''Speedway'' is a 1968 American musical action film starring

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

as a racecar driver and

Nancy Sinatra Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940) is an American singer, actress, film producer and author. She is the elder daughter of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra ( Barbato) and is known for her 1965 signature hit " These Boots Are Made for Walki ...

(in her last film role) as his romantic interest.

Plot

Steve Grayson (Presley) is a generous

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

race car driver with a heart of gold who feels compelled to bail friends and acquaintances out of financial hardship. However, Steve's manager and best friend Kenny Donford (Bixby), a compulsive gambler, had been mismanaging Steve's winnings to support his gambling habits, landing Steve in deep trouble with the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

for nonpayment of back taxes and causing many of Steve's valuable possessions to be repossessed. This proves to be a problem for Steve in his efforts to continue racing competitively and support those who depend on his intense generosity. Enter Susan Jacks (Sinatra), an IRS agent assigned to keep tabs on Steve and apply his future prize money toward his $150,000 debt, but she ends up taking a romantic interest in him as well. Both Steve and Susan also sing, which adds to the plot line.

Cast

as Steve Grayson *

as Susan Jacks * Bill Bixby as Kenny Donford *

Gale Gordon Gale Gordon (born Charles Thomas Aldrich Jr., February 20, 1906 – June 30, 1995) was an American character actor who was Lucille Ball's longtime television foil, particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J ...

as R. W. Hepworth *

William Schallert William Joseph Schallert (July 6, 1922 – May 8, 2016) was an American character actor who appeared in dozens of television shows and films over a career spanning more than 60 years. He is known for his roles on ''Richard Diamond, Private ...

as Abel Esterlake *

Victoria Paige Meyerink Victoria Paige Meyerink is a producer and former child actress. At the age of four, Meyerink became Danny Kaye's co-star on the CBS variety series ''The Danny Kaye Show'' and, in 2006, was honored by the Young Artist Award, Young Artist Foundatio ...

as Ellie Esterlake * Carl Ballantine as Birdie Kebner *

Ross Hagen Ross Hagen (born Leland Lando Lilly; May 21, 1938 – May 7, 2011) was an American actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter and producer whose television acting credits included ''Daktari''. His film credits included ''The Hellcats'' in 1967 a ...

as Paul Dado * Charlotte Considine as Lori * Sandy Reed as Speedway Announcer

Production

''Speedway'' was originally planned as a film to star

Sonny & Cher Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of spouses Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as rhythm and blues, R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector. ...

. However, after their first movie, '' Good Times'' flopped at the box office, Columbia sold the rights to MGM, which retooled it for Elvis. Elvis was paid $850,000 plus 50% of the profits.

Petula Clark Sally "Petula" Clark (born 15 November 1932) is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She started her professional career as a child actor, child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 85 y ...

and

Annette Funicello Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer. She began her professional career at age 12, becoming one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original ''The Mickey Mouse Club, Mickey Mouse Cl ...

were offered the lead female role, but both turned it down. Filming began on 26 June 1967. Speedway was the first film about ''

'' and has been credited as a major proponent in increasing knowledge about the sport. Scenes were shot at the

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009 due to sponsorship reasons) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It has hosted various major races since it ...

Concord, North Carolina Concord ( ) is the most populous city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 105,240 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Concord is the second-most populous city in the Cha ...

. The film features guest appearances by several of the top stock-car—better known now as

—drivers of the day including

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "the King", is an American former stock car racing driver who competed from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most nota ...

Buddy Baