack to pull ahead and stay ahead of Rob who's going to be back with
the others.
(25:30):
The race is on.
I just drive around for a while.
Rob is crowding in on Kit's car.
Greg tells Harry to throw the flag and have Kit come in for a pit stop.
No says Harry.
Greg realizes that Rob doesn't know that he's racing against Kit not Greg and Harry knew
that would happen and went ahead with his plan anyways.
Greg demands that he pull Kit's car out but Harry refuses.
(25:51):
Rob didn't kill Billy Johnson.
You did says Greg.
He grabs the flag and signals Kit to come in but Kit disregards it anyway.
And Alice goes up to Harry where they share a bit of conversation about how they both
conspire to ruin their son.
She tells Harry that this is a problem Rob has to fix for himself.
If he can.
And then for the next leg of the race, Rob and Kit are neck and neck dangerously crowding
(26:13):
each other.
This car starts to smoke so we finally makes a pit stop.
Well he stopped.
Greg pulls Kit out of the car and takes over driving himself.
Liz doesn't look thrilled about this.
Why is she there?
The race continues.
Now we're on lap 35.
Rob Wilson is in the lead.
Greg comes up and goes in the second place.
Yeah, he makes a major comeback after his unscheduled pit stop.
(26:37):
And now we're in the 45th lap and things start to get weird.
Right. We see that title sequence with the reverse images, the negative images and pictures
of Rob going black and white and then white and black.
And he's running through all the things that people have said to him throughout the movie
about how he's a jerk and he should stop racing and he's going to cause another accident
(27:00):
or whatever.
It just goes on and on for a while.
He's for his flashbacks and probably the results of his PTSD.
Yeah, that could be.
They don't really address that but it does seem a little obvious to us.
Rob, here's himself, tell him to wake up and he does and then he rolls his car off the track
and Greg wins the race.
Kid and Harry pull Rob from the car.
We're taking you home, son says Harry and Harry Alice, Joanie, Greg and Liz take him home.
(27:24):
I have a feeling that Greg is going to keep Liz from tending to Rob from now on.
I'm sure you're right.
I'm kind of surprised Greg is here because he just won a race and I would think he
have other things you have to do.
Yeah, you get your picture taken.
You get to drink the milk or they pour stuff over your head, get some flowers.
I guess this was more important and they can do that later.
Anyway, then the credits roll and well, that's the end.
(27:50):
Welcome back to the American International podcast where we're talking about road racers
from 1959.
The Los Angeles Times announced on January 7th, 1959 that Sally Fraser had been signed
to star in Roadracers.
On January 10th, the Times noted that Mason Allen Dinehart, Mary Ann Collier and Skip
Ward have been added to the cast.
(28:13):
Also on January 10th, the LA Times reported that the road racers would be shooting at M.C.
Studios.
Other scenes were shot at Riverside International Raceway in Marino Valley, California.
The January 29th edition of the LA Citizen News announced the edition of Irene Windust,
John Shea and Michael Gibson to the cast.
Although a January 15th, 1959 Halloween reporter news item said that Liz Rainey had been cast,
(28:36):
she didn't appear in this film.
The racers theme led foot was composed by Edward J. Lasco and sung by Jimmie Maddin.
The closing credits are in a different order than the opening credits and they list the
drivers of the race cars under cast of cars matching each driver to the car driven.
Rob's car was driven by Don Hulette.
Greg's car was driven by Eric Hauser and then the Wilson 110 and Sarati car was driven
(29:00):
by Akton Miller.
Roadracers was released on a double bill with Daddy-O in April of 1959.
A.I.P.'s press book advised theater owners to play up the obvious racing angle.
Recommending they contact sports editors at local newspapers for additional press, play
crowd and racing sound effects on outdoor speakers to capture the attention of people
passing by the theater, pass out flyers in the neighborhoods of nearby schools and have
(29:22):
screenings for auto dealers, racing organizations, and to tie in with any races that coincided
with the screening of Roadracers.
They also suggested creating a replica of the racetrack starting lights for the lobby.
The guidelines for Roadracers include...
Screeching hell on wheels.
Is it sport or murder?
Actually filmed at the United States Grand Prix.
(29:43):
The big two roaring, rocketing, relentless.
That was referring to both movies.
Not many newspapers sent writers to review road racers and the few reviews we did find were
not impressed with the film.
The Boston Globe critic reviewed both road racers and Daddy-O and wrote poorly made, slowly
paced, they evoked little interest, less belief, and yesterday's early morning audience
(30:04):
responded with audible yons and derives of laughter.
Charles Stinson and the LA Times wrote, "Well, it's come to this.
The only domestic film opening of the week is American International's Teen Bill, Road
Racers and Daddy-O. After detailing the various story elements, Stinson wrote, "That's the
chief thing wrong with Roadracers.
There's a bit too much plot.
(30:25):
Stanley Callis and Ed Lasco's 78-minute script never has enough time to make all the
motivations clear and believable.
The conflict between father and son is a trifle to contrive to be entirely convincing."
Stinson did praise most of the actors, though he said skip words, "Line delivery was at
times a bit stiff."
Lowly redelings of the Los Angeles citizen news have lined his review, Road racers mildly
(30:46):
interesting movie, and said something called Road racers buzzed into town, flying the American
International's streamer, and luring a small crowd of the teenage faithful.
The hot ride crowd may go for this noisy celluloid strip, but few thinkers will be sitting
in on the proceedings.
Most of the letter is familiar stuff, an obvious tale and a worn out groove.
(31:07):
Wow.
Roadracers was one of the titles chosen for Showtime's 1994 Rebel Highway series.
Robert Rodriguez directed the film, which he co-wrote with Tommy Knicks.
David Arquette, John Hawkes and Salma Hayek starred.
But it didn't take very long to discuss Roadracers.
(31:29):
They plot the scant information available on the internet.
So maybe we could wrap up really quick what we think about it.
I don't have a whole lot to say about it, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Well, I'd never been much for watching auto racing and watching road racers is a lot
like watching auto racing, I think.
They do use a lot of the movies runtime to show cars racing around the track.
(31:52):
They do try to condense it a bit.
We don't literally watch the entire race, but it feels like it.
Oh, it's not that bad, but because it's a film, they do get to cut away so we get to watch
people's reaction to watching the race.
So there's a lot of shots of people's heads cruising from one side to the other.
It seems like they show shots of Harry.
He's clearly not watching anything.
(32:13):
They're just having poking his head up and looking concerned.
It's not very realistic.
And so some of it feels fake.
The racing part is real and they're at the real Grand Prix.
But I think some of the cut ends look fake.
But what else are they going to do?
We see a lot of shots of guys breaking.
They close up on their feet hitting the brakes.
(32:35):
Yeah, well, it's probably hard to make racing look interesting.
I think it's not hard to make it look interesting if a person is interested in racing, but they
have to make it look dramatic.
They have to give it that movie drama and build from what the acting scenes have already
set up and have somehow the racing convey that as well.
(32:57):
And it just doesn't really do that.
They're just guys spinning around a track.
Yeah, they just keep making left hand turns.
Well, there's a lot of straightaways to you.
But you're right.
