Fireball 500 (1966) User Reviews

Nice try at something different

[estabansmythe · 4/10 · 11 January 2006]

Bill Asher and Samuel Z. Arkoff & James Nicholson at American International give "Fireball 500" the old college try. They gave their stock beach party ensemble (minus a few of the usual screw crew such as John Ashley, Donna Loren and Jody McCrea) something heavier and darker to try.

This is more like an early '60s Elvis film than one of the zany Beach flicks. It's a serious film. There's no comic relief to be found anywhere. Only a couple songs sung on stage instead of on the sand and in the surf or dorm.

Also, guys like Harvey Lembeck get the opportunity to stretch and play a something far different from his legendary Rats motorcycle gang leader, Erich Von Zipper. In this one, he is not his ideal - ha-ha!

Frankie Avalon is a stock car driver with a past coerced into going undercover and runnig moonshine for Harvey Lembeck. Annette Funicello is to be fought over, but Frankie doesn't get her as usual! How about that! In fact, they don't even really like each other in this one.

If you see it, don't expect a sequel to "Beach Blanket Bingo" because it's not. Take it on its own terms.

Moonshine and NASCAR!!!

[Tomlonso · 5/10 · 22 February 2006]

This is a fairly innocuous little movie. No one rented tuxes for the 1967 Oscars for this one, but then no one is paying large sums of money to suppress it, either. It feels like a "Perry Mason" or "Route 66" TV episode.

For vintage erotica fans, there is a (mostly) accurate portrayal of the "Girlie Shows" that were once carnival staples. Fabian's character, Leander, has a group of young women following him around (Four of them period Playboy Playmates) and there is a seductive (slightly) older widow. The sex and romance is far from explicit (welcome in a movie with Chill Wills in it!) and is generally hinted at with meaningful glances.

For NASCAR fans there are some pretty good scenes of stock car racing 40 years ago, including some of the Daytona 500. Drivers that year apparently were racing for a $85,000 purse. (2006: $18 million).

It's well worth a rental. I bought mine as a two-sided DVD with "Thunder Alley" for under $15, and I feel the money was well-spent.

Film Editing Team Rises to the Challenge

[aimless-46 · 6/10 · 25 August 2006]

"Fireball 500" (1966) is technically the best production to ever come out of "American International". The cinematography looks as good as the best Hollywood productions from that period; with unexpectedly good shot selection and nice close-ups that you would expect to see now but were highly original back in 1966.

This is a film that should be shown to would-be film and video editors, as there are few finer examples of matching stock footage with first and second unit output; all done by linear editing (try it some time if you want a real challenge). When a low budget film tries to be high budget by inserting stock footage it is usually a disaster, but here there is a pretty good match of film stock and the track announcer's audio makes the action sequences easy to follow. You might recognize Fred R. Feitshans Jr's editing style from the old "Adventures in Paradise" television show.

The story is ordinary-straight action adventure and romance, no comedy like AIP's beach movies even though it does feature alumni Frankie, Annette, and Harvey Lembeck. There are three good Hernrig and Styner songs: "Fireball 500", "My Way", and "Turn Around"; sung by Frankie with help on the last one from Julie Parrish. Annette sings "Step Right Up" which mostly leaves you amazed that anyone ever bought her records.

As usual Annette is very buttoned-up and chaste but Parrish is hot enough to carry the whole film. Interestingly Annette pairs up with Fabian and Frankie gets Julie. Fabian also has a group of racetrack groupies who follow him around, four of the them are mid-60's Playboy centerfolds with one of those the Playmate of the year.

Frankie gets into a serious fight with both Fabian and Lembeck. These are decently staged and cut but unnecessary to the story and rather comical when you consider the participants. Casting these two singers was apparently an attempt to expand the target audience from teenage boys and stock car fans by including something for teenage girls. This was at best a lame idea since by 1966 those two were considered wimpy has-beens compared to "Herman's Hermits", let alone the "Beatles" and the "Stones".

