At its heart, a remake of 1958's Soapbox Derby, this film nevertheless is more exciting due to the motorized karts whizzing around the circuit.
Kids' TV favourites Dennis Waterman and Frazer Hines, play members of rival gangs who race one another on the track in what were called Go-Karts at the time. These miniature, skeletal racing cars were powered by lawn mower engines but, due to some nifty track-level camerawork, they appear to get along at a fair lick. Needless to say, dirty doings abound as the baddie Cravens sabotage the goodie Damsons (where do they get these names from?) kart causing the wheel to come off. But, some quick thinking on the part of Damsons' fixer "Square-Head" Hedley, and some co-operation from scrapyard owner Wilfred Brambell, ensure that our Dennis crosses the line first with naughty Frazer deservedly ending up in the duckpond. As usual there is a sprinkling of well-known adult character actors including Graham Stark, Cardew Robinson and Harry Locke. And, coincidentally, Damsons' gang member "Patchy" is played by child actress Pauline Challoner whose sister Carla played a similar role in the aforementioned Soapbox Derby. Great nostalgia film for old codgers who probably watched it nearly 60 years ago at a Saturday morning matinee.
Review of Go Kart Go
