Synopsis
Smooth, fast and in high gear!
A race car driver tries to outrun the beautiful tax auditor out to settle his account.
1968 Directed by Norman Taurog
A race car driver tries to outrun the beautiful tax auditor out to settle his account.
Elvis Presley Nancy Sinatra Bill Bixby Gale Gordon William Schallert Victoria Paige Meyerink Ross Hagen Carl Ballantine Poncie Ponce Harry Hickox Christopher West Beverly Powers Richard Petty Buddy Baker Cale Yarborough Dick Hutcherson Tiny Lund G.C. Spencer Roy Mayne Harper Carter Bob Harris Michelle Newman Courtney Brown Dana Brown Patti Jean Keith Carl Reindel Gari Hardy Charlotte Stewart Sandy Reed Show All…
It's been quite a while since I've worked on my Elvis Ranked list. In Speedway, Elvis plays a race car driver again. Nancy Sinatra gets a song, and I think this is only the 2nd movie where someone else gets a song. There's not much racing after the first one, but then toward the end we get to see some. Several actual NASCAR racers are credited as being in the movie, but they don't have any lines, and we don't see them, so they must be in race car. Bill Bixby plays a jerk who is Elvis' best friend and manager. Elvis gets two pretty good songs.
After a terrible Evils' film that escaped his formula (something I had been criticizing a lot), I'm actually glad to see a film of his which follows the precise formula of his earlier roles. However, the star here isn't the King himself, it's toxic relationships. Just kidding (or am I?) the star is Nancy Sinatra without a doubt, it's a shame she only gets one music act here, she could have done a lot more I guess. She was probably the only character I enjoyed and the only female who could think for herself, however she wasn't imune to Elvis' threats, I mean love.
It's weird, I think Elvis was a lot more likeable on his previous films, in his roles he is progressively becoming more and more of a douchebag.
Mehs all around. Soundtrack has a couple of good songs, Nancy Sinatra has an okay one, but everything else is just meh. Not terrible but forgettable.
The twenty seventh Elvis film. This one is not as good as Viva Las Vegas but it is a lot of the same. I think it's missing the more bombastic musical numbers of VLV as well as the magical desert setting. Casinos look fucking good on the silver screen and that's also something that Midnight Run knows which i just watched before this.
"Sounds like you're being attacked!"
"Not yet, Mr. Grayson isn't here."
It is very appropriate for a character played by Elvis to not be able to woo Nancy Sinatra until he's beaten the shit out of her boyfriend. Good thing that scene is fucking hilarious and outlandish!
Sometimes these Elvis flicks are cooking with grease and sometimes they aren't. Last month's "Harum Scarum" definitely wasn't, but "Speedway" is much lighter on its feet and fitfully inventive. The mostly spirited musical numbers are spaced out the right way, even democratically shared with co-star Nancy Sinatra on a couple occasions (a rare thing for him not to be the lone performer in one of these), and actually choreographed for comic effect and visual stimulation, can you imagine?? In a musical comedy? One of the most enjoyable group dance performances is a pro-IRS propaganda anthem, of all subject matters..overall the songs are merely adequate, but the cast is having more fun with them on screen than usual, plus there's also…
Me: "I know it's a late-60s Elvis movie, but it's got Nancy Sinatra! How can it be bad?"
Speedway: "HOW MUCH YA'LL LOVE NASCAR"
Me: "uhhh"
Speedway: "EVERYONE LOVES MUSICAL NUMBERS ABOUT TAX DISPUTES"
Me: "what"
Speedway: "HOW ABOUT SOME GOOD OL SEXUAL ASSAULT"
Me: (slinks away)
Speedway (in the distance): "SINATRA ONLY HAS ONE SOLO NUMBER AND IT BIIIIIIiiiiiiiiitessssss..."
Elvis plays a race car driver (AGAIN) and singer who owes money to the IRS
Nancy Sinatra plays the most unappealing love interest in the Elvis films I've watched recently (it's a good thing Frank is dead, otherwise I'd be found in the bottom of the river )
I liked it better when this was called Spinout
I was grooving to the groovy groove of the 60s early on in this movie. Very corny and very cheesy and I think I saw Austin Powers wander by. But as the movie kept on takin' care of business, it really started to grind to a halt. And the amount I can really care about Elvis in racing around a track via bad rear projection is kind of low.
The flick stars Elvis as a race car driver who also just so happens to be a rock 'n roller during his downtime. But his horndog manager played inexplicably by Bill Bixby (never seen Bill Bixby in anything but the Incredible Hulk) has mismanaged his funds and filed dubious tax returns.…
To call Speedway "stale" would be an understatement. This was the eighth(!) Elvis flick Norman Taurog directed, and it marked the third time Elvis played a race car driver.
Nancy Sinatra is Elvis's co-star here (in one of her last film appearances), and although I love her records, she just has no screen presence and recites her lines like she's been hypnotized.
Speedway also features some old-school NASCAR action and features some giants of the sport like Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty.
Other than that, there's not much to recommend this. Elvis's movies were always sexist and treated women mostly like props, but Bill Bixby's character in this one really pushes it with his totally unfunny date-rape antics. Elvis's better movies were funny in a corny and good-natured way, but all the jokes here fall flat.
I put this on entirely thinking it would be some good listening while working on some stuff because there'd be enough songs in here, and I was pleasantly surprised that between the songs this ended up being a lot better than I expected as well. The songs themselves are, not surprisingly, good; that goes for the Elvis songs but also for Nancy Sinatra's song in here. The choreography used for the song about income taxes, though, was particularly fun.
I did also find the plot element here of Elvis' manager being this sort of sleazy dead-weight getting him into trouble. It was a bit of a different perspective from what I'm used to, and that does a pretty good job of making Elvis into the character one wants to see succeed. That's not always something that I think these do.
A pleasant surprise of an Elvis film for me, as I was expecting another Spinout.
Nothing plot-wise happens in Speedway for over half an hour. You've got the truly awful Elvis film trope of precocious kids amplified by the appearance of a bunch of toddlers(!). The relationship between Nancy Sinatra and Elvis's characters doesn't develop naturally and like the equally rubbish It Happened at the World's Fair this film gives Elvis a best buddy who has no redeeming qualities and nearly ruins his life.
And not a single song rises above mediocrity. Skip it.