A Pista do Trovão

Sure there were parts of this movie - almost all of it, the more I think of it, that made you laugh at it and not with it. The stock stock-car scenes from

Daytona and Darlington were real. The acting was bad and the plot was

sophomoric. If Fabian was really having those blackouts all of the time, then he should have been locked up for continuing to drive while having them. But maybe I'm putting too much thought into this. As someone who has covered NASCAR for newspapers, the off-the-track plot stuff was more than lame. Annette did a good job; I got a kick out of the announcer; and Diane McBain is always easy on the eyes, even if she doesn't take it easy on the eye shadow.

For someone who never had any technical training as an actress, it never ceases to amaze me how natural Annette Funicello is on screen. She's completely at ease in front of the camera, whether being feisty telling off her dad (Jan Murray), trading barbs with a surly blonde (Diane McBain), getting her face muddy, getting ripped on booze, or being funny and sexy with her leading guy (Fabian), Annette is never stiff or embarrassing. In fact, doing a little warm-up song number with a party band in her living room, she's a very sensual woman. The plot of this B-flick is strictly by-the-numbers, but the stock car racing scenes are better than the ones for Elvis Presley's "Speedway", released a year later. Credit future "Stunt Man" director Richard Rush with the tight pacing. The party-orgy looks like an outtake from a "Beach Party" flick gone awry, but it's a transition picture for the A.I.P. studios--and not a bad one. **1/2 from ****

What impresses me about this picture is just how slick it is. The auto racing genre is a tough, gritty one. And American International Pictures was a small, scuffling outfit. Yet "Thunder Alley" looks slick. It isn't quite up to major studio production standards, but "Alley" give the impression of being machine tooled junk. Well, not exactly junk. It's a machine-tooled, formulaic genre exercise, with most of the grit and idiosyncrasy removed. Arkoff, Nicholson, Topper, and Rush apparently had this genre down to a science, so here they are content to present a "safe" genre exercise and leave it at that. Annette Funicello is good. (She really was an underrated actress, and it's a shame she didn't have a longer and more active career.) A Funicello-Avalon pairing would have been more fun, but Fabian Forte is effective as the male lead. (He had genuine talent as an actor, perhaps more talent than he had as a singer.) Monroe Askins' cinematography is professional, yet, as indicated earlier, not quite up to major studio standards. (This actually works in the film's favor, since the photography gives it a bit of the grit that it so sorely needs.) And Daniel Haller's art direction does give the film a bit of flare. All in all, "Alley" is an entertaining action flick. But if you're looking for grit, you'll have to settle for slickness instead.

Annette tried to break away from her beach party films in this Drive- In flick! A good performance by Diane McBain and some good racing scenes help to make this period piece fun to watch! The dancing is also "COOL"! Annettes song ""Whats A Girl To Do?" is the real show stopper! Catch this on cable!

Thunder Alley finds Fabian banned from NASCAR tracks after causing the death of another driver. Stanley Adams might want to put him on his team of racers, but the other drivers aren't for having him around.

Desperate for employment Fabian hooks up with an auto stunt show owner Jan Murray who's paying him peanuts and trying to capitalize on Fabian's bad rep. He's got to take it, but Annette Funicello who's Murray's daughter provides another reason to stick around.

The rest of the film is Fabian's struggle to get back to the NASCAR circuit while at the same time juggling both Annette and his current girl friend Diane McBain. Personally, I would have taken McBain, she has it all over Annette.

Thunder Alley is helped by location shooting at the southern NASCAR tracks and good film footage of NASCAR racing. Not helped by a rather silly story which delves into the real reason for Fabian's problems and his rather unrealistic recovery from same.

Still fans of NASCAR might go for this.