Watch The Speed Lovers For Free

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Gawleee . . . what a piece of kudzu. Terrible movie . . . terrible plot . . . terrible acting . . . terrible actors . . . great old racing footage.It says I need 10 lines to submit.OK . . . it's junk.The producer . . . and the lead actor . . . was an ego maniac.But, he portrayed himself as a jerk.Guess he thought he could make money with this anyway.Maybe only a "C" feature at the drive in theater.But, you can have fun . . . if you are an "old school" racer . . . watching it.

Lame plot, lousy acting, and hideously exploitative. All of the racing scenes, regardless of what is said, is all from the same Daytona race. Same crashes, same shots, over and over. How they got Fred Lorenzen to get in on this is beyond me. This is the worst movie with racing as a setting I have ever seen, and I've seen most of them. No surprise that most of these people never made another movie. Whoever wrote this should have been tied behind one of these cars and dragged around the track for about 500 miles. There is nothing good to say about any of the actors, editors, or anyone else. The music is horrible too, and plot is pathetically predictable. Throw the red flag on this one, and avoid it at all costs.

Cocky, whiny, obnoxious and self-centered young punk Scott Clayton (the hopelessly cardboard William McGaha, who has the appeal and charisma of a jar of rancid mustard) desperately wants to a champion race car driver just like his idol Fred Lorenzen (who gives a sturdy, natural and engaging performance playing himself). Scott runs afoul of both domineering control freak iceberg queen Vanessa Hamilton (smoldering redhead knockout Peggy O'Hara, who sports an amazing towering bouffant) and fat scuzzball gangster Pinkerton "Pinky" Bentley (a nicely smarmy turn by David Marcus), both of whom pressure Scott to force both Lorenzen and Scott's estranged mechanic father Flip (the solid Fritz Congdon) to join Vanessa's stock car racing team.Directed and co-written with strangely becoming ineptitude by triple threat McGaha, with bright, crisp, but stiff and clunky cinematography by Joseph Shelton (I especially dug the occasional snazzy use of split screen), a couple of cool nightclub scenes, a swingin' cocktail lounge score by Carleton Palmer, plenty of hot-looking chicks (Carol Street as the enticing blonde Kitty in particular really steams up the screen), a silly plot loaded with convoluted twists and turns, a groovy theme song complete with a smooth vocal and a funky reverb guitar riff, and, best of all, lots of rousing crash 'em and smash 'em authentic Daytona racetrack footage that's genuinely thrilling, gripping and nerve-wracking stuff to behold, this pleasingly diverting piece of late 60's drive-in exploitation fluff exudes a certain goofy and harmless charm that's impossible to dislike. I plead guilty as charged on the grounds that I enjoyed it a whole lot.