It's the drama that they've established by the time we're in the Grand Prix, Rob wants
to kill Greg.
So he's using his car as a weapon.
He's gunning for this guy.
Yeah, but they don't really follow up on that.
(33:19):
There's really not a whole lot of drama there.
When it comes down to it, I'd never feared for Greg not for one second.
He didn't seem to be in any real danger.
Because when it came to the clutch time, Rob goes into his own head and starts recalling
the entire movie in the opening credit sequence.
I was surprised I didn't play Ledgefoot over that.
Well, I think I was part of the problem with the whole movie is that there's all this drama,
(33:43):
but it's all from characters that are at all likeable.
No, and the drama is so dramatic.
I mentioned the dramatic chipmunk thing that Greg did.
It literally looks like that.
There's only one actor in this whole movie that we even recognized.
And that's Sally Fraser who was in “War of the Colossal Beast" and “It Conquered the
World."
(34:04):
Everyone else was new to us.
And I'm not really that good.
It's a really small cast.
They all have a lot of arguments they have to have with each other.
There's a love triangle.
There's another love triangle.
People yell at each other.
There's all this family drama.
And it's just community theater level acting here.
No, it's not even that good.
(34:25):
I've seen a lot of good community theater.
And this is just a hammy, bad soap opera stuff.
There aren't a lot of car racing movies in the AIP catalog.
But there are a few.
We've done Fast and the Furious, which had a little bit of that.
And it's because there wasn't as much of the racing, but I didn't find it as annoying
in that film.
It was more balanced because there's enough real tension, real suspense.
(34:48):
The most unforgivable thing that I feel about this movie is that it did nothing with that
lead foot alley thing that they set up for the entire movie.
There was no driving into that one car only per lane.
They set it up and it never happened.
The way it should have ended is that Rob and Greg almost get in an accident, but it's
Rob that is the one who gets hurt this time.
(35:10):
I thought that's how it did happen.
No, they never mentioned that they were in that one section of the racetrack where only
one car could go through.
It never came up.
Rob just has his weird flashback and all of a sudden he's rolling himself off the track.
Greg didn't do that.
He did it to himself.
I guess that's the setup.
The setup was that Rob caused his own accident instead of killing someone else this time.
(35:34):
And then it's over.
Someone forgives them.
I guess they're going to take him away for psychiatric evaluation probably.
And it's over.
There's no time to even process that to see what happens next.
Not that I care, but now there does the movie.
If I was going to describe this movie, it would be cars racing and a lot of dramatic head
turns.
Yeah, that's all it boils down to you and it's really disappointing for all that.
(35:57):
The relationships are all strange.
The only character I remotely liked was Joni.
Yeah, she seemed like a simple person being caught up in everyone else's drama.
She had her own way.
She would be a normal kid going to school or getting a job or just doing normal human stuff.
Instead of being caught in this push and pull between her parents and her brother and everyone
(36:20):
else who's associated with them, I would get very tired of that.
One would think that either Harry or Rob, they tried to make a character that you could
get behind so you could get behind the father's son relationship, but neither of those people
are legable at all.
No, how do you choose sides when you hate them both?
You can't.
For me, it boils down to this movie is too dramatic and too boring, which is weird because
(36:43):
those two descriptions shouldn't apply to the same movie yet they do.
You had mentioned how the end credits are in a different order than in the opening credits.
And I noticed that it's different even on the poster.
On the poster, Sally Fraser has first billing.
Joel Lawrence is given third.
He played Rob.
Right.
And Mason Allen Dinehart, who's Kit, on the poster, he's credited as Allen Dinehart Jr.
(37:07):
Well, that's not unusual.
When AIP does their posters, usually they haven't even shot the movie yet.
So it's possible that they didn't want to go back and change them.
Well, it's not the first time we've seen names change from the poster to the film.
Right.
But it's not as interesting and worth noting.
(37:30):
It was kind of weird after the last few 50s AIP movies that we've done to see one that
didn't have Lou Rusoff, who didn't have Edward Cahn.
It didn't have Raymond Hatton, the cast of characters that we're used to seeing in these
period racing AIP movies aren't there.
What's also interesting is so many of these movies we've watched have opening credits
(37:53):
from the windshield of a driving car and there's a movie about driving cars.
And it shows this weird, well, it turned out to be kind of a dream sequence later in the
film instead.
Yeah, they went already, I guess, instead of taking the stock footage of a camera in the
front seat or a race car driving around the trunk.
And the song is so bizarre.
(38:13):
Yeah, I don't like it.
We're used to hearing these jazzy scores on these AIP films too.
And this one sounds like an old guy trying to rap.
Well, he's talk singing or sing talking.
All right.
I think we've spilled all the comments that we have about this movie.
Let's rate it using our AIP scale or AS Awesome, IIs Intermediate and P is pathetic.
(38:38):
What you got, Jeff?
I can in no way say that this is a good movie.
There's so much wrong with it.
I did have a lot of fun talking about it with you because it was so bad.
But as a watch, there's no reason to watch this other than to check it off a list.
It's not when I'm going to be revisiting anytime soon, if at all.
There may be brief moments that I might look back on and say, oh, yeah, that was kind of
(39:02):
cool.
But taking within context of the entire film, it's not worth going back to revisit.
This one's easily a pee for me.
I did not care for it.
What are your thoughts?
I have to agree with you.
Well, no, actually, I don't agree with you.
I don't think anything in this movie was cool.
Honestly, some of it was very funny, but not intentionally.
(39:22):
And some of it was mildly interesting.
But mostly, I'm very disappointed in this movie.
And I can't imagine it was a big hit.
I didn't find out anything about how it did at the box office.
But this seems just to be a seat filler.
If even that, they release it one month and then the next month there's a new movie to
replace it.
That's probably just like it.
(39:42):
Honestly, I wish we had landed on Daddy-O instead of this one when we chose it.
And I agree with you.
This is not anything I would ever watch again.
It's easily a pee for me.
So we agree.
It's a pee, but having to watch it a second time, I didn't dread it.
Like some of the ones that I would dread a second time knowing that I wasn't going to
like it.
(40:03):
Yeah, at least we knew what to expect.
We'd watched it.
It's a very simple movie.
It's racing and family drama.
There's not a complicated plot.
It doesn't take a lot of mental energy to watch this.
So maybe someone puts it on and you can't find the remote.
It's complicated in the love triangles.
Well, Greg is the pinpoint of each triangle.
(40:26):
But he only has eyes for Liz.
Yeah, they don't really explain their backstory at all.
Why are they together?
Why were they together?
Why they break up?
Well, isn't because of Rob because she couldn't commit or he couldn't commit or who cares.
No, it sounded like she was running away just to see if he chased her.
Oh, he didn't.
Well, he's a race car driver.
(40:47):
He can't just be lurking off to wherever she went.
He's got a drive.
I want to reiterate when I said the recall moments, think of stills, not actually moments.
Oh, well, maybe, but you just watched the opening sequence and then stop watching after
that.
It was unique and it was something that I don't recall seeing anything like it before.
(41:08):
So I will give them that.
But after that, it's just tripe and racing.
We never did talk about kids voice.