There is tons of interesting stock car footage, making "Fireball 500" a nice historical archive. Overall it was a fun film to watch but nothing you would take very seriously.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

SIlly Good Time Fun

[jtj909 · 5/10 · 1 February 2006]

Citizen Kane it is not, but if you want a good time, drive in, type movie.. check it out. Frankie A. is a wanna be Nascar driver who drives for moonshiners on the side. He meets the hard Biz woman who owns the track and finds the moonshine drivers, but she falls in love and later on redeems herself.

Fabian is the local race track hero and king of the moonshine drivers. There's a slight twist to his character in the end that I won't reveal here.

Dopey songs, pretty girls and cars... Simple, Family friendly fun with some cool old school Nascar footage to boot.

Stockcars and sourmash

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 18 September 2005]

"Beach Party" leads Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, and Harvey Lembeck do what they can with C-minus material involving an ace stockcar racer who gets involved with moonshiners; the Internal Revenue wants him to work both sides, but he's more interested in finding out who's thwarting the midnight runs by playing chicken with the drivers. Barely involving 'grown up' effort from American International, not as good as their later stockcar comedy-drama "Thunder Alley", however Avalon and Annette both get to sing (his number, "My Way" is one of the best tunes Avalon ever got in an AIP film). There's a pretty good brawl between Frankie and Harvey Lembeck, but Fabian, as Frankie's nemesis, is under-used, as is Annette. Good photography by Floyd Crosby, cute opening Claymation segment by Clokey Films, but the story is so muddled we never know where we stand with these one-dimensional characters. *1/2 from ****

The unofficial end of the Beach Party.

[TomReed · 5/10 · 17 September 2007]

For all the previous comments - yes, it was a typical American-International programmer, so cowardly it used "moonshining" as a safe substitute for drug-running - this film is sad to someone who was amused by the Beach Party series of films.

Although not Frankie and Dee Dee, Avalon and Funicello are playing the same basic characters; he trying to be an adventurous stud (and succeeding far more than he ever did on the beach, getting into implied clenches with a couple of women) and she fiercely protecting her virginity. But they're connected to other people; Funicello is in love with Fabian and thinks Avalon's an annoying creep. She only shows some positive response to him briefly. The conventional dramatic plot doesn't allow the happy coincidences and contrived happy endings that used to follow these guys around.

By playing straight characters, both were trying to grow beyond their "teenage years" and into more mature roles. Neither one made it, even when Frankie changed his name to "Frank Avalon." Especially not after a career of playing in drive-in bottom-bill films like this one.

The first appearance of Frankie and Dee Dee in "Beach Party" had them driving towards their bungalow, singing happily as their beach blast was just beginning. In the end titles of this film, Frankie is singing while driving off with a completely DIFFERENT girl, a melancholy closure to the whole series. They didn't even end it by driving off together. I remember seeing this on a TV station as the last movie before they signed off on a lonely Saturday night, and I bid a farewell to their youth, their innocence, and their careers as optimistic teen icons.

A Different Type of Frankie

[Michael_Elliott · 31 May 2016]

Fireball 500 (1966)

** (out of 4)

Dave Owens (Frankie Avalon) is a stock car racer who soon finds himself working for the law who are wanting to know about some country folks running bootleg alcohol. Soon he is also butting heads with another driver (Fabian) over his girlfriend (Annette Funicello).

With the previous year's HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI ending the Beach Party series, AIP needed to put their two leads in a new film so they decided to mix things up. This here is basically a watered down version of something you'd expect to see from Elvis and THUNDER ROAD, the Robert Mitchum film. FIREBALL 500 isn't a complete success but it's certainly more interesting than the last couple Beach Party movies.

The big change here is the fact that this isn't just bubble gum kids stuff. No, FIREBALL 500 has tried to make things a tad bit darker and this includes more drama with the Avalon character who certainly has a great number of flaws. There's also a few darker elements that pop up throughout the film but at the same time there's no doubt that AIP didn't want to get too far away from the "characters" or type of characters that fans had come to expect of the teen idols.

