Starring Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Annette Funicello, and Harvey Lembeck
Directed by William Asher
Music by Guy Hemric; Lyrics by Jerry Styner
When the Beach Party movies started to fall out of favor around 1966, American International scrambled to find other teen fads to showcase Avalon and Funicello. We saw them shoehorn drag racing into Bikini Beach about a year ago, but here, stock car racing takes front and center. That's not the only thing that's different here, as AIP tried switching things around and making this more of a drama with songs. Does it work, or should this be left on the track? Let's begin with a comic claymation prologue discussing the history of the wheel and our main characters and find out...
The Story: Dave Owens (Avalon) competes in a major race in South Carolina against local favorite Sonny Leander Fox (Fabian) and wins. He impresses many of the fans, including wealthy local girl Martha Brian (Julie Parrish) and Leander's sweetheart Jane Harris (Funicello). Martha convinces Dave to take part in a "cross country race."
To Dave's shock, it's actually running moonshine. Even Leander, who has his own moonshine business, despite challenging him to another race. Everyone's impressed with how well Dave does, until he catches wise when the IRS tells him to help break up the ring or land in jail. After one of the runners dies during a delivery, Leander and Dave team up to find out who is behind the moonshine ring and wants both of them off the track for good.
The Song and Dance: This gets points for a story that's slightly more involved and a lot more dramatic than the Beach Party films. Avalon even gets a decent bare-knuckled fight with Lembeck as Charlie Briggs, Martha's partner in crime. In fact, it's kind of nice to see Lembeck stretch himself a little playing someone a lot meaner than even Harry Von Zipper. It almost comes off as a dramatic, teen-oriented version of Smokey and the Bandit from a decade later. In fact, the stock car footage is exceptionally well-edited, and this actually looks pretty good for low-budget drive-in fodder from the mid-60's. It even had location shooting in South Carolina and real stock car tracks in South Carolina and California.
Favorite Number: We open and close with the catchy, optimistic title song that eagerly describes Dave's pride and joy. "Step Right Up" is Jane helping her dad Big Jaw Harris (Chill Willis) round up customers for their girlie show. We even get a routine from the girls in skimpy harem-type costumes. Dave sings "My Way" at the carnival dance as he more-or-less tells everyone how he does things. "Country Carnival" is the instrumental number for The Don Randi Trio Plus One at the carnival. Dave also sings "A Chance Like That," and Parrish joins him for "Turn Around" as they drive off into the sunset in the finale.
Trivia: The Fireball 500 was a heavily customized 1966 Plymouth Barracuda.
Art Clokey of Gumby fame did the Claymation opening sequence.
What I Don't Like: Almost everyone is totally at sea here. Heavy dramatics were never Funicello or Avalon's forte. Fabian actually comes off a bit better as the slightly smarmy local champ, and Willis is a hoot as Jane's carnival barker father. Parrish is bland and stiff as the only older woman who actually manages to get Avalon in the end. I have no idea why they even end up together. Avalon has more chemistry with Funicello and even Fabian than with her. This isn't much of a musical, either, and the songs are mostly unmemorable. The opening Claymation history prologue is cute and well-animated, but comes off as too goofy and whimsical for the dramatic film that follows.
The Big Finale: Mainly for major fans of vintage stock car racing or the three leads. Everyone else is probably fine back in California with the Beach Party films.
Home Media: Only available as part of a flipper-disc set with the later Thunder Alley and a collection of all the Frankie/Annette movies, and they're both out of print and ridiculously expensive. Don't try YouTube, either. Most of the copies online have out-of-sync sound during the second half. You're better off looking around for these used.
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