No, we didn't.
And I don't like making fun of people's voices.
That's how they talk.
But man, this was weird.
I can't even imitate it.
I kept calling him a clown in my commentary here and yet the voice of a clown.
(41:30):
So it just seemed a natural thing to do.
I don't know if I call him a clown because clowns to me sound like bozo.
And he's sounded, how do you put this?
His voice.
Oh boy, I'm going to hear today.
Yeah, like that, but deeper, like a really deep voice, but also some affect to it that just
makes it sound like he's kind of slow, honestly.
(41:54):
He doesn't sound too bright.
No, I don't know of anybody who's ever had a voice like that before.
No, me neither.
Maybe we'll find it again someday.
And then we'll remember him.
We're going to find out more about road racers and other films that we reviewed on the American
International Podcast.
You can visit our website, aippod.com.
There you can find advertising paraphernalia, such as trailers and radio spots and lobby
(42:17):
guards.
You can message us to let us know what your thoughts are on the movies that we reviewed.
And you can also visit our merch store.
And he purchases made will help us out in creating the podcast.
Yeah, get yourself an American International Podcast T-shirt.
I know I have.
Once again, it's aippod.com.
All right, Jeff.
I think it's time to take the cars to the garage and call it a day on road racers.
(42:42):
For the American International Podcast, I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And I'm Jeff Markin.
And we meet you at the drive-in.
Follow the American International Podcast on Instagram and Letterbox at aip_pod and on Facebook
at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.
The American International Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Markin.
(43:04):
A man whose mind is distorted by hatred.
And Cheryl Lightfoot.
A girl hungry for too many things.
The American International Podcast is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
(43:25):
[Music]
[BRACKING]
(00:03):
Roadracers.
Like the pony express riders of frontier days,
they're a special breed of men dedicated
to ever increasing speed, disdainful of danger.
[BRACKING]
Men like Harry Wilson.
You love racing, don't you?
Laguna Seika.
(00:23):
Seabring.
The Grand Prix?
I know they're magic words to you.
It's my whole life.
Rob, his son, born and bred to win, or to kill or die trying.
Liz, a woman of the world.
Tell me about Rob.
(00:45):
He needs me.
Joanie, living at racing speed.
Greg, a racing engineer, caught between decency
and an irresistible desire.
You lousy tramp!
Stop it.
Stop.
I'll be gunning for you from the second you get behind that wheel.
(01:05):
I'll kill you, Morgan.
Dangerous men and a dangerous game.
Challenging the very elements to speed over the Earth,
faster than man has ever traveled before.
[BRACKING]
We're not talking about actors.
We mean a real monster.
(01:26):
And brought her back.
She'll live and I'll get her another body.
I know they're gonna catch me, but don't let anyone see me
like that! Please, Doctor!
Help me!
Biologically speaking, it's a primary importance
that man should want to mate.
Hey, that's right.
You don't get all your kicks from surfing, do you?
We want to be free to ride our machines without being
hassled by the man.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(01:48):
And we want to get loaded.
You think you're going to make a slave of the world?
I'll see you in Hell first.
The American International Podcast.
Are you ready?
Hey, movie fans.
You found the American International Podcast.
I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And I'm Jeff Markin.
And today we're taking a spin with the Roadracers
from 1959.
(02:08):
Roadracers was directed by Arthur Swerdloff ,
written by Stanley Kallis and Edward J. Lasco,
based on original story by Stanley Kallis,
and was produced by Stanley Kallis for Catalina Productions.
Roadracers stars Joel Lawrence as Rob Wilson,
Marion Collier as Liz, Skip Ward as Greg Morgan,
Sally Fraser as Joani Wilson, Mason Alan Dinehart as Kit
(02:29):
Morgan, John Shay as Harry Wilson, Irene Windust as Alice.
Also appearing our Gloria Marshall as Sally, the Waitress,
Michael Gibson as the bartender, Richard G. Pharo as Wilkins,
Sumner Williams as Johnny, the mechanic,
and Haile Chace as McKenzie.
Now we open with a bell dinging and the logo coming up.
And then we hear a race car revving.
(02:50):
We see the title, then a race photo collage
with the song "Leadfoot" by Jimmy Maddin playing.
This is a really interesting opening
because we haven't seen anything like this from AIP.
And especially this early.
The titles were by Ed Martin and their credit
is as coming from photographs by Bob Rofolson.
And they're kind of drawings of photographs,
and then they go negative.
It's kind of a weird effect.
(03:12):
Yeah, I would almost say animated.
They're not really animated, but they do change
from the positive to the negative image,
black and white and black.
And it is kind of arresting and we will see it later.
And besides Ed Martin, who is
quite with the titles, they also quite
had sports car graphics to Jay Connors.
The aforementioned Ed Martin,
big Fisher Howard Maxwell and Pat Shields.
(03:35):
Yeah, it's pretty involved.
And it takes quite a while to get through them.
And as for the song "Ledgefoot,"
that's kind of strange too.
Yeah, I think it's pertinent to the plot.
However, it's not a great song.
It sounds like somebody doing a bad,
Louis pre-mammitation.
It's a very growly tone of voice.
Almost like Tom Wates would sound in 15 years hence.
(03:56):
So once we're through this unusual opening credit sequence,
the movie proper starts.
We meet Rob Wilson.
He's sitting in a race car.
He's there waiting when two cars drive up,
when containing Rob's mother, sister and friend.
Ephesus on the friend.
And the other are two men who are there to time him.
He's trying to qualify for this race.
And he missed the actual qualification race, I guess.
(04:19):
So they're making a special exception for this.
His mom, Alice, tells us and them that he just got off a plane
and he couldn't make the actual time trials.
Rob's sister, Joanie, is there, as you said.
And his friend Liz, who we're going to find out
is his emotional support animal, is also watching.
And then Rob takes off.
The two men timing discussed how they're surprised
(04:41):
to see that Rob is back in the game, especially at this track.
Because apparently he killed a guy here earlier.
This gets mentioned a lot throughout the film.
And they're not going to let him forget it.
No, and I think the lead foot from the title song
is what they call him due to this incident
that happened earlier, where he went too fast.
(05:02):
And he killed one Billy Johnson, who
is mourned throughout the film.
I think Billy Johnson has used more as a cudgel
to control Rob, rather than anyone actually
caring about his life and death.
Joni asked her mother when she's going to be able to see her dad.
She says it will be nice to see her parents together again.
It's been a long time since they've been a family.
(05:24):
So Rob completes the time trials,
and he will make it into the race, according to the officials.
However, this opens up a new array of problems.
Rob's dad Harry is going to be at the track tomorrow.
Joni wants her parents back together,
but Rob is apprehensive about seeing his dad again.
Because dad blames Rob for the crash that killed Billy,
and he just can't move past that to forgiveness.
Rob's mom wants him to make up to his father,
(05:47):
and Rob says that he'll meet his dad halfway, but no more.
He says the incident is like something
from a bad dream to him, and he's gotten past it.
Or so he says.
Alice and Joanie leave, and Liz, Rob's special friend,
stays behind, and says that his mother
keeps looking at her like a bride.
She wonders if she should have gotten on the plane
with him in Milan, where they're coming from.