Avalon and Funicello aren't wonderful here but I thought both of them did enough to help keep the film entertaining. Avalon has several songs throughout the film, which really takes away from the "drama" but the songs aren't too bad. Funicello also has one song, although it's not all that memorable. Fabian probably gives the best performance in the cast but Chill Wills easily steals the picture.

FIREBALL 500 isn't a masterpiece or even a good movie but fans of Avalon and Funicello should find it to be light entertainment.

End of the Beach

[wjones-57006 · 6/10 · 5 August 2023]

Fireball 500 was AIP's attempt to attract an older audience (or keep the one that was growing up). Much of the beach gang is still around (Avalon, Funicello and Lembeck) but, except maybe Annette, nothing like their old characters. Add Fabian into the mix as Avalon's nemesis and you've got a strangely serious movie with little music and even less humor. Really, most of the humor (and probably the best acting) comes from Chill Wills as Annette's Uncle/Carnival barker. Rounding out the main cast is Julie Parrish as a rich, slightly oversexed love interest for Avalon. Despite Frankie's attempts, he and Annette are, for the first and last time, not a couple.

The film is typical mid-'60s drive-in fare...cars, girls and music tied together with a mediocre script and passable acting. Due to the difficult nature of shooting and editing a racing film on a low budget, editing and continuity mistakes run rampant. It's almost funnier than the jokes.

When all is said and done, if you gauge it against it's genre it's a likable enough picture. Classic NASCAR fans will enjoy the genuine racing footage with legends like Richard Petty. Beach movie fans may be a little less enamored but it's still an enjoyable look at the end of beach movie innocence.

I guess I have seen worse movies...but

[Walt-11 · 4/10 · 8 June 2001]

I guess I have seen worse movies...but not lately. If you're a race fan you might be able to get thru this as a curiosity, but as is often the case, this movie was written and directed by people who wouldn't know a race car from a loaf of bread. At least it has Annette! I think it's similar to an Elvis movie without Elvis, or an old beach-blanket movie style.

Earnest action-drama hamstrung by kitsch past & present

[I_Ailurophile · 6/10 · 18 August 2022]

So much about this very quickly drives home the point that 'Fireball 500' and its ilk are borne from the same spirit that gave us beach party movies earlier in the 1960s. As if the fact that this was an AIP film weren't evidence enough, consider the production values, the stop-motion animation and narration that greets us in the earliest minutes, and Les Baxter's original music score - and pop songs that are frequently incorporated (or outright shoe-horned in) just because. The characters, scene writing, dialogue, and even the plot itself are all rather loose, designed for kitschy, lighthearted fun that's distinctly indifferent to any notion of sincerity (and more than a little sexist at times). As great as the appearance is of the costume design, hair and makeup, set design, and vehicles, the visuals all impart the same flavors of cheesy fluff. This goes for the acting, too, and even Floyd Crosby's cinematography (note the regular emphasis of female posteriors). Make no mistake, this is a feature that is easily dated, and to whatever extent it has "held up" since the 60s owes much to open-minded nostalgia and generosity. 'Fireball 500' is marginally more entertaining than its brethren or predecessors, mostly on account of boasting more of a concrete narrative, but to be sure, in 2022 it's quite the acquired taste.

In all fairness, this is a picture that only wants its audience to have a good time. How much mileage one may get out of it will vary wildly from one viewer to the next, but yet it's not half bad. The story is light, but sufficient for building the picture and keeping our attention. The race sequences are well done, including excellent stunt driving - why, I don't even like automotive racing in real life, but the inclusion here is pretty well engaging. Stunts generally are executed very well, not least at the climax. Though the cast is often guided into portrayals that are as ham-handed as the picture at large, when given an opportunity to earnestly demonstrate their capabilities, they surely do. At their best the performances are characterized with fine nuance; Douglas Henderson and Baynes Barron, for example, very convincingly depict G-men Hastings and Bronson as slimy toads, and the more prominent stars like Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and Julie Parrish all embody their parts with suitable enticing personality as scenes demand.

