The Roaring Road

"Ford vs. Ferrari," "Talladega Nights," "Fast and Furious," are just a few of the many race car films a select segment of theater goers lists as the best movies ever made. The fast-paced action wrapped around engaging dramatic stories make these motion pictures one of the most exciting ones appearing on the silver screen.

The first automobile racing film based around a dramatic story is April 1919's "The Roaring Road." Starring actor Wallace Reid, who had a brief stint as a race car driver, the Paramount Picture-released movie displays his immense skills behind the wheel. The movie concerns Reid, a car salesman nicknamed "Toodles," whose ambition to become a speed driver is realized when he scraps together three destroyed race cars and wins a huge competition, much to the consternation, but enjoyment of his future father-in-law, the head of an automobile manufacturing company. But another speed trial is dangling in front of Reid, and his proposed marriage to actress Ann Little depends on whether he can break that record.

Reid, called "the screen's most perfect lover," played in several race car movies, including the sequel to "The Roaring Road," 1920's "Excuse My Dust." So popular was a Wallace Reid movie that the newly-built movie palace in San Francisco, the elaborate Castro Theatre opened its doors for the first time projecting his 1922 auto-racing film "Across The Continent." Reid enjoyed car racing so much he made a valiant attempt to qualify for the 1922 Indianapolis 500, falling just short.

Four months after the completion of "The Roaring Road," Reid was involved in a train wreck while traveling to Oregon over the summer to film "The Valley of the Giants." He sustained a painful head injury that required several stitches. Because of the physicality of his movie roles and the frequency of film production his studio demanded out of him, Reid was given morphine for pain relief from the injury. He became addicted to the drug, which shortened his life considerably.

"Toodles" Walden sells cars for J. D. Ward, aka "The Bear." Walden is in love with Ward's daughter Dorothy, aka "The Cub." Toodles wants a crack at driving Ward's racing car, but Ward refuses. When several of Ward's racing cars get wrecked in transit, Walden and his mechanic Tom Darby make a new one out of the parts from the three old ones. Then Walden enters a local race and wins, and asks Walden for Dorothy's hand. Ward says he won't let his daughter get married for five years. Walden more or less tells Ward where to get off. Ward wants to enter a car in the Los Angeles to San Francisco road race, and concocts a plan whereby he will board a train for San Francisco with his daughter, and force Toodles to race after them. Unfortunately, Toodles is in the clink on a speeding violation. So somebody has to spring him from jail. Will Toodles break the speed record for the road race? Will he finally win Dorothy's hand (and the rest of her)?

This is an OK production, with nothing much new. The story goes pretty much as expected. The first race is a letdown, as the camera is stationary and we just see cars whiz by. These scenes were filmed at the Santa Monica Race course. Press reports stated that Reid did his own driving, and exceeded speeds of 100 miles per hour. The climactic road race from LA to San Francisco has some decent camera work, with a driver's-eye view, shots from the side as Ward and his daughter watch, but with the now clichéd "car beating the train across the tracks" scene.

Theodore Roberts, as "The Bear," steals the show. His bluster, messed-up hair, and cigar-chewing are a riot to watch.

Even allowing for the century that has passed since this movie was made the premise and the execution are unremarkable and unbelievable. The original showing back in 1919 must have been much better than the print I squinted through this afternoon. The B&W contrast was wiped out and it was very difficult to see what was happening. But even allowing for that this picture is a potboiler. Almost total lack of scene continuity and only the barest of story line. The constant huffing and puffing of "The Bear" threatened to overtake any semblance of plot and the "racing" scenes were nonsensical. And where did the screenwriter get "The Bear", "The Cub" and silliest of all, "Toodles"? Did they actually give actors these character nicknames back then?

Car salesman Wallace Reid (as Walter Thomas "Toodles" Walden) wants to win the triple crown in a big auto race. His boss, Theodore Roberts (as J.D. "The Bear" Ward), has won two of the three races, and thinks Mr. Reid may muss up the company's winning streak. Roberts decides to test Reid's mettle; but, the plan backfires, and his crack-car salesman quits. Meanwhile, Reid courts Roberts' daughter, Ann Little (as Dorothy "The Cub" Ward). She is the only thing Reid wants more than winning the big race; however, Roberts wants her to wait five years before wedding. Can Reid win both the big race and the girl?