(06:08):
But Rob tells her to give it time,
and maybe she'll come around.
But Liz is going to hold him in the friend zone,
which is the place that she's openly acknowledged
that is his only option, no matter what
Rob would like to believe.
Then Liz Pat's Rob on the head and tells him
that they're going to be late for dinner
if they keep hanging around here.
Then we cut to the next day we're at Monterrey,
and cars are racing.
Rob gets notification that he's officially qualified.
(06:29):
Apparently the timing he did yesterday
was just to make sure he could qualify timewise,
but the officials still had to acknowledge
that he could be in the race.
So he applied yesterday, and today found out he got the job.
Then a voice comes over the loudspeaker announcing
that Rob Wilson would be driving in the race.
You may remember a few years ago
when he killed a guy on the track
and left the sport in disgrace.
(06:52):
Thanks Captain Exposition.
Harry years this announcement, and it stops him in his tracks.
This is Rob's father.
It's hard to convey this in just talking about it,
but everyone gives the camera the most dramatic looks
at all times.
Liz arrives at the track, but no longer has any time for Rob.
Now that she spots the other racer, the Hunky Greg.
(07:12):
This is Greg Morgan, and she sees him working
on a car.
As we'll find out, they have a past.
And Greg drives for Harry, who, as we said, is Rob's father.
And now is his rival.
Alice and Joanie go over to Harry,
Kit pops up from under the car,
and he tries to coax the kids from Joni,
but she treats him like he's joking and just blows him off.
(07:33):
Kitt is Greg's little brother,
and he also works as a mechanic for Harry.
Harry's clearly not going to meet Rob halfway,
or even one third of the way.
He also dredges up the passes and excuse
for not trying to talk to his son.
Joanie and Alice try to make a case for Harry to forgive him,
but Harry won't budge.
Rob won that big race in Milan, so what?
He won the race where he killed Billy too.
(07:54):
He's such a sourpuss.
He knows that Rob was never interested in racing anyway.
And neither was his mother for that matter,
so it's a little strange that she brought him back into it.
Alice says that she had to.
Rob will not give up until he wins back Harry's approval,
but Harry's not going to offer that,
even if Rob drives the car that Harry built for him.
Harry would give a dozen gold cups for one Greg Morgan,
(08:15):
he says.
Alice applies gentle emotional blackmail.
Rob wants to forgive him, and so does Alice,
because they've been estranged for a while.
Harry softens a bit like he is willing to go along with us
to get back in Alice's good graces,
so he agrees to see Rob after the race.
Then Alice goes to leave, but Joni hangs back to talk to Greg Morgan.
While Kitt has eyes for her, she seems to have a thing for Greg.
(08:39):
And she apologizes to Greg for having to listen to all this family talk.
And he says he's sorry too.
But it's only beginning.
And he asks Joanie to make sure that her mother knows
that he's not trying to replace Rob,
but Joni says that she knows that.
It's kind of a weird family dynamic.
Yeah.
And this movie also sets up two different love triangles.
(09:02):
And it's very seen.
Greg has become like a surrogate son to Harry,
because Rob has been disgraced.
And this whole incident has split up the marriage
between Harry and Alice.
And everybody has really complicated backscoreies.
Joanie asks Greg to give her a call later.
Kitt slides back from under the car and says
(09:23):
that Joanie would be surprised to hear that he knows how to use a telephone.
I mean, I know I am.
And Joanie says that she likes him too.
But again, reiterates she wants Greg to call her.
Greg says that they can all get together later after the race.
And Joanie scampers off.
Greg tells his brother to keep at it.
She'll come around.
But Kitt says it's hard because she can't take her eyes off Greg.
And Greg tells his brother to keep dialing.
(09:45):
She'll get your call.
But Kitt says he's always getting his abyssenal
because Greg's tying up the line.
[LAUGHS]
What an aptum metaphor.
And Harry comes over and tells Greg that if Rob gives him any trouble
on the track to pull in, he doesn't want to repeat
of what happened with Billy Johnson.
Now with his surrogate son.
(10:05):
Greg feels differently, however.
He believes that what happened between Rob and Billy
Johnson was an accident.
And until approving otherwise, he's
going to give Rob the benefit of the doubt.
Harry says that he'll never forgive Rob for this.
And then he gives us a graphic 3D representation
of the accident that killed Billy.
He sets up something on top of the hood of the car,
where one car represents Rob and one car represents Billy.
(10:25):
And then shoots Billy's car over the top of the hood
of the car, representing how Billy crashed and burned,
thanks to Rob.
And he roared right over to Cliff, he says.
Kit picks up Billy Johnson's car.
And warns Greg, he'd better watch himself.
Greg says he will.
The announcer calls for a driver's meeting
in Greg leaves his gelopy.
(10:45):
And he marches right past Liz, who was staring at him all starry
eyed.
She calls out his name and is headwips around dramatic chipmunk
style.
I'd hoped he would meet me at the airport, she says.
Greg tells her the cable came too late.
He says he almost went after her, but common sense took root.
Apparently that cable came two years too late.
His interest has waned since then.
(11:07):
She wants to know that she's never forgiven herself for that.
But Greg says he doesn't believe her.
He doesn't trust her.
But she tells him she'll wait for him anytime, any place.
He says that he'll see her around, but not by choice.
And then he storms off.
Liz looks hurt.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And now we're off to the races.
(11:29):
The announcer says that all qualifying cars are in for this 25
lap race.
Greg Morgan is driving car number 70.
Rob Wilson is driving car number 204.
Then the car's race.
They make a lot of left hand turns.
The track's pretty long.
It's not just a circle like a NASCAR race.
It goes through the landscape of wherever
(11:50):
they are, Monterey, California.
Yeah, there's a lot of shots of the car's driving.
And people's heads whipping from one side
to the other as the cars go by.
And we find out from the announcer that one turn
on this racetrack is called Ledfoot Alley.
As only one driver at a time can go through it.
And I believe that's where the accident happened last time.
I was wondering, wouldn't bottleneck Alley be a better term
(12:11):
for it?
Anyway, the race seems to be presented in real time,
because this eats up a lot of the movies run time.
Toward the end of the race, as they head into Leadfoot Alley,
Rob has to pull back.
Because as we said, only one car can make it through.
And Greg's in the lead.
This makes Harry smile.
Now Rob pulls alongside Greg's car
and time to finish a close second behind him.
(12:33):
Everyone drives in and Rob congratulates Greg on the win.
Greg admits it was neck and neck
and if Rob hadn't pulled back and let foot Alley,
one of them would have been run off the road.
Rob says that once Greg showed him his tailpipes,
he didn't feel he had a choice but to pull back.
Yes, Greg was got under that hood.
Greg says his blood and sweat and hairy spare parts.
Sounds kind of homoerotic.
(12:56):
It's not though.
Harry comes running up.
“Great race, Greg!"
But he stops when he sees Greg talking to Rob.
There's a tense moment when Harry and Rob see each other at last.
They face off with a parking space between them.
And then they rush into each other's arms.
But this happy reunion lasts 1.8 seconds.
And then Dad starts to pressure Rob to join his racing team.
