Pit Stop

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.

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.

It might seem odd to give this modest movie such a high score, but it is so well crafted and now in retrospect so fascinating, it is far more entertaining than much bigger and "important" movies made today.

First off, there is the insane-but-real setting of figure 8 racing, where racers speed across each others' paths at the track intersection. Just seeing such a crazy real-life sport enacted is worth watching PIT STOP!

Next, we have a layered story, with contrasting character arcs for "hero" Rick and heel Hawk (a career-best performance by the late, great Sid Haig).

The performances are great, with Brian Donlevy lending the same amoral tough-guy gravitas he brought to the Quatermas movies, and an early appearance by Ellen Burstyn.

And Kustom Kulture fans will also appreciate the on-location views of George Barris' car shop (the creator of the 1966 Batmobile, Munsters Coach, Monkeymobile, and many other showcars).

A real gem from the time when the American Grindhouse was taking cues from Euro Art House.

There's a genuinely unhinged quality to the stock car drivers depicted in this movie. Their lives are empty except for the thrill of racing, which amounts to a death wish. The black and white cinematography is excellent, with a very moody documentary/chariscuro feel. The principals are all very good, especially Sid Haig as a particularly unhinged driver. Beverly Washburn (also from the incredible SPIDER BABY) plays the protagonist's teenage girlfriend. For me, this movie shows a more complete mastery of the cinematic form then Coppola or Bogdonovich or any of those guys had when they were with Corman. And of course, the car wrecks filmed at real race tracks don't hurt either.

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.