Pit Stop

Richard Davalos of "East of Eden" fame plays Rick Bowman, a punkish man who wrecks his car in a drag race. He's bailed out of jail by cunning businessman & race promoter Grant Willard (Brian Donlevy, in his final feature film), and groomed for a career as a driver in a series of hairy and violent figure eight races. Among Ricks' competitors is the flamboyant Hawk Sidney (Sid Haig), who's not used to losing and doesn't take it well.

Clearly "Pit Stop" has become something of an underdog on the resume of low budget filmmaking legend Jack Hill. Admittedly, it's got a pretty thin, and formulaic, story. At least one plot development was patently predictable. Also, as played as a rather inexpressive Davalos, Bowman remains something of a cipher. The show really belongs to the colourful supporting players. Jack Hill regular Haig, in particular, appears to have the time of his life as the cocky veteran. Beverly Washburn of Hills' "Spider Baby" is cute as the racing junkie who ends up in Ricks' bed. Donlevy does a decent job as the man who really only cares about results. Several real life racing figures play themselves; George Washburn (Beverlys' brother), himself a stunt driver and racer, is effective as old pro Ed McLeod. Finally, "Pit Stop" features a lovely Ellen Burstyn (billed here as Ellen McRae), doing a very nice job as McLeods' wife Ellen.

"Pit Stop" benefits from believably intense action scenes and use of actual racing tracks. It's a thickly atmospheric, convincing, and ultimately very fun movie with a groovy blues soundtrack.

You sure come to dislike Rick by the end of the story, though.

Seven out of 10.

Recently I watched for the first time Peter Bogdanovich's highly acclaimed "The Last Picture Show". And while watching it, this movie, made only a few years earlier by Jack Hill, came to my mind immediately. Ever since I wonder why I find The Winner so much superior.

The Winner has a similar setting and a story with similar protagonists like Picture Show. Both have Ellen Burstyn. Somehow The Winner is very direct. I suppose that whereas Picture Show was intellectual to the point of resembling a theses on film theory, The Winner shows the artisan's approach. It goes to your heart, not to your brain. I could not explain how it is done technically, but it is very effective.

Although apparently a "cheapie", The Winner is made by good professionals. The story is simple but coherent, straightforward and always entertaining. The acting performances are convincing throughout; there is screen veteran Brian Donlevy, the most peculiar of all "naturals" and definitively one of my all time Hollywood favorites, playing the type of the greedy sports manager. "Cheapie"-star Sid Haig plays a bad boy with appropriate cartoonish zeal, the same can be said of the performance of "the chick", played by Beverly Washburn. The main character, a young racing enthusiast, is presented like a junk yard gladiator: taciturn, brooding and determined - "existentialistic". It all fits. Ellen Burstyn's low-key performance as a racer's wife is extremely touching - her part again compares favorably with the Oscar winning one in Picture Show.

The black and white fotography is excellent, there is a long, almost dreamlike sequence of dragster cars making artful figures in the sand dunes. The soundtrack is fantastic and a good early example of heavy rock music. This is an artful portrait of American provincial youth just before the hippy movement started.

"Pit Stop" feels like an amalgamation between modern day racing flicks "The Fast and the Furious" and "Days of Thunder", only this Jack Hill film is way, way … WAY cooler, of course. Perhaps the aforementioned movies benefice from higher budgets, greater names in the cast and far more impressive (to teenage audiences, at least) car turning gimmicks, but both the characters and the actual racing footage in "Pit Stop" are genuinely more plausible and convincing. Regular race tracks are for pansies now, by the way, as Jack Hill introduces the Figure Eight Race Track! As its name implies, the track is shaped like an eight with a dangerous intersection in the middle and, the more the race gradually evolves, the harder it becomes for the drivers to avoid accidents. The plot centers on big shot Grant Willard (no less than Prof. Quatermass himself – Brian Donlevy – in his last film role) who sponsors young & reckless drivers and deliberately forces up the competition and hostility between them. Willard picks up the handsome and talented Rick from a vile street race and challenges him to defeat the reigning champion and ill-tempered Hawk. The competition between the two racers mutually and between them and the ultimate racing champ Ed McLeod becomes increasingly unbearable and even continues outside the racing tracks, as the men also share a romantic interest in the same women. "Pit Stop" is possibly Jack Hill's most ambitious and intellectual accomplishment as a director to date! Surely his more famous films like "Coffy", "Switchblade Sisters" and "The Big Doll House" are more sensational and easier to categorize as exploitation, but this film is stylish, involving and very realistic. The Figure Eight track was for real and most of the races exist of authentic footage and actual crashes interlarded with obviously fake images of Sid Haig and Richard Davalos pulling crazy faces and grotesquely turning a steering wheel. The character drawings are extremely legit as well, since the racers are depicted as obsessive and one-track-minded daredevils and their women as caring and supportive groupies that pray every race will have a happy ending. The performances are amazing, with a very young Ellen Burstyn in one of her first film roles after a lot of TV-work and Sid Haig portraying yet another delightfully freakish character. The film does run a little long and some of the padding buggy-racing footage in the desert, albeit spectacular, could have easily been cut a little. Jack Hill was also responsible for his own great editing and Austin McKinney's black and white cinematography is terrific. Highly recommended in case you're looking for a REAL cinematic highlight, rather than to watch Vin Diesel's big shiny bald head in a hideous car or Tom Cruise pretending to know anything about NASCAR driving.