He wants to start a new lap chart for the two of them.
(13:18):
Rob says he doesn't want to race against him.
But Harry met on the same team like the old days.
Rob wants to talk about this later,
but Harry doesn't understand the word.
Rob thinks racing as a team won't be good for their relationship,
but Harry is a dog with a bone on this.
This is a very dramatic conversation judging by the overacting.
Rob tells his dad he knows racing is his whole life, but it's not Rob's.
(13:40):
He doesn't fit in here.
Harry says, "What are you talking about?"
"You just almost won here.
You did win a Milan."
And Rob's like, "Yeah, but..."
And Harry jumps in again.
He's got a surprise.
He wants Rob to quit the team that he was on in Milan,
which Rob was going to do anyways.
And Harry wants him to drive for his team in the Grand Prix next week.
In the car, he and Greg both built together.
(14:02):
Harry's really excited by this idea.
The problem is Harry still doesn't get it.
So Rob has to try and say this in a way that won't hurt Harry's feelings,
but that's not possible.
So he just blurtts out, "I hate racing."
Harry is a gassed, and he can't hide his disappointment.
Nobody doesn't say anything for once.
It takes him a while to process the nonsensical words
(14:24):
that just came out of his son's mouth.
Rob says he's sorry.
He's glad that his father wants him, but does he have to be hurt?
He gives kind of the petulant silent treatment to his son.
Then he turns away from him and says,
"Kids are supposed to love cars.
I couldn't wait to give you one, and you ate them."
[laughs]
Rob is new at tears.
Isn't it enough that I tried?
(14:46):
I tried so hard.
I don't know anything but cars.
I think Harry feels by extension that by hating racing, Rob hates him.
He's taking this very personally, and Rob calls him on that.
It's ridiculous that he's taking this as a personal insult,
but Harry's kind of a ridiculous person.
After all I've done for you, Harry complains bitterly.
(15:07):
Rob's angry that he was never allowed to be himself,
but when Harry asks, "Okay, who are you?"
Rob really doesn't have an answer.
He does. He says, "Someone who hates you."
[laughs]
Then Rob storms off to be comforted by his mommy.
Alice asks what happened, and he tells her what happened,
and she tells him that that's Harry's loss.
She's washing his face this whole time too.
Rob leaves himself for her and her dad's situation,
(15:29):
but she tells him that it's not his fault.
She doesn't want Harry this way, and she can't change him,
but at least Rob doesn't have to race anymore.
Yeah, but that's not what's going to happen,
because now wants to stick it to the old man.
So he's going to do the thing that will hurt him the most,
race against him and win.
Well, don't expect me to watch, says Alice.
I never want to see you in a car again.
(15:52):
And she storms off to be comforted by, I don't know,
cats, secret boyfriend, who knows.
Now we go to one of three locations in this entire movie.
Liz walks into a bar.
This is actually the grand pre-restaurant.
They have a special credit at the beginning,
with special things given to Mary Davis and Bob Drake,
who must be the restaurant's owners.
They probably allowed them to film there,
(16:12):
because this is a sound stage.
This is a real restaurant.
It seems to be racetrack adjacent.
Liz asks the bartender if he's seen Rob Wilson.
He hasn't, but he just free hung Ralph's picture on the wall,
giving him a place of honor that he lost when he killed Billy Johnson.
All this for given, I guess, we set the grand pre.
Then the bartender invites her to go watch some racing films
(16:33):
that are screening in the other room.
I think it's the race that Rob was in in Milan,
because he calls it the Milanese 500 or something.
She spots a piano and starts to endlessly playing it.
And then we see that the rest of the cast is also at the restaurant.
I guess it's most of the rest of the cast.
Joanie is at a table with Greg and Kit.
Sally, the waitress, comes to take their order.
(16:53):
Johnny orders a coke on the rocks.
Greg has his old-fashioned.
And Sally says she's going to bring milk for Kit.
Yeah, he tried hitting on her.
I'll have what you're having, but it didn't work.
She shuts them down hard.
But Kit changes his order to cream in Baleys.
But he might not be of age.
The waitress goes and Kit says that she's crazy about him.
Joanie laughs and says, "What Kit needs is a steady girl."
(17:16):
And he accepts her proposal, and then Joanie laughs at him like the clown that he is.
[LAUGHS]
I don't hear Liz singing some melancholy tune in the back.
It's called "Here You Are."
Greg hears this and gets up.
Sally tells Greg to invite her to come sit with them.
She's probably waiting for Rob anyhow.
Greg listens to the lyrics of "Here You Are."
And when the song finishes, he says, "I wish I could believe you."
(17:39):
But he knows that she's here waiting for Rob.
Greg won't share her with Rob.
Liz says that she's just taking care of him emotionally for his mother's sake.
His mother wants Rob to quit racing.
She begs Greg for just one week to prove herself.
And then Johnny and Kit join them drinks in hand.
Johnny tells Greg as she comes back to the table.
His drink is getting warm.
But really, she isn't want Greg speaking with Liz.
(17:59):
They seem a little too chummy.
Yep, there's a little date blocking here.
Kit, who can't read a room, suggests Liz play Auld Lang Syne,
and he pushes her aside to start pounding on the tune.
And singing it, unfortunately.
That's when Rob enters.
What's with the Auld Lang Syne bit?
He asks.
To all the acquaintances says Kit.
Rob seems like he's already pretty lit when he arrives,
(18:20):
but he orders a bourbon in Johnny goes to fetch it.
Greg asks Rob about Milan.
And then Rob has some sort of twilight zone moment
where he's dramatically recalling something about his eyes burning in the rain.
He seems to have some PTSD from racing.
Kit says that he was lucky, but Rob disagrees and just leaves them.
He goes back to the entrance of the restaurant, and Liz goes after him.
(18:42):
Rob says he knew about Liz's past, but he never knew the guy's name,
and now he's here.
And he's real.
Yes, if he wants her back.
Liz says yes if she proves herself, and then explains her dilemma.
Greg won't wonder if she cares too much about Rob, but she doesn't care.
She wants Rob to end his pity party once and for all.
Walk away from racing.
(19:02):
Rob refuses.
Then do it fair, she demands.
Will you stay with me till I do, he asks, but Liz is not able to answer this
and the scene fades out.
[Music]
And now more racing.
Yay.
Greg is running the track.
(19:23):
Harry is watching along with Kit and Joanie.
My boy is going to win the exclaims, Harry, as Kit and Joanie stand by awkwardly.
Greg asks Kit.
Yes, of course Greg says Harry.
Joanie drops the news that Rob's going to be gunning for him in the Grand Prix.
Harry doesn't care that he could end this.
He thinks Rob should fight him like a man.
Johnny tries to tell her father that he's making a mistake in being a horrible person, but
(19:46):
he just feels she's turning on him the way her mother and brother did.
Greg's coming in, so Johnny and Kit back away from the track.
Greg's made good time and Johnny and Kit's share in her brace.
It's a little awkward.
Every interaction in this movie is quite awkward.
But before it can verge on romance, Rob pulls up in his race car and Liz drives her
car up there too.