Scenery and cigar chewing Roberts threatens to steal the film from its star; but the likable Reid overtakes Roberts after a contest to see who can pound his desk hardest. In jail for speeding, Reid memorably asks a rat, "How fast were you going?" Car and train racing along the Los Angeles and San Francisco locale provided an exciting ending; at one point, the car and train might collide!

"The Roaring Road" brought in box office returns at great speed; and, Reid quickly became the #1 United States Box Office star; understandably, several follow-up films raced into theaters, including outright sequel "Excuse My Dust!" (1920) ******.

Before Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Tom Cruise there was Wallace Reid, and an all but forgotten genre of road racing films from the dawn of motion pictures. Reid was arguably the original matinée idol. The dashing young action hero with chiseled good looks and a glint in his eye, Wally was the all-American boy. He rocketed to fame after being given the minor role of a blacksmith in D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of A Nation". In a series of increasingly popular roles Reid became a household name alongside the likes of Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino. So why does Wallace Reid remain so obscure even among film buffs today? While filming "The Valley of The Giants" in 1919, Reid badly injured his back in an accident and rather than shut down production at considerable cost the studio decided to administer pain killing narcotics, under a doctors care. This was to ensure their star could continue working. Reid eventually became addicted, but as long as he was able to perform the studio looked the other way. Only in 1923 when Reid died did the Hollywood establishment decide to vilify him as an addict. On the heels of the Fatty Arbuckle and William Desmond Taylor scandals the name of Wallace Reid became something of a pariah uttered only in whispers and was soon forgotten altogether. Treatment of addiction was a relatively unknown concept in the twenties so by the time Reid was hooked his fate was sealed. The loving, husband, father and popular actor was allowed to slip off into oblivion. Many of Reid's films are lost, as is far too often the case with silent era stars. There are however, several fine examples that survive. "The Roaring Road" may be the best example of the road-racing genre.

The four hundred-mile Santa Monica road race, known as "The Grand Prize" has never been won three times by any one make of car. President of Darco Motors, J. D. "The Bear" Ward (Theodore Roberts), longs for a third win with his "Darco Ninety". His best salesman, Walter Thomas "Toodles" Walden (Reid) wants to drive in the big race but the Bear won't have an amateur "mussing things up". Introductory shots of these two actors are wonderfully evocative. Roberts morphs from an enormous bear into a man, while Reid is first seen behind the wheel of an open car sitting at a crossroads. Toodles spends his time playing cat and mouse with the local motorcycle cops and sparking with the Bear's motherless Cub, Dorothy Ward (Ann Little). When his sales manager gives notice the Bear decides to give the job to Toodles, but only after testing him. When the test backfires Toodles quits. The three cars arriving for the big race are destroyed in a train wreck and in a twist Toodles buys the junk pile to produce the "Three-In-One" and win the big race to the consternation and then jubilation of the Bear. After the race Toodles proclaims, "This was just a bluff! What I really want is Dorothy!" Animosities between the two continue when the Bear insists the Cub must wait five years to marry and Toodles swears off racing. By now, the Bear has set his sights on the next great prize, winning the speed distance record from Los Angeles to San Francisco. With the help of his mechanic the Bear tricks Toodles into the race, taking the Cub to San Francisco on the evening train with the plan, or so Toodles thinks, of leaving for the east for a year. The climax of the film comes when Toodles overtakes them on a parallel road as the car crosses in front of the train with only inches to spare on its way to breaking the record. Their faces peppered by the engine oil from the open car, Toodles and his mechanic bomb their way to a record finish. He visits a barbershop to freshen up before the train arrives, and then confronts the Bear. The plot is revealed. Toodles gets the girl and everyone gets a happy ending. Directed by one of Paramount's best, James Cruze (The Covered Wagon, Old Ironsides), early in his career, "The Roaring Road" is the archetypal road race film and one of most entertaining from a wonderful and nearly forgotten silent star Wallace Reid.