Mask of Dust

You know it's an old motor-racing movie when Stirling Moss has hair!

Rather slowly paced but quite exciting story about fading driver Pete Wells (Richard Conte) whose wife Pat wants him to chuck the business before he kills himself. He refuses, even when advised by older team mate Dallapiccola (George Colouris) and being outpaced by the up and coming Rosetti.

Things get even worse after Wells withdraws from a race when Dallapiccola is killed. He is given one more chance but Pat leaves him in disgust. Rosetti is made team leader and is given Wells' car. However, since this is a fifties movie, you know everything will turn out fine.

Richard Conte has just the right world-weary look for a burnt-out driver and he and his wife to some extent reflect the Montand/Eve Marie Saint thread in the other movie mentioned below. With his mad professor hair George Colouris may appear incongruous as a racer but, it should be remembered that, at that time a lot of pre-war drivers were still at the wheel. Fangio won 5 championships in his forties and Luis Fagiola won the 1951 French Grand Prix at the age of 53. In fact it is Alec Mango who seems too mature to play boy-racer Rosetti.

With its limited budget this movie is a pale forerunner of the excellent "Grand Prix" but, there is some superb staged racing mixed with genuine footage of the guys in overalls wrestling with the snarling monsters of cars of the time. No poncy roll bars or traction control. Just put your foot down with your head and shoulders sticking out of the cockpit, power-sliding around bends and corners. A couple of awful, real crashes are featured, and you wonder if the drivers walked away. A museum piece but, if you like huge, fifties racing cars, you'll want to give it a look.

One of the greatest titles for a race car movie, Terence Fisher's pre-horror Hammer MASK OF DUST settled stateside for the blandly retooled RACE FOR LIFE, and yet, neither really fit...

Starring American crime-genre actor Richard Conte, perhaps Interior Conversations of Exterior Driving would fare better to what's a stagey melodrama with only a few stock racing shots where Grand Prix drivers fight to survive...

The leading lady, Mari Aldon, is the suffocating wife of Conte's has-been driver, whose veteran buddy/mentor George Coulouris is on the verge of retirement, and it's highly predictable things won't go well...

But Conte's racing rival and his intense mechanic have the most potential, and if more time was centered on them instead of the constantly bickering/unfulfilled wife, this MASK would reveal more of the sport being covered: one that's always difficult, no matter how low or high the budget, to successfully crossover onto the big screen.

Another film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast, "Mask of Dust" or "A Race for Life" if you're American, is a 1954 melodrama, set in the exciting and glamourous world of motor racing.

Though once feted as the best, Peter Wells (Richard Conte) has struggled since his return from his time in the RAF and his wife Patricia (Mari Aldon) wants him to retire. Hastening the issue, his teammate Guido Rosetti (Alec Mango) is winning, and putting increasing demands on the team to promote him to lead driver. His feelings are focused when his friend and fellow driver, Tony Bellario (Peter Illing) is involved in an accident.

Melodrama really is the word for this one. I thought the footage from the races was integrated well and there was a sense of danger to them. They're, obviously, not putting the real actors at risk and their scenes are rear projection. It's the scenes around the racing that were the real problem for me. It's basically the same plot as "Days of Thunder" but the performances are pretty over the top. Alec Mango might as well twiddle a Waluigi style mustache as he schemes behind Well's back (only to - minor spoilers - reverse his position based on very little later in the film). It was Mari Aldon that was the most strikingly bad though, she pretty much stares directly down the lens a couple of times, pulling a face like she's spoofing what an actress might do.

This might be reflective of racing at the time, I don't know, but how old are some of the drivers supposed to be. Today the average Formula One driver is in their late twenties, here the three drivers seem nearer their fifties.

I didn't hate every minute of it and there's something to be said for something (anything) that's not another bad film noir - but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as anything other than a reason to see some footage from the time of Sterling Moss.

Interesting to see how lax safety was in motor racing back then, it was so lax that it was non existent. Hurtling along a racing track with straw bale barriers and trees on both sides of the track with no barriers between the trees and the track.

The poor quality back projections made it very difficult to believe that the main characters were in any danger "out on the track". This removed any feeling of danger which greatly spoiled the film.

Not a great plot but probably acceptable back in 1954, Patricia's wide shouldered dressing gown made her look like an extra from Star Trek.

Only for fans of vintage motor racing I'm afraid.

You really have to be a fan of motor racing to enjoy this film.Quite apart from a clichéd plot and basic acting you have to sit through 2 utterly boring and similar motor races.This fact is acknowledged by the producers in so far as they have to have a commentator/narrator for both races.Raymond Baxter for the first and Paul carpenter for the second.Without the aid of the narrator you would not be able to make head nor tail of the stock footage that passes for a motor race.Richard Conte is the standard falling American star having to play this type of role as his stardom fades.Terence Fisher would move on to far better things in the near future.