Stock Car

Canadian actor turned British movie stock American character Paul Carpenter had one of the smoothest voices in the history of cinema, so much that he'd either play random announcers or sometimes co-leads, like in director Wolf Rilla's STOCK CAR...

By looks he didn't really stand out, yet with a cool enough demeanor suiting the vocal delivery, it's easier to believe that two polar opposite dames (bad blonde and virginal brunette) would be instantly smitten...

Rilla's THE LARGE ROPE starlet Susan Shaw is the closest thing to this semi-noir's femme fetale, the secretary/lover of a fat crooked businessman scheming to take over a lucrative motor garage from the daughter of a race car driver who died on the nearby track...

All gathered within a load of expository dialogue made more interesting with Interesting characters, like comic relief henchman Harry Fowler (teamed with stern/muscular Patrick Jordon), whose girlfriend Sabrina adds another gorgeous blonde to a B&W programmer that never loses focus of ingenue/business-owning brunette Rona Anderson's main dilemma...

She knows less about if that charming "Yank" Carpenter has any tricks up his seemingly perfect sleeve, while only really counting on scene-stealing Italian mechanic (played by a multi-vocalized Brit) Robert Rietty...

Winding-up out of the motor garage, a neighboring hospital and a lushy nightclub onto the anticipated STOCK CAR race track, adding not only action but an actual popular sport into this little British programmer fully loaded with pretty much everything.

It is rather difficult to know whether this quota quickie is being serious.With Harry Fowler as a hired thug and Paul Whitsun-Jones as the gang boss difficult to know.Then you have Sabrina making her film debut and Frank Thornton as a doctor you will find it difficult to take it seriously in any event.Probably the only one playing it straight is Paul Carpenter who played the same character in loads of British B films.The film is based on Stock car racing which had been introduced into this country in the fifties.It is fairly inconsequential,and no doubt played the bottom half of a bill on one of the circuits.Really difficult to write a lot more about this film

Don't let the title put you off. The stock cars are the least interesting things about this lively Butchers quickie with it's tongue in it's cheek, a sprinkling of American-style violence and the usual amazing supporting cast (Frank Thornton shares one scene with silent star Alma Taylor), with the usual quota of glamorous and capable fifties females (including nightclub singer Lorrae Desmond and Sabrina, the latter receiving an 'introducing' credit as 'Trixie').

Paul Whitsun Jones as Mr Big has the charm of Bob Hoskins in 'The Long Good Friday' and the table manners of Michael Gambon in 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover', with Susan Shaw a more than adequate substitute for Helen Mirren as his classy blonde mistress. (Patrick Jordan, who plays one of his henchmen, died earlier this year at the age of 96, which brings home to you just how long ago this all was.)

A rather nondescript British crime film, directed by the ubiquitous Wolf Rilla and starring the equally ubiquitous Paul Carpenter who plays a stock car driver who becomes involved with the fortunes of a small garage being run by the daughter of a man who recently died. The problem for her is that her father died with debts and a small-time gangster is now eager to see them repaid.

STOCK CAR is very much a product of its time, with a few elements of interest threaded through an otherwise average narrative. The stuff that takes place in the garage is quite interesting, but the stock car races that prop up the plot - particularly in the second half - are dull and rather unworkable.

At least the film has a good little cast to recommend it. Carpenter aside, we get the cool and level-headed Rona Anderson as the new garage owner and the pretty Sabrina playing a girlfriend of one of the criminals. Paul Whitsun-Jones is the crude villain of the piece and Harry Fowler one of his henchmen. Further down the cast list is Frank Thornton as a doctor. However, my favourite role is that of Robert Rietty as the dependable Italian garage worker; Rietty really shines in this part, building up a multi-layered and likable character.

Another in the long line of films distributed by Butchers Film Services, who specialised in British B-Movies. Stock Car is not without a certain period charm and, along with other similar efforts such as Wall of Death and Mystery Junction, it does pass away a pleasant enough hour or so. It features a number of stalwarts of the genre, such as Harry Fowler (mugging along quite gloriously), Paul Carpenter, Rona Anderson, Susan Shaw, Robert Rietty, and even Frank Thornton! The action scenes consist mainly of stock footage, and although stock car racing is still reasonably popular in some parts to this day, it is difficult to imagine a radio commentary of such races even in the mid-1950's. The cameo appearance of Sabrina, as Monty's girlfriend, is quite an oddity in that her speech is quite obviously dubbed! Another strange episode is the overnight admission of Monty into a children's ward in the local hospital - what the authorities would make of that these days is anyone's guess!! I suppose it is just an innocent evocation of the period, as the whole film is itself.