- Awards
- 1 nomination
- Jack Brisco
- (uncredited)
- Red - Joe's Mechanic
- (uncredited)
- Racetrack Official
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFamous racing car designer August Duesenberg designed a customized tow-bar for use in the racing stunt sequences that allowed cars to be released from tow and lose a wheel at high speed.
- GoofsWhen Joe finds Eddie drinking with Lee and Anne, he throws Eddie and Anne out of Lee's apartment, and locks the door behind them. After he and Lee argue, he leaves in a huff and the door is no longer locked; he just opens it.
- Quotes
Lee Merrick: You're somebody who thinks all you have to do is win a race and bring home a trophy and first prize money and I'm satisfied. But you're wrong. When you get back from a race or when I see that checkered flag, I'm glad and I'm happy. Not because you've won! But, because I've got you back. You're safe. Oh, Joe, why you go on anyway? Risking your life for nothing. Grinding away. Little money. A few cups. Crowd yelling in the grandstand. A lot of people watching for wrecks or roaring for blood. All they want to see is a car turned over a half a dozen times and hold their breathe. When the ambulance takes away what's left of you, they point to it and say, "Oh, isn't it awful. They're taking him away." That's why I want you to quit driving. That's why I wished you'd stop drinking too. If you'd stop, maybe you'd listen to reason.
- ConnectionsAlternate-language version of La foule hurle (1932)
I have to (somewhat educatedly) guess that we're looking at the old Jeffrey's Ranch Speedway in Burbank in the first racing sequence. It was pretty close to the Warner back lot, and (according to racing historian Harold Osmer) in operation from '31 to '35.
The stands are covered, and there are a lot of large trees close by, as well as equestrian facilities, all three items definitely not the case at Legion Ascot or Huntington Beach. I've been told that Culver City's half mile of that period did not have any equestrian facilities, either, which deals with all the tracks in the region in '31 and '32.
The cars in these shots are largely Ford-Model-A-block / any-odd-freer-breathing-head, rear-drive, backyard/filling-station bombs on Ford rails rather than anything from Harry Miller's shop in nearby Vernon, though there might be an early Miller 200, 220 or 255 (the basis of the famed Leo-Goosen-designed, "Offy" 255/270 built by Offenhauser & Brisko and, later, Meyer & Drake).
This is doubtful, however, as those engines and complete (usually two- or three-year-old) Miller chassis rarely ran anywhere but Legion Ascot in the LA area at that time.
The second (nighttime) sequence is at Legion Ascot, and its 20,000 seats look to be pretty full, which, even when they weren't shooting a feature film, were pretty full even in the nadir of the Great Depression. Veteran dirt track fans will note that Ascot's oiled surface runs pretty much dust-free compared to the old horse track in Burbank.
The third group of action sequences shot at the Brickyard feature top-of-the-line Miller and Deusey rails, as well as several of the very best drivers of the period including Fred Frame and Billy Arnold, both Indy winners (1930 and 1932, respectively; Lou Schneider won the '31 race in the Bowes Seal Fast Special seen momentarily here). Careful listeners will hear the unmistakable snarl of the early "Offy" fours in the background.
Sadly, the sound era was just getting underway as the legendary Miller 91s and the incredible board tracks they ran on were phased out in '29. Open-wheel racing in the '30s was -good-, but OW racing in the previous decade (at tracks like Beverly Hills and Culver City) was as big -- and spectacular, and fast -- then as NASCAR is now on mile ovals.
The Indy scenes feature the (more nearly "stock car") two-seaters and "poor man's" engines that were mandated at the time to reduce costs and break the high-tech/high-buck, Miller stranglehold of the late '20s. There were Deusies, Fords and even Studebakers running the big tracks in those days, but Harry Miller's cars and engines continued to dominate.
- rajah524-3
- May 9, 2008
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,142,320
- Gross worldwide
- $1,676,420
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
