Rob sees Liz go up to Greg and starts obnoxiously revving his engine so that nobody can hear
(20:10):
what they're saying.
Rob starts pushing his father into racing against him now.
Greg would rather wait until the Grand Prix when it's official, but Harry wants to face
this challenge.
He volunteers Kit.
He always wanted to be a driver.
Kit jumps into the car and Greg tries to stop him saying that it's okay, he'll drive.
But Kit says no, this is my turn.
(20:30):
Then the race is on and they go around the track for a while and Rob crowds Kit off the track
by bumping his car and Kit spins out into the field.
Rob drives over to him, jumps out of the car and asks Kit, are you all right?
Kit responds by punching Rob in the face.
A couple of times.
Kit gives him a beat down.
Joanie goes over to Kit to get him to lay off her brother.
(20:52):
Harry looks pittingly at his son and Rob absorbs this and climbs back into his car.
Joanie implores Liz to help him.
But when Liz takes one step towards Rob, Greg pulls her back.
Greg barks face it, Johnny.
He's sit and Rob drives away as Joanie walks off by herself into the field.
Kit tells Greg to lay off the Johnny.
She wasn't the one who was driving.
So Greg tells Kit to run after her and apologize for him and to offer her his shoulder.
(21:16):
She'll need it.
Maybe you did this just to set them up.
Harry starts up the car.
Those are some expensive noises, says Greg.
Harry asks Greg if he can fix it for him.
Greg says he's here to make a name for himself.
So I race in the grand prix tomorrow.
And we cut to a new scene where it tells us the answer is yes.
Because we see Greg helping with the car repairs.
Later, we see Joanie and Kit having a moment sharing high school memories.
(21:40):
Kit says that in ninth grade, he was in love with her, but Joanie calls him out because I
guess he read a love poem to another girl.
But that fight soon over and then they kiss.
And it looks like they succeeded repairing the car because it's good to go tomorrow.
Harry tells everyone to get cleaned up.
They're going to go out and celebrate.
Now we're back at the grand prix restaurant.
It seems Rob has lost his place of honor on the wall due to the day's incident.
(22:01):
Yeah, he's there drinking up a storm and that's not good.
He drunkenly banters with Sally the waitress when Greg lives Harry, Joanie and Kit come in
and they take a table.
Rob gets up and staggers over to them.
On his way to the table, he asks the waitress to play a specific song on the jukebox.
He says he was looking for something he lost.
He picks up a lamp that's on the table and examines everybody.
(22:23):
Oh, there it is.
He says, I lost my father.
And I lost you too, didn't I, Liz?
And then the jukebox kicks in with the song that was his and Liz according to Rob.
Harry sees what's going on here and sends everyone away except himself so that he can confront
his son.
And that's when Sally the waitress comes over to put five drinks on the now nearly unoccupied
table.
(22:43):
Buying me anymore Rob asks.
Harry says that Rob has already cost him his whole man and his wife.
What else does he want from him?
Money, love, suggests Rob.
Harry says he's beginning to like the idea of Rob quitting racing.
It's what Rob wanted anyway.
But Rob tells him not yet one more race.
He'll never beat me.
Harry says, mostly pushing the table and toppling the drinks and then Rob slumps down in
(23:06):
the booth.
And now we see where Greg and Liz have gone off to.
They're having an intimate dance by her pool, his pool, somebody's pool.
First, I thought they were naked, but they're just in swimsuits.
Drunken unstable Rob pulls up in the driveway.
Liz hears this and her of the changes into a house stress to go greet him.
Rob says he needs her help.
(23:26):
He feels like he's spalling and he needs someone to hold on to.
He's being really weird.
And kind of scary.
She tells him to go see a doctor.
A head doctor.
Just then Greg throws open the door, get out of here Rob.
Rob calls Liz a lousy tramp and Greg grabs Rob and flings him against the wall and slaps
him silly.
Liz tells Greg to stop.
(23:47):
Rob can't help himself.
"Why not?" asks Greg.
Greg wants to know why Liz has to help Rob function.
Rob needs a psychiatrist.
Rob maintains that there's nothing wrong with him.
And then he threatens to kill Greg and tomorrow's race.
Greg says bring it and then make some profound comment about how it's the horsepower inside
a man that counts, not under the hood.
(24:07):
And then Rob tears off.
Liz tells Greg that Rob won't back down.
So maybe Greg should.
Greg tells her that he came from nothing.
He was racing and scrapped together beaters back when Rob was racing in custom jobs.
Rob needs to work too hard to back out now.
He's not some spoiled racing Brett.
And now finally it's the day of the race.
It's the big grand prix.
(24:28):
Contrary to what she promised earlier Rob's mom has shown up.
But she wants to pull Rob's car out.
It is hers after all.
She's the one putting up the money for all this.
Rob pleads with her not to do that.
He says it came back from Europe at her request and did everything as she asked.
He just needs to race one more time.
Rob's mom caves and allows it after Rob promises that after this he'll never race again
(24:49):
in an ominous there.
Meanwhile Harry and Liz go over to Greg's car.
Greg is mad because he told Liz not to come.
But she not only came she tattled on him.
Liz told Harry what happened last night.
So Harry says he isn't going to let Greg race today.
They're going to pull him from the race for his own protection.
But Kit is ready and able to take his place.
(25:10):
Yep Rob's beef is not with Kit.
It's with Greg.
Greg refuses to do this.
But Harry threatens to give him the black flag that will disqualify his car and then
nobody can race.
Unless Greg gets out of the car.
Kit gets behind the wheel and before he drives off Greg advises him to use his position in
the front of the pack to pull ahead and stay ahead of Rob who's going to be back with
the others.
(25:30):
The race is on.
I just drive around for a while.
Rob is crowding in on Kit's car.
Greg tells Harry to throw the flag and have Kit come in for a pit stop.
No says Harry.
Greg realizes that Rob doesn't know that he's racing against Kit not Greg and Harry knew
that would happen and went ahead with his plan anyways.
Greg demands that he pull Kit's car out but Harry refuses.
(25:51):
Rob didn't kill Billy Johnson.
You did says Greg.
He grabs the flag and signals Kit to come in but Kit disregards it anyway.
And Alice goes up to Harry where they share a bit of conversation about how they both
conspire to ruin their son.
She tells Harry that this is a problem Rob has to fix for himself.
If he can.
And then for the next leg of the race, Rob and Kit are neck and neck dangerously crowding
(26:13):
each other.
This car starts to smoke so we finally makes a pit stop.
Well he stopped.
Greg pulls Kit out of the car and takes over driving himself.
Liz doesn't look thrilled about this.
Why is she there?
The race continues.
Now we're on lap 35.
Rob Wilson is in the lead.
Greg comes up and goes in the second place.
Yeah, he makes a major comeback after his unscheduled pit stop.
(26:37):
And now we're in the 45th lap and things start to get weird.
Right. We see that title sequence with the reverse images, the negative images and pictures
of Rob going black and white and then white and black.
And he's running through all the things that people have said to him throughout the movie
about how he's a jerk and he should stop racing and he's going to cause another accident
(27:00):
or whatever.
It just goes on and on for a while.
He's for his flashbacks and probably the results of his PTSD.
Yeah, that could be.
They don't really address that but it does seem a little obvious to us.
Rob, here's himself, tell him to wake up and he does and then he rolls his car off the track
and Greg wins the race.
Kid and Harry pull Rob from the car.
We're taking you home, son says Harry and Harry Alice, Joanie, Greg and Liz take him home.
(27:24):
I have a feeling that Greg is going to keep Liz from tending to Rob from now on.
I'm sure you're right.
I'm kind of surprised Greg is here because he just won a race and I would think he
have other things you have to do.
Yeah, you get your picture taken.
You get to drink the milk or they pour stuff over your head, get some flowers.
I guess this was more important and they can do that later.
Anyway, then the credits roll and well, that's the end.
(27:50):
Welcome back to the American International podcast where we're talking about road racers
from 1959.
The Los Angeles Times announced on January 7th, 1959 that Sally Fraser had been signed
to star in Roadracers.
On January 10th, the Times noted that Mason Allen Dinehart, Mary Ann Collier and Skip
Ward have been added to the cast.
(28:13):
Also on January 10th, the LA Times reported that the road racers would be shooting at M.C.
Studios.
Other scenes were shot at Riverside International Raceway in Marino Valley, California.
The January 29th edition of the LA Citizen News announced the edition of Irene Windust,
John Shea and Michael Gibson to the cast.
Although a January 15th, 1959 Halloween reporter news item said that Liz Rainey had been cast,
(28:36):
she didn't appear in this film.
The racers theme led foot was composed by Edward J. Lasco and sung by Jimmie Maddin.
The closing credits are in a different order than the opening credits and they list the
drivers of the race cars under cast of cars matching each driver to the car driven.
Rob's car was driven by Don Hulette.
Greg's car was driven by Eric Hauser and then the Wilson 110 and Sarati car was driven
(29:00):
by Akton Miller.
Roadracers was released on a double bill with Daddy-O in April of 1959.
A.I.P.'s press book advised theater owners to play up the obvious racing angle.
Recommending they contact sports editors at local newspapers for additional press, play
crowd and racing sound effects on outdoor speakers to capture the attention of people
passing by the theater, pass out flyers in the neighborhoods of nearby schools and have
(29:22):
screenings for auto dealers, racing organizations, and to tie in with any races that coincided
with the screening of Roadracers.
They also suggested creating a replica of the racetrack starting lights for the lobby.
The guidelines for Roadracers include...
Screeching hell on wheels.
Is it sport or murder?
Actually filmed at the United States Grand Prix.
(29:43):
The big two roaring, rocketing, relentless.
That was referring to both movies.
Not many newspapers sent writers to review road racers and the few reviews we did find were
not impressed with the film.
The Boston Globe critic reviewed both road racers and Daddy-O and wrote poorly made, slowly
paced, they evoked little interest, less belief, and yesterday's early morning audience
(30:04):
responded with audible yons and derives of laughter.
Charles Stinson and the LA Times wrote, "Well, it's come to this.
The only domestic film opening of the week is American International's Teen Bill, Road
Racers and Daddy-O. After detailing the various story elements, Stinson wrote, "That's the
chief thing wrong with Roadracers.
There's a bit too much plot.
(30:25):
Stanley Callis and Ed Lasco's 78-minute script never has enough time to make all the
motivations clear and believable.
The conflict between father and son is a trifle to contrive to be entirely convincing."
Stinson did praise most of the actors, though he said skip words, "Line delivery was at
times a bit stiff."
Lowly redelings of the Los Angeles citizen news have lined his review, Road racers mildly
(30:46):
interesting movie, and said something called Road racers buzzed into town, flying the American
International's streamer, and luring a small crowd of the teenage faithful.
The hot ride crowd may go for this noisy celluloid strip, but few thinkers will be sitting
in on the proceedings.
Most of the letter is familiar stuff, an obvious tale and a worn out groove.
(31:07):
Wow.
Roadracers was one of the titles chosen for Showtime's 1994 Rebel Highway series.
Robert Rodriguez directed the film, which he co-wrote with Tommy Knicks.
David Arquette, John Hawkes and Salma Hayek starred.
But it didn't take very long to discuss Roadracers.
(31:29):
They plot the scant information available on the internet.
So maybe we could wrap up really quick what we think about it.
I don't have a whole lot to say about it, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Well, I'd never been much for watching auto racing and watching road racers is a lot
like watching auto racing, I think.
They do use a lot of the movies runtime to show cars racing around the track.
(31:52):
They do try to condense it a bit.
We don't literally watch the entire race, but it feels like it.
Oh, it's not that bad, but because it's a film, they do get to cut away so we get to watch
people's reaction to watching the race.
So there's a lot of shots of people's heads cruising from one side to the other.
It seems like they show shots of Harry.
He's clearly not watching anything.
(32:13):
They're just having poking his head up and looking concerned.
It's not very realistic.
And so some of it feels fake.
The racing part is real and they're at the real Grand Prix.
But I think some of the cut ends look fake.
But what else are they going to do?
We see a lot of shots of guys breaking.
They close up on their feet hitting the brakes.
(32:35):
Yeah, well, it's probably hard to make racing look interesting.
I think it's not hard to make it look interesting if a person is interested in racing, but they
have to make it look dramatic.
They have to give it that movie drama and build from what the acting scenes have already
set up and have somehow the racing convey that as well.
(32:57):
And it just doesn't really do that.
They're just guys spinning around a track.
Yeah, they just keep making left hand turns.
Well, there's a lot of straightaways to you.
But you're right.
It's the drama that they've established by the time we're in the Grand Prix, Rob wants
to kill Greg.
So he's using his car as a weapon.
He's gunning for this guy.
Yeah, but they don't really follow up on that.
(33:19):
There's really not a whole lot of drama there.
When it comes down to it, I'd never feared for Greg not for one second.
He didn't seem to be in any real danger.
Because when it came to the clutch time, Rob goes into his own head and starts recalling
the entire movie in the opening credit sequence.
I was surprised I didn't play Ledgefoot over that.
Well, I think I was part of the problem with the whole movie is that there's all this drama,
(33:43):
but it's all from characters that are at all likeable.
No, and the drama is so dramatic.
I mentioned the dramatic chipmunk thing that Greg did.
It literally looks like that.
There's only one actor in this whole movie that we even recognized.
And that's Sally Fraser who was in “War of the Colossal Beast" and “It Conquered the
World."
(34:04):
Everyone else was new to us.
And I'm not really that good.
It's a really small cast.
They all have a lot of arguments they have to have with each other.
There's a love triangle.
There's another love triangle.
People yell at each other.
There's all this family drama.
And it's just community theater level acting here.
No, it's not even that good.
(34:25):
I've seen a lot of good community theater.
And this is just a hammy, bad soap opera stuff.
There aren't a lot of car racing movies in the AIP catalog.
But there are a few.
We've done Fast and the Furious, which had a little bit of that.
And it's because there wasn't as much of the racing, but I didn't find it as annoying
in that film.
It was more balanced because there's enough real tension, real suspense.
(34:48):
The most unforgivable thing that I feel about this movie is that it did nothing with that
lead foot alley thing that they set up for the entire movie.
There was no driving into that one car only per lane.
They set it up and it never happened.
The way it should have ended is that Rob and Greg almost get in an accident, but it's
Rob that is the one who gets hurt this time.
(35:10):
I thought that's how it did happen.
No, they never mentioned that they were in that one section of the racetrack where only
one car could go through.
It never came up.
Rob just has his weird flashback and all of a sudden he's rolling himself off the track.
Greg didn't do that.
He did it to himself.
I guess that's the setup.
The setup was that Rob caused his own accident instead of killing someone else this time.
(35:34):
And then it's over.
Someone forgives them.
I guess they're going to take him away for psychiatric evaluation probably.
And it's over.
There's no time to even process that to see what happens next.
Not that I care, but now there does the movie.
If I was going to describe this movie, it would be cars racing and a lot of dramatic head
turns.
Yeah, that's all it boils down to you and it's really disappointing for all that.
(35:57):
The relationships are all strange.
The only character I remotely liked was Joni.
Yeah, she seemed like a simple person being caught up in everyone else's drama.
She had her own way.
She would be a normal kid going to school or getting a job or just doing normal human stuff.
Instead of being caught in this push and pull between her parents and her brother and everyone
(36:20):
else who's associated with them, I would get very tired of that.
One would think that either Harry or Rob, they tried to make a character that you could
get behind so you could get behind the father's son relationship, but neither of those people
are legable at all.
No, how do you choose sides when you hate them both?
You can't.
For me, it boils down to this movie is too dramatic and too boring, which is weird because
(36:43):
those two descriptions shouldn't apply to the same movie yet they do.
You had mentioned how the end credits are in a different order than in the opening credits.
And I noticed that it's different even on the poster.
On the poster, Sally Fraser has first billing.
Joel Lawrence is given third.
He played Rob.
Right.
And Mason Allen Dinehart, who's Kit, on the poster, he's credited as Allen Dinehart Jr.
(37:07):
Well, that's not unusual.
When AIP does their posters, usually they haven't even shot the movie yet.
So it's possible that they didn't want to go back and change them.
Well, it's not the first time we've seen names change from the poster to the film.
Right.
But it's not as interesting and worth noting.
(37:30):
It was kind of weird after the last few 50s AIP movies that we've done to see one that
didn't have Lou Rusoff, who didn't have Edward Cahn.
It didn't have Raymond Hatton, the cast of characters that we're used to seeing in these
period racing AIP movies aren't there.
What's also interesting is so many of these movies we've watched have opening credits
(37:53):
from the windshield of a driving car and there's a movie about driving cars.
And it shows this weird, well, it turned out to be kind of a dream sequence later in the
film instead.
Yeah, they went already, I guess, instead of taking the stock footage of a camera in the
front seat or a race car driving around the trunk.
And the song is so bizarre.
(38:13):
Yeah, I don't like it.
We're used to hearing these jazzy scores on these AIP films too.
And this one sounds like an old guy trying to rap.
Well, he's talk singing or sing talking.
All right.
I think we've spilled all the comments that we have about this movie.
Let's rate it using our AIP scale or AS Awesome, IIs Intermediate and P is pathetic.
(38:38):
What you got, Jeff?
I can in no way say that this is a good movie.
There's so much wrong with it.
I did have a lot of fun talking about it with you because it was so bad.
But as a watch, there's no reason to watch this other than to check it off a list.
It's not when I'm going to be revisiting anytime soon, if at all.
There may be brief moments that I might look back on and say, oh, yeah, that was kind of
(39:02):
cool.
But taking within context of the entire film, it's not worth going back to revisit.
This one's easily a pee for me.
I did not care for it.
What are your thoughts?
I have to agree with you.
Well, no, actually, I don't agree with you.
I don't think anything in this movie was cool.
Honestly, some of it was very funny, but not intentionally.
(39:22):
And some of it was mildly interesting.
But mostly, I'm very disappointed in this movie.
And I can't imagine it was a big hit.
I didn't find out anything about how it did at the box office.
But this seems just to be a seat filler.
If even that, they release it one month and then the next month there's a new movie to
replace it.
That's probably just like it.
(39:42):
Honestly, I wish we had landed on Daddy-O instead of this one when we chose it.
And I agree with you.
This is not anything I would ever watch again.
It's easily a pee for me.
So we agree.
It's a pee, but having to watch it a second time, I didn't dread it.
Like some of the ones that I would dread a second time knowing that I wasn't going to
like it.
(40:03):
Yeah, at least we knew what to expect.
We'd watched it.
It's a very simple movie.
It's racing and family drama.
There's not a complicated plot.
It doesn't take a lot of mental energy to watch this.
So maybe someone puts it on and you can't find the remote.
It's complicated in the love triangles.
Well, Greg is the pinpoint of each triangle.
(40:26):
But he only has eyes for Liz.
Yeah, they don't really explain their backstory at all.
Why are they together?
Why were they together?
Why they break up?
Well, isn't because of Rob because she couldn't commit or he couldn't commit or who cares.
No, it sounded like she was running away just to see if he chased her.
Oh, he didn't.
Well, he's a race car driver.
(40:47):
He can't just be lurking off to wherever she went.
He's got a drive.
I want to reiterate when I said the recall moments, think of stills, not actually moments.
Oh, well, maybe, but you just watched the opening sequence and then stop watching after
that.
It was unique and it was something that I don't recall seeing anything like it before.
(41:08):
So I will give them that.
But after that, it's just tripe and racing.
We never did talk about kids voice.
No, we didn't.
And I don't like making fun of people's voices.
That's how they talk.
But man, this was weird.
I can't even imitate it.
I kept calling him a clown in my commentary here and yet the voice of a clown.
(41:30):
So it just seemed a natural thing to do.
I don't know if I call him a clown because clowns to me sound like bozo.
And he's sounded, how do you put this?
His voice.
Oh boy, I'm going to hear today.
Yeah, like that, but deeper, like a really deep voice, but also some affect to it that just
makes it sound like he's kind of slow, honestly.
(41:54):
He doesn't sound too bright.
No, I don't know of anybody who's ever had a voice like that before.
No, me neither.
Maybe we'll find it again someday.
And then we'll remember him.
We're going to find out more about road racers and other films that we reviewed on the American
International Podcast.
You can visit our website, aippod.com.
There you can find advertising paraphernalia, such as trailers and radio spots and lobby
(42:17):
guards.
You can message us to let us know what your thoughts are on the movies that we reviewed.
And you can also visit our merch store.
And he purchases made will help us out in creating the podcast.
Yeah, get yourself an American International Podcast T-shirt.
I know I have.
Once again, it's aippod.com.
All right, Jeff.
I think it's time to take the cars to the garage and call it a day on road racers.
(42:42):
For the American International Podcast, I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And I'm Jeff Markin.
And we meet you at the drive-in.
Follow the American International Podcast on Instagram and Letterbox at aip_pod and on Facebook
at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.
The American International Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Markin.
(43:04):
A man whose mind is distorted by hatred.
And Cheryl Lightfoot.
A girl hungry for too many things.
The American International Podcast is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
(43:25):
[Music]
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