Even recognizing the somewhat hokey construction and likely limited appeal of the feature, this suffers from other flaws. One definite consequence of the overall fun-loving tone is that any story beat that should be decidedly impactful is robbed of its weight. Frankly, where scenes aren't built strictly with the zest of "Hey, let's party!" - well, it's at best a 50-50 guess whether 'Fireball 500' will successfully convey any other feeling. This unfortunately strips the film of no small amount of value; if AIP were trying to be genuine and move beyond the happy-go-lucky nonchalance of its beach party flicks, then the failure by any degree to meaningfully give form to dramatic moments means a failure of that intent. As if cementing the difficulty: while there's real, tangible plot in this, it doesn't come across as entirely convincing, as though director William Asher and co-writer Leo Townsend struggled themselves to be whip up material that bears a more substantial scrap of seriousness. The last third of the movie altogether drags soporifically, more than not.

Warts and all, this is reasonably enjoyable, and I'd go so far as to say that I wish I could like it more than I do. There are many solid ideas in the screenplay, and the cast and crew both put in hard work that pays off in its own right. However, wherever one wishes to place responsibility, there seems to be a lack of comportment between purpose and capability; 'Fireball 500' aimed to be something more and better than those titles AIP made before, yet the end result just doesn't completely hit the mark. Still, there are a lot worse movies you could watch, and if you're open to the more gauche side of cinema, then this might well be right up your alley. It's no essential classic, but if you happen across 'Fireball 500,' it's a modestly entertaining viewing experience.

The kids from Philadelphia

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 1 February 2018]

Nice racing sequences and to my knowledge the only feature film to have both those kids from Philadelphia Frankie Avalon and Fabian in the cast are the attractions that Fireball 500 has. The title comes from the logo that Avalon has on his car.

Avalon is a professional racing driver and has arrived in North Carolina to try his hand at the stock car circuit where local boy Fabian rules. Fabian also runs a little moonshine on the side and of course is wary of the revenuers. These two as in the teen idol business were rivals in those late Eisenhower/ Kennedy years.

The women they are rivals over are Annette Funicello and Julie Parrish, you watch the film to see who gets who. There's someone else in the picture who would like to eliminate both these guys. I won't reveal but it won't be hard to figure it out.

Avalon is slightly miscast in a film that I think Elvis Presley might have had first dibs on and rejected. Or Colonel Parker probably rejected for him.

Two very colorful character players Chill Wills and Harvey Lembeck are in the cast. Wills is Annette's uncle and Lembeck is most definitely not doing Erich Von Zipper.

For aging fans of the leads like myself.

Enjoyable fluff

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 26 April 2009]

Assured ace race car driver Dave Owens (a likable performance by Frankie Avalon) goes down south to compete in the local stock car races. Dave winds up at loggerheads with cocky reigning champion Sony Leander Fox (a deliciously smarmy portrayal by Fabian). Moreover, Dave also starts running moonshine for sleazeball auto garage owner Charlie Bigg (a nicely slimy turn by Harvey Lembeck). Director/co-writer William Asher relates the entertaining story at a snappy pace, maintains a breezy tone throughout, delivers a flavorsome evocation of the downhome setting, and stages the rousing vehicular carnage with considerable panache. Yummy blonde looker Julie Parrish vamps it up well as good-hearted young widow Martha. Nifty supporting contributions by the ever-adorable Annette Funicello as the sweet Jane, Chill Wills as jolly racetrack owner Big Jaw, Douglas Henderson as shifty federal agent Hastings, and Len Lesser as a genial hillbilly. The gritty and exciting racetrack footage is the authentic gnarly article. A couple of rough'n'ready fistfights are also pretty stirring. The cute claymation animation featured at the very start and end is a real hoot. Both Les Baxter's groovy swinging score and Floyd Crosby's sharp, bright widescreen cinematography are up to speed. As an added bonus, Frankie and Annette belt out a few catchy and charming songs. Better still, the characters even have a little depth to them. A fun flick.

