Dragstrip Riot

This is a film that must have seemed very hip and tough back in the day, but when you watch it now you can't help but giggle at all the macho posturing. It's a movie all about a rivalry between some spoiled rich kids whose parents bought them Corvettes and, later, some tough looking bikers. Rick Martin (Gary Clarke) has a beef with a fellow sports car enthusiast...and again and again they get into it. And, when Rick gets the better of them, this loser enlists the help of the bikers!

So what sort of music do this toughies listen to...Calypso music!! Believe it or not, for a VERY short time, there was a Calypso craze in America and these kids can really dig it! Heck, the craze was very short-lived but big--so big even Robert Mitchum made a Calypso album.

In addition to a get a chance to see some very early Corvettes, you also can see Fay Wray as Rick's mommy. You also get cute Connie Stevens as the girl that everyone just seems to want. But apart from that...I think it's all pretty dull stuff. The tough kids are not all that tough and the viewer quickly grows to hate them all...and that's the biggest problem. You have no emotional investment in this because there are no good guys...just spoiled, whiny little jerks. For a better biker film, try "Satan's Sadists" or "Werewolves on Wheels" (these are actual films...I kid you not)....because although cheesy and bad, at least they are fun.

... except by moviegoers demanding their money back. However, if you can stick around for an hour, you will see what is quite possibly the funniest rumble in film history.

Gary Clarke stars as - well, I don't know exactly what he is supposed to be, or do, but at one point he drives a sports car in a race. But I am getting ahead of myself. Clarke's mom (played by Fay Wray - I kid you not) and "Gramps" caution Clarke to stay out of trouble, because of that "incident" in San Francisco. (Gramps is played by Ted Wedderspoon, who had his name legally changed from Ted Bedwedder.) Apparently the audience is supposed to be intrigued by the incident in San Francisco. I wasn't. Clarke heads to the local beach, where a quintet of guys sing some sort of calypso song which made me seasick. This conjured up memories of the classic "Daylight come and me wanna go hurl."

Clarke and his chief rival, played by Bob Turnbull, compete for the attention of pretty blonde Yvonne Lime. Now it's on to the local hangout, where everyone is dancing and having a good time, until a motorcycle gang shows up, led by Gabe DeLutri. These are not exactly household names. A biker chick bumps into Connie Stevens, which prompts this exchange:

Stevens: "Hey, watch it!" Biker chick: "Pull in your bumper, sister!" (Today, this chick would say "back that arse up")

After trading a few slaps, Connie proceeds to knock the crap out of the chick, landing a couple of haymakers to her breadbasket. The punching sound effects must have been done by the same guy who did The Three Stooges shorts. In short order, Clarke is challenged by DeLutri, but decides to walk away, until DeLutri makes a move on Lime. Clarke lays out DeLutri, who promises to get even.

Now Turnbull challenges Clarke to a "train drag." This is either a game of chicken, or they are going to get dressed up in wedding gowns. Turnbull loses, and heads off to DeLutri's hangout, where he joins forces with the dark side. The gang heads out after Clarke, and tries to terrorize him on the road. Oh, this is so scary, I'm sure at least one member of the audience must have soiled his/her pants. DeLutri takes a swing at Clarke with a lug wrench but ends up hitting his own gang member, who goes flying off a cliff.

We now discover that Clarke had a manslaughter rap in San Francisco, and can't get involved in this mess. So he decides to head to Mexico, but turns back when he realizes there are still 22 minutes left in the film. Turnbull finds out that Clarke and Lime are going to meet on the beach, and tips off DeLutri. Clarke is surrounded by about six guys, and a few chicks. DeLutri has a spear gun. He ends up shooting the wrong person. Suddenly, the door to a nearby café swings open and all of Clarke's friends pour onto the beach. This becomes a Pier Six brawl, with guy vs guy, girl vs girl, guy vs girl, and "undetermined" vs "prefers not to answer." Meanwhile, Fay Wray and Gramps are watching all this, with the old geezer yelling "oh" every time Clarke gets knocked down. Obviously, Gramps had to rehearse quite a bit for this part.

Clarke, with bleached hair, looks like an albino version of Anthony Perkins. Still, he manages to rise to a certain level of mediocrity in his role. Lime is cute, and Stevens is plucky as ever. This is the film debut of Steve Ihnat, as a gang member. He growls a lot and tries to look tough. Everyone else just blends into the scenery. Wray should have stayed on top of the Empire State Building.

An almost-endearing product of its time, now notable mainly for the cars, the teen slang, and appearances by veteran Fay Wray and newcomer Connie Stevens (who quickly erased this title from her resume). After a rumble with bikers over at the local malt shop, clean-looking teen Gary Clarke, a sports car enthusiast with bleached blond hair, defies Mom and Gramps by entering a race down at the track. The suburban kids (boys with crew-cuts and tucked-in shirts, girls with ponytails and sweater-and-skirt combos) appear to dig calypso rock, dancing to the jukebox and making out under the stars in their convertibles; the motorcycle gang (unshaven boys with leather jackets and slicked black hair) are eager to spoil the fun. A.I.P. nonsense on a low-budget. It's like a pulp paperback in motion, or a cartoony version of "The Wild One". *1/2 from ****

There is no drag strip appearing in this movie, more of a race track, and lot of '57 Corvette does show up.

The kids appearing in this movie is supposed to be kind of delinquents, but they look very innocent by today's standards. This is days before drugs took over, and fighting is done with fists, not by guns. Scenes around Malibu, and California coast is definitely beautiful. Sometimes I wonder where the scene was shot because there's no houses around the highway. Can you believe that ? I kind of liked the characters in this movie. They wouldn't be delinquents if they lived now. They would be fine model of youth. Which kind of make you think, maybe the society is devolving instead of evolving.

Beautiful Southern California gave me lot of joy watching this movie. Story was decent, actors were good looking, and the movie had interesting scenes at every turn.

Recommended for viewing.

Relatively new in town, a teenager by the name of "Rick Martin" (Gary Clarke) has taken up drag-racing with some friends and has spent a lot of time getting ready for an upcoming race. Just prior to this race he also becomes romantically involved with a beautiful young lady named "Janet Pearson" (Yvonne Lime). What he doesn't know is that another guy within the same motorcycle club named "Bart Thorsen" (Bob Turnbull) also had eyes for Janet and is now extremely jealous of Rick. So when the leader of a local motorcycle gang gets into a fight with Rick over Janet, Bart decides to maliciously take advantage of this situation in order to get to Janet. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this 50's hot rod movie turned out to be better than I expected. The acting was solid enough and the plot contained one interesting scene after another which kept my attention throughout the movie. Likewise, it certainly didn't hurt to have several attractive young actresses like Connie Stevens (as "Marge") and the aforementioned Yvonne Lime. In short, while this certainly isn't a great movie by any means, I enjoyed it and as a result I rate it as slightly above average.