In Monaco at the Grand Prix, Mark Damon, a former racer turned writer, watches as cocky driver William Campbell wins the race. Campbell is brash, reckless and a womanizer, and soon Damon discovers the married Campbell has taken Damon's girlfriend as a mistress and then discarded her. Deciding to dig up dirt on Campbell for revenge, Damon gets a job on Campbell's crew by saying he's writing a biography, without mentioning that it will be an exposè. As Damon follows Campbell along the Grand Prix trial, from Belgium to France to England, he sees Campbell continue to seduce women while using his own brother Bob to hide his exploits from his wife. But he also soon comes to see that Campbell's arrogant surface hides a more sensitive side. For a Roger Corman B-movie, there are a couple of surprises in store, one good and one bad. The good one: it was filmed on location—supposedly to take advantage of Corman's vacation plans—and looks pretty decent, especially the racing scenes. The bad one: it's not really an action movie; it winds up being a talky, at times almost philosophical, movie about celebrity and psychology, but the screenplay and actors aren't quite up to the challenge of making an engrossing character study. So this winds up being stuck uncomfortably between two genres, not satisfying as either one. B-movie star Luana Anders and Shakespearean actor Patrick Magee (the man whose wife Alex rapes in CLOCKWORK ORANGE) have small roles. [TCM]
Monday, May 11, 2015
THE YOUNG RACERS (1963)
In Monaco at the Grand Prix, Mark Damon, a former racer turned writer, watches as cocky driver William Campbell wins the race. Campbell is brash, reckless and a womanizer, and soon Damon discovers the married Campbell has taken Damon's girlfriend as a mistress and then discarded her. Deciding to dig up dirt on Campbell for revenge, Damon gets a job on Campbell's crew by saying he's writing a biography, without mentioning that it will be an exposè. As Damon follows Campbell along the Grand Prix trial, from Belgium to France to England, he sees Campbell continue to seduce women while using his own brother Bob to hide his exploits from his wife. But he also soon comes to see that Campbell's arrogant surface hides a more sensitive side. For a Roger Corman B-movie, there are a couple of surprises in store, one good and one bad. The good one: it was filmed on location—supposedly to take advantage of Corman's vacation plans—and looks pretty decent, especially the racing scenes. The bad one: it's not really an action movie; it winds up being a talky, at times almost philosophical, movie about celebrity and psychology, but the screenplay and actors aren't quite up to the challenge of making an engrossing character study. So this winds up being stuck uncomfortably between two genres, not satisfying as either one. B-movie star Luana Anders and Shakespearean actor Patrick Magee (the man whose wife Alex rapes in CLOCKWORK ORANGE) have small roles. [TCM]
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