"This old boy has won himself a race."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 29 March 2015]

Well I've endured a couple beach flicks and a ski party with Frankie and Annette, so why not give a racing picture a try? This was actually quite a more serious picture than something like "Beach Blanket Bingo", and I didn't expect to see Frankie Avalon and Fabian go at it the way they did in their fist fight. I wouldn't go so far as claiming it was better than Clay vs Chuvalo the way one of the 'revenooers' did, but it was certainly well staged. Avalon's tussle with Harvey Lembeck's character Charlie Bigg was even wilder.

That's not to say the eye candy wasn't as prevalent as ever. Fabian's Sonny Leander Fox almost always had an entourage of beauties hanging around. Annette Funicello maintained her usual wholesome appearance as Leander's main squeeze, while Julie Parrish went from bad girl to good over the course of the story while winning over Dave Owens (Avalon). But I have to say, I did the same double take that Frankie Avalon did when he heard Fabian call his gal pals the Eager Beavers.

Contributing to the more serious nature of the story was the whole business of 'going chicken' and watching the moonshine cars flip down the hillside. The racing sequences were pretty well done, with a fairly seamless transition from movie action to stock footage and back. Race and stock car fans looking for a bit of nostalgia would probably have some fun with this flick, especially if you grew up during the era with the principals. Another movie with a somewhat harder edge you could try would be 1958's "Thunder Road", written, produced by and starring Robert Mitchum. It's got it's fair share of moonshine too.

Fireball!

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 5 August 2020]

William Asher's career was mostly in TV - he was a driving force behind I Love Lucy and Bewitched - and making AIP's beach movies work. The one aberration is the movie Butcher, Baker Nightmare Maker, which is a mindblowing piece of film that I encourage everyone to see.

AIP was always ahead of the teen curve, as they realized that the beach films had run their course and now, the kids wanted, well, rebellion.

AIP executive Deke Heyward said, "The next big thing for teenage films is protest. Teenagers empathize with protest because they are in revolt against their parents... These films represent a protest against society. These will be moral tales, there will be good guys and bad guys. But we will show the reasons for young people going against the dictates of the establishment."

Stock car racer "Fireball" Dave Owens (Frankie Avalon) has come from the West Coast to race Spartansburg's champion Sonny Leander Fox (Fabian). He also gets plenty of glances from Fox's girl, Jane (Annette Funicello).

The conflict comes when Dave is conned into smuggling moonshine by Julie Parrish and Harvey Lembeck's characters. Then the IRS gets involved, threatening to jail our hero unless he helps them defeat the moonshiners. And then Fox wants one more race on the deadly Figure 8 track.

The real star of this movie is the Fireball 500, a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda customized by George Barris. There was going to be a sequel, Malibu 500, but that eventually became Thunder Alley.

As if Dave making eyes at Fox's girl wasn't bad enough, he's also hooked up with Martha the Moonshiner (the aforementioned Parrish). So how does our man beat the system and get the girl? There's only one way to find out.

Not one of the 1960's greatest achievements.

[JonathanDP81 · 3/10 · 3 February 2006]

** of ***** Below Average

Pros: Some interesting footage of vintage cars and early NASCAR. Cons: Most everything else.

Viewed: 3 February 2006 Format: DVR recording from Showtime Extreme

It's interesting that my first Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello movie isn't one of their famous beach films but a racing flick, the other big teenage film fad of the early '60's. Since most of these films were mostly background for necking at drive-ins, plus the fact it produced by American International, I wasn't surprised to find this a lightweight piece of filmmaking.

"Fireball 500" starts and ending with an interesting (but very, very short) piece of claymation made by Chokey Films ("Gumby") before we meet our hero, Dave Owens, winning the eponymous race of the film. He's driving Richard Petty's car, Number 43, which strikes a weird note, but I'm guessing Petty wasn't yet nationally known, so the director used it to match with the stock footage.

About the stock footage: There's a LOT. And since the races in the film consist mostly of that and rear-projection shots, they really lack any tension at all. However, in the final race, there's footage of a multi-car pileup that must be seen to be believed.