PIT STOP is actually THE WINNER since not only is that the exact title on the screen during the opening credits, but there's only one pit stop: where villain turned strategic wild card Sid Haig stops for half a second during the last race...

Which isn't your usual climax since the movie continuously peaks throughout. Backed by tough instrumental rock... the fat, crunchy guitar sounding more 1950's than 1967... this low-budget curio's directed by b-movie icon Jack Hill, before his signature women-in-prison and/or urban blaxploitation flicks...

Filmed around Los Angeles in sparse, bleak B&W from city streets to a steely-dusk junkyard to the noisy tracks, where the style of racing is mostly Figure 8, which is practically suicide even for the most intrepid hot dogs: In each smash em' up bout, always ending in a loud, boisterous, go-go barroom, Hill clearly lets you know what driver's behind the wheel, and when...

Either Sid Haig's rowdy, cocky Hawk Sidney or main character Dick Davalos as Rick Bowman, both working for Grant Willard, played by veteran actor Brian Donlevy, who's cooler and colder than the drivers he subtly pits against each other. And there's always a reason for the racing around, established within lean exposition that stretches PIT STOP beyond that era's hot rod exploitation fare: but it's all that, too...

And there's even some horror/thriller elements: Like when Haig turns borderline psychotic, taking an ax to Davalos's car simply for beating him the night before. He's also jealous about losing his girl, played by the Jack Hill directed SPIDER BABY co-star Beverly Washburn: With raven black bobbed hair and a flirtatious smile, she wields a loose yet still constrained b-girl sensuality combined with small town pathos and humble desperation.

By far, the coolest sequence takes place in the desert, filled with a reverberated, concert-like, beer-guzzling celebration of eclectic, experimental dune buggies where the edgy rock guitar grooves into a jazzy and melodic, psychedelic spontaneity as Davalos tests an engine for a pivotal race with the straitlaced husband of who eventually becomes his leading ingenue, and would, a year later, change her last name from Ellen McRae to Ellen Burstyn as tomboy mechanic Ellen McCleod, more desirably down-to-earth than Washburn's experienced hot rod moll.

Like what George Lucas would achieve six years later with AMERICAN GRAFFITI, there's a palpable feeling as if being right there with the drivers in their machines: but not in the usual monotonous and often times convoluted mainstream "cars racing around a circular-track" fashion: Placing PIT STOP ahead of large-scale productions like GRAND PRIX or the vehicle that made THE WINNER change its title, being too similar to WINNING...

But neither Paul Newman or James Garner or even Steve McQueen can equal these at-that-time no-name actors/actresses; and it's not all because of the drivers or their driving. This is director Jack Hill's coolest, tightest, most complete motion picture, and with very few superfluous distractions for the target drive-in audience...

Meanwhile, the ambiguous yet tragic "twist" ending really isn't a surprise if you (after several recommended viewings) pay close enough attention to the hard-line ethic of the primary stars: From the rudimentary city street drag race on, Donlevy and Davalos have one goal in mind: the finish line.

There's a class of movies that are low budget that reflect an era of Americana and certain people that get it right. A specific view. A look back at a time, place or people. I'm from a group that looks back at my heritage and those from my family and friends. West coast hot rodders. This flic has that vibe. If you're into vintage American gas. This is a great flix.