The Checkered Flag

I was 11 when I watched this movie when it came out originally. It was the second half of the bill following Elvis Presley's movie Kid Galahad. It has a really creepy ending and has stuck with me for over 56 years. I would love to see it again. I am sure it isn't as shocking compared to today's gory movies. I mean Kid Galahad was an awesome fight movie back in 1963, but it is nothing compared to the Rocky movies. But both of these movies had their TIME and were very good films.

The Checkered Flag (1963)

* (out of 4)

Millionaire stock car driver Rutherford (Charles G. Martin) pushes away newcomer Bill Garrison (Joe Morrison) but luckily for the young guy he ends up meeting Rutherford's wife (Evelyn King). Soon the wife agrees to put up the money for the young kid's racing career if he is willing to kill her husband.

William Grefe made his directorial debut with this ultra low-budget film that probably would have been playing fourth on an all-night drive-in marathon. The director will always be best remembered for his Florida shockers like DEATH CURSE OF TARTU and MAKO: THE JAWS OF DEATH and it's easy to see why this film has pretty much been avoided even by his strongest fans.

There are all sorts of problems with this movie. It really does seem as if Grefe had some race car footage so they decided to wrap a story around it. The problem is that there's really nothing "good" on display here and that includes a painfully bad music score, which was probably just public domain music that they were using. God knows it doesn't match up to the actual film footage very well.

Another problem is that we're given three very annoying and stupid characters. The characters are so poorly done that you really don't care about any of them and you certainly don't care how the murder- for-hire plot plays out. The performances aren't too bad but do we watch films like this for the acting? The highlight of the film is probably the musical number "Bikini Baby" which is downright horrid and will certainly get a couple laughs.

THE CHECKERED FLAG is a very forgettable thriller that certainly doesn't have any thrills or suspense or much of anything else.

Yet another Joe Morrision special. Poor "Miami" Joe. He was rugged and good-looking in the mold of a Steve Alaimo, but the guy acted in the worst movies of all times. In this 10th rate stink-pot, Joe gives one of his "better" performances. Maybe, even his best, and that's not saying much.

Another "cult" actor to be seen is Charles G. Martin. Martin is best remembered as the bartender in John Wayne's final film, The Shootist. Martin has the "distinction" of shooting the Duke in the back in the movie's ending moments, thus becoming the last actor in screen history to have "Killed" the Duke on-screen.

So, if you're a fan of Martin or Morrision(sounds like a Miami Law Firm!), if that's possible, than you should see this all-time trashy film.

Hello, my name is Ivory.

One day I was really bored. So I did an Internet search on the names of people in my family. Upon searching for my grandmother's name (Peggy Vendig), I found that she starred in this movie (The Checkered Flag, 1962) I had no idea that she'd ever done something like this. I was surprised to find that my grandfather was also involved in making the movie, or something like that. (Herbert Vendig)

I saw that everyone who reviewed this movie said how terrible it was, so I was wondering if anyone could help me find a copy of it. I think that would be quite amusing, but I've looked everywhere and cannot find it.

If anyone could help in any way, please e-mail me. I would be very grateful. Thanks, Ivory Rose Vendig

OK, so I haven't seen this movie in 38 years. I still have a strong impression of how bad this movie was (I was seven years old). There are no sympathetic characters. By the time of the film's pseudo-climax, we've long since stopped caring whether anything happens to the three principles. This is the kind of movie you want to warn people against.