After winning and during the opening credits, Dave heads south (for no apparent reason) while singing the first of several banal songs and driving a far-out custom car that I doubt any real racer would be seen dead in. Once below the Mason-Dixon line, he starts dirt racing on the local track. Why, I don't know. He's going to Dayton soon, and I would figure the prize money from the race at the start of the film would tide him over until then, so maybe it's just for kicks.

In short order he half-heartily romances Funicello (who appears so little in this film it's practically a walk-on), annoys the local racing big shot by beating him and is tricked to unknowingly moving a load of moonshine at night. Yes, really.

Most of the plot involves a rather silly and threadbare mystery that I won't spoil. Of course, in the end, there's the Big Race!

Frankie Avalon was really not suited for the role of tough racing driver here. The lines really don't sound natural coming from him, and the fact that he seems a good half-foot shorter than any other male in the film doesn't help either. This makes the fight scenes look even faker than they probably would have.

The Bottom Line: Skip unless you're into these kinds of films.

Recommend to a friend?: No.

DampSquib 500

[vandino1 · 19 April 2006]

AIP and William Asher (his day job doing 'Bewitched') grab those Beach Blanket Bores Annette & Frankie and put them into the stock racing milieu. Surprise: Frankie romances Julie Parrish instead of Annette, while Annette stays true to Fabian. No surprise: both Frankie and Annette sing. Blah. Then there is Harvey Lembeck dropping the Erich Von Zipper-shtick in order to play an ordinary villain; in this case a race car shop owner doing some roughhouse bootlegging on the side. There's a weird intro of claymation cavemen (who also reappear at the end) and lots of race car footage (appealing, I guess, to nostalgic stock car aficionados). As usual, the other women strut their stuff while Annette remains smothered in clothing up to her chin. The only funny thing in this carbon monoxide-weary enterprise is watching Frankie Avalon try and play it tough. The sight of this tiny man with a huge foamy thatch of hair thicker than his body engaging in fight scenes and tough talk is a hoot.

Reckless Driving 101

[wes-connors · 1/10 · 11 April 2008]

Leaving the beach behind, drag racing Frankie Avalon (as Dave Owens) and statuesque Annette Funicello (as Jane Harris) get involved with bootlegging racer Fabian (as Sonny Leander Fox). Pretty Julie Parrish (as Martha Brian) is Mr. Avalon's main squeeze this time around; in one of the film's few memorably bad scenes, she gets a firm grip on shirtless Avalon's buttocks. In a related move, Fabian's fan club, the "Eager Beavers" express devotion on their derrières. Chill Wills is (as Big Jaw) and Harvey Lembeck (as Charlie Bigg) are among the unfortunate supporting cast. Director William Asher's American International team absolutely needed a change of pace, but "Fireball 500" was about as unnecessary a postscript as could be produced.

Stockyard Follies.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 7 August 2022]

Moderately enjoyable Frankie, Fabian and Annette drive-in fare, no masterpiece, but watchable and amusing for all the wrong reasons. Frankie and Fabian are tougher than normal, yet Annette's as goody goody as normal, verbally lambasting Frankie for not wanting a home and family, even though it's supposedly Fabian she loves. She's the only one who doesn't seem to belong to the revel genre of teen and young adult movies that American International was moving onto, getting away from the beach and teen romance and Edgar Allan Poe gothic horror stories with a brooding Vincent Price. The film starts and ends with some truly adorable claymation credits that's probably the most original thing about the film.

The story surrounds the stock car race craze, with some very intense race scenes and a few shocking crashes, presumably stock footage. Frankie and Annette do get to sing, but the songs aren't anything worthy of the charts. It's pretty serious stuff for a Frankie and Annette film, only unintentionally funny because of Annette's prissy nature among the young toughs, male and female, that she's surrounded by. Chill Wills does provide a bit of comic relief, but that too is more unintentional because of his hound dog face and Jed Clampett voice. Not as nasty in plot and characterization as later troubled young adult movies that AIP would flood the drive-ins with, but definitely a step to a genre yet to come that fortunately didn't last long.

I Was Surprised

[boblipton · 6/10 · 20 July 2023]

Frankie Avalon is a stock car racer and that's all he wants to be. Caught between two women, strait-laced Annette Funicello and sex-obsessed Julie Parrish, he has other problems: arrogant Fabian, competitor on the track and for Funicello; moonshiner Harvey Lembeck, who wants him to run for him; and a couple of revenue agents who threaten him with six months in prison for the one run he unwittingly did unless he helps them put away Lembeck. Plus someone is trying to kill him.

Not all of these issues are resolved, but those that are are done so in a surprising and interesting way. It wasn't the shoddy goods I expected when I saw William Asher directed and co-wrote, but kept my attention all the way through. Even Lembeck, in a straight role, is good, and the attitudes on view are not those of men who grew up under the Production Code.

Frankie and Annette get off the beach

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 9 October 2021]

Stock car driver Dave Owens (Frankie Avalon) likes Jane Harris (Annette Funicello). He has a friendly rivalry with Sonny Leander Fox (Fabian) who has many groupies. He gets tricked into running moonshine. Next, he's trapped between criminals and the law.

Frankie and Annette have left the beach to try something more dangerous. At the end of the day, they can't. I would suggest something harder than moonshine but that would alienate their fans. It's a no-win situation. Their star power is fading and they have nowhere to go. Quite frankly, they are probably best fitted to be teachers in art school. Otherwise, they are always going to be Frankie and Annette on the beach. I do like some of the car action. There are a few good crashes although the actors are nowhere near the real driving. I just can't take this seriously.

"Behind every pretty woman is a behind."

[slammerhard · 7/10 · 17 April 2022]

Being a fan of the Frankie and Annette beach party films and all things A. I. P I was eager to watch this film. Some people are gonna come out and say how corny these films are but if you are into this kind of thing you will not disappointed-despite the fact that Fireball 500 is far from being a classic.

This one will remind you of an Elvis movie and there is even a girl from an Elvis film. Annette does the usual good girl act, Fabian butts heads with Frankie, Harvey Lembeck does the bad guy, and I wish there was more of Jo Collins.

Compared to the Beach Party films, the songs here are nothing to brag about. There are some memorable lines and some of the destruction during the racing scenes is impressive.

Fast cars, pretty girls, silly moments, and lots of impressive...behinds. Do you need anything else? And let's not forget that mouth! I'm talking about Julie Parrish.

A very good movie would like to purchase, can't find

[ace-44 · 10/10 · 25 October 1998]

I like the way the movie portrayed the moonshiners, and the way they influenced the early stock car racers. The musical theme was the wave of the era. This movie had a lot of the same themes as some of the Elvis movies.

Surprisingly Good

[januszlvii · 8/10 · 11 January 2023]

Fireball 500, is a movie I watched today because I never saw Annette Funicello ( Jane), in a movie before. Why? I do not like musicals and I am not watching a beach movie, so this was an opportunity to see her. To be honest, Annette did nothing for me, but the other lady Julie Parrish who played Martha Bryan was much hotter and did a better acting job. The highlight was the racing scenes especially at the Daytona 500. The one excellent scene involved Leander ( Fabian) whose car overheats and becomes a fireball crashing over the retaining wall ( this is where the title Fireball 500 comes from). Interesting enough although this is listed as a Frankie Avalon ( Dave) and Annette Movie it really is not. Why? Frankie ( who is the star) ends up with Martha and Annette with Leander ( who does survive but can never race again). More important though, this is a racing film first and foremost. How do I know? Spoilers ahead: Dave who won the race drove #43 which was the car number of Richard Petty, who won the Daytona 500 7 times included 1964 and 1966 when this film came.out. So I suspect the racing scenes involving car #43 were in fact, footage of Richard Petty. The film had a couple of songs by Avelon which were a minus, but the racing scenes more then make up for it. Again surprising good and 8/10 stars from me.