The Racers

Yes, the plot and the dialogue are ludicrous. No, Bella Darvi (née Bayla Wegier) couldn't act, but the poor girl had had a very difficult life and a short and brutal movie career. Ironically, she died by her own hand, after several failed attempts, in, of all places, Monaco -- where, in the Racers, she meets our hero, Gino Borgesa (Douglas) when her poodle runs out in front of his sports car at Monaco, and he swerves to avoid the dog and crashes into the steps of the Casino. Great crowd control in those days. Yes, I said "Sports Car," for this movie, though released in 1955, has much glorious color real racing footage culled from the previous 2 or 3 seasons, and, in 1952, for the first and last time post WWII, the Monaco GP was run for sports cars (won that year by Vittorio Marzotto, the lesser known of the famed Marzotto brothers, in a Ferrari 225S).

Forget the idiotic dialogue -- the dying "Dell'Oro" (Gilbert Roland), to Douglas: "Gino, my crankcase is leaking!" as he clutches at his crushed chest; Douglas explaining to the lovely- but-crosseyed Darvi how race drivers consider it bad luck to wish a race driver "good luck": "'Into the lion's mouth!' we say, or "I spit in your crankcase!'" Forget all that and watch Fangio, Villoresi, Farina, Moss, Peter Collins, Robert Manzon and his doomed compatriot Pierre Levegh driving in real races: Spa, Nürburgring, the Mille Miglia. Check out how Maserati redecorated their cars to look like the mythical "Aquila," or whatever the hell they were, under the stern team management of Lee J. Cobb, whose turn as Maglio makes Kirk Douglas sound like a native-born Milanese.

In a sly move (or simple accident of fate) director Hathaway created a quite believable pairing that resembled WAY more than a little Juan Fangio and his constant female companion whom the contemporary press always referred to, chastely, as his "wife" (Fangio never married, and it wasn't until 4 years after Fangio's death that author Karl Ludvigsen, in his 1999 biography "Juan Manuel Fangio: Motor Racing's Grand Master" revealed the real identity of his companion (AND his hitherto unknown son). The drivers of the time certainly knew she wasn't his wife, but that was a different, in many ways more honourable time; no driver, mechanic, or pit hanger-on would have even dreamed of going to the yellow press to spread the story for money. Those men were professionals: what Fangio did off the track was his own business. Off-soapbox. The stalwart Katy Jurado was perfectly cast as "Maria Chávez," the wife of aging race driver "Carlos Chavez," played by Cesar Romero -- better known as "The Cisco Kid," and then for his defining role as The Joker in the Adam West/Burt Ward Camp-Fest "Batman" series of the '60s -- miles better than Nicholson, not nearly as dark as Heath Ledger.

Original -- though not very -- musical score by Alex North, who had done such fantastic work scoring "Spartacus" and the Burton/Taylor "Cleopatra."

The great American drivers John Fitch and Phil Hill did the stunt driving for this -- scraping the arch at Ravenna during the Mille Miglia at speed was pretty hairy stuff (done with a longish piece of wire and some fresh plaster). The overall Tecnical Adviser was the veteran racing warhorse, the Baron Emmanuel de Graffenried, AND this movie was also an early example of the title work of the incomparable Saul Bass, who made movie titling an art form in its own right with movies like "The Man With Golden Arm," "Exodus," "West SideStory," Spartacus, and the ingenious and ground-breaking title-credit sequence at the beginning of John Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix," still the greatest fictional racing movie ever made. McQueen's "Le Mans" COULD have been, but for McQueen's unbelievable and thoroughly unlikable ego and overweening insistence on his personal version of perfectionism, which, in the end, cost David Piper his leg and cost McQueen Solar Productions. When the budget went nuts and Solar Productions couldn't finance, or even FINISH the movie, let alone distribute it, CBS/Cinema Center stepped in, prolonged the sappy, wholly superfluous, and, of course, inevitable background "love story" (people ain't going' to the movies to see a bunch of goddam cars runnin' around a track, ya know!), and I believe CBS/Cinema Center were responsible for the movie-ruining 1970s-style "Carmina Burana"-meets-French-Jazz-a-la-Michel-LeGrand soundtrack. The CARS are the soundtrack, you meatheads! Off soapbox again.

Hans Ruesch, who wrote the novel and collaborated on the screenplay, had been a race driver himself, never achieving much, but even HE must have winced at "I spit in your crankcase." Skip over the Douglas-Darvi scenes and go right to the footage -- magnificent!

For The Racers, Kirk Douglas dusts off his character from Champion and gives it a new home in the European Auto Racing Circuit. He also decides, wisely I believe, not to adopt any kind of phony Italian accent in his portrayal of Gino Borgesa, a race car driver who is ruthless in his drive to reach the top of his profession.

Henry Hathaway assembles a very good supporting cast with Lee J. Cobb as the Italian auto manufacturer and fellow drivers Cesar Romero and Gilbert Roland giving a good account of themselves.

This must have been a chore for Douglas to make however because Darryl Zanuck was using this film to showcase his latest mistress, Bella Darvi. The woman made three films this one, Hell and High Water, and The Egyptian before Zanuck gave up.

Poor Bella couldn't act worth anything, but supposedly her other talents were legendary. Her life story would make a fascinating film, much better than The Racers. Bella did look right at home in the various jet setting locales for The Racers. It's where she spent her time and tragically died too young there.

As for The Racers, Kirk simply reprises his role in Champion and goes through the motions. Champion was a far better film. And the ending was no cop out as I believe viewers of The Racers will find to be so.

Good action scenes here. But in the sixties Grand Prix with the advantage of Cinerama would make The Racers outdated on a technical level.

Good drama film that delivers it's promise with good production and Cinemascope magic.The lead actors are great and the soapy drama style is done well enough.All in all an above average film and nothing more.To nitpick,a better story and script would have taken this movie to a much higher level.Not for people who do not like racing and soap style drama.Big Kirk Douglas fans will love seeing him in his prime.......

much more obvious that the actors aren't really driving the cars than in later films like "Le Mans" and "Grand Prix" Kirk Douglas, Bella Darvi, Lee J. Cobb, Gilbert Roland, Cesar Romero\\\ Had I never seen "Le Mans" and "Grand Prix", I am pretty sure I would have liked "The Racers" a bit more. This is because these two 1960s racing films have the most incredible cinematography you can imagine--and the stars (Steve McQueen and James Garner) did most of their own driving. Here in "The Racers", however, the scenes of Kirk Douglas and the others are OBVIOUSLY filmed in front of a screen where the race is projected--and this isn't even done terribly well. It looks fake because it is fake.

As far as the plot goes, it's very much like Kirk Douglas' earlier film "Champion". In both, he is so bent on winning that this is all there is to his life--and it obviously alienates those around him. He isn't quite as cut-throat in "The Racers", but he is pretty close. The rest of the movie is pretty much a soap opera-like affair--with Douglas and Bella Darvi in an on-again/off-again love due to his relentless pursuit of victory. It's all very adequate and nothing more. The only reason I saw it is because I try to watch all of Douglas' films I can find--even the supremely adequate ones.

Racers, The (1955)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely poor racing film about a hot shot driver (Kirk Douglas) who tries to woo a woman (Bella Darvi) while pissing everyone off. Think Champion and take away everything great and you end up with this movie, which is pretty bad from start to finish. I'm really not sure what the point of this thing was but I can say it's the worst Douglas picture that I've seen to date. A lot of the film has various racing scenes, which were boring but they were the best thing about the movie. There's some nice crashes and stunt work but all the dramatic stuff sandwiched between is just deadly dull, lifeless and pointless. Douglas really sleepwalks through his role and it's probably the worst I've ever seen him. I'm not sure what was up with Darvi but she is one of the worst actresses I've seen in a major picture. Her sexy routine was just dreadful. The supporting cast includes Cesar Romero and Lee J. Cobb but neither are given much to do. The film was shown with a 2.55:1 ratio but I had to see it in 2.35:1, which makes for some nice shots but there's no meat with those shots.