Dragstrip Girl

I've seen this film about 25 times, not for the acting or writing but for the cars! Although, Frank Gorshin is hilarious in this film. The plot is simple although not 100% believable, Fay Spain plays a hot rodder who moves from Salt like City to LA or as it's known in the film, "Hotrodville". She has a drag race in her '28 Model A roadster with a triple carb flathead with Tommy Ivo's famous Buick powered T bucket in the first scene. Truth be known, not many chicks had rods in the 50's let alone drag raced them on city streets. The rest of the film is her being wooed by rich kid John Ashley and poor but honest Steve Terrel. There are some great drag racing and circle track racing scenes in this film with real 50's hot rods. Tommy Ivo is in the film as John Ashley's accomplice and there is an ironic scene where he and Ashley break into the garage and steal Ivo's car but in the film the car is owned and driven by Steve Terrel! Tommy Ivo told me that the filming of this movie killed the engine in his car because it overheated between takes because it was idling waiting for the camera to roll. The car John Ashley drives in the film is a chopped and channeled Model a roadster with a 4 carb flathead engine. Frank Gorshin and his sexy Marilyn Monroe look-a-like girlfriend drive a '27 Model T roadster with a flathead engine. I have to warn you, the beginning of the movie has one of the corniest race scenes ever!

The late fifties was definitely the period of juvenile delinquency fashion, that Nicholas Ray was the launcher of with REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. After this movie, this kind of film was nearly everywhere, but especially in the B movies, not major, big budgets ones. The films destined to teen audiences were mostly shown in drive in, saturday matinees and evening shows. This one makes no exception, I can't imagine adults watching this movie when it was released. Even director John Brahm made such a film with HOT RODS TO HELL, his last movie. He who gave us THE LODGER and THE LOCKET...Here, Edward L Cahn seemd to be very comfortable for such a feature. But Edwward L Cahn was not John Brahm.

OK i'm a big fan of most movies made by the late American international movies,fun b-movies.my favorites being invasion of the saucermen and i was a teenage werewolf.but this movie dragstrip girl is very entertaining,it tells the story about a young pretty girl(Fay Spain)who drives a hotrod.and has two guys fighting over her,poor but honest nice guy(Steve Terrell)and rich snobby nasty dishonest guy(John Ashley)who both are also drag racers.there's much melodrama and fighting.but im not giving away any more of the plot.lets just say its a very good a.i.p. b movie from the fifties.also stars pre riddler(Frank Gorshin)and a.i.p. regular Russ Bender.heres a fact terrell and gorshin were in invasion of the saucermen soon after this.like i said this movie was enjoyable.8 out of 10.

Exactly what you would expect from American International Pictures - cars, chicks, fights, and another Elvis impersonation by John Ashley.

Fay Spain rides her hot rod into town, and immediately encounters Ashley and Steve Terrell in their own set of wheels. They drag down the street, until the cops get wind of this. Ashley and Terrell hide Spain in their garage, and the inevitable "I saw her first" starts, leading to a split between the two buddies. Tensions escalate as Spain can't decide which guy to date, so she plays them both. Her parents want her to choose Ashley, because his old man is loaded. However, they haven't heard Ashley sing.

Police Lieutenant Russ Bender wants the kids to form a car club so they won't drag race along the city streets, Ashley turns progressively more into a heel through the course of the film, leading to a "chicken run." Just before the big race, Ashley manages to implicate Terrell in a hit and run. There's always a big race. There's never a small or medium-sized race. Always a big race. How come there is never a big final exam? "Hey man, just me and you, and the geometry final. Be there or be square."

Spain looks sexy, so no one should care about her acting talent, or lack of same. She gets to drive a hot rod in a dress and high heels. Trust me, that hot rod looks silly in a dress and high heels. Frank Gorshin plays Terrell's buddy, but doesn't do any impersonations. However, he does sing with a tablecloth over his body and a mop on his head: "She's my dragstrip girl with a streamlined chassis, got a set of pipes and a grill that's classy, Draggggggggggg-strip babyyyyyyy." Yeah. Almost makes one yearn for Ashley's singing. Almost. Gorshin also orders a slice of pizza with a scoop of chocolate ice cream on it. Hurl. Blonde bombshell Judy Bamber plays Gorshin's girlfriend, and has some good comic scenes, especially during the fistfight between Ashley and Terrell - she can't figure out which one to root for, and Gorshin keeps reminding her who is supposed to win. Tito Vuolo plays the owner of a pizzeria where the kids hang out. Vuolo's chef's hat looks like a misplaced extra large prophylactic.

In Fay Spain's big-screen debut, she's a girl who loves fast cars and one of two boys: either Steven Terrell, the son of a bricklayer who has built his hot rod part by part, or John Ashley, son of the richest man in town, who has had everything given to him, but feels like he's in competition with Terrell for everything. Miss Spain is not sure which. But as the big drag race is coming up and Ashley buys his own drag car and "borrows" Terrell's so he'll know what the competition can do, she's going to decide before the end of the movie.

Director Edward Cahn will return to this theme with his two male leads in the future, but for now he's telling the bare story without much ornamentation or subtext. Grazia Narciso and Tito Vuolo are on hand as the pizza shop owners where the kids hang out for some comic relief, and Frank Gorshin and Tommy Ivo are also drag-racing kids. In many ways, it looks like the precursor to the beach movies that AIP would produce in the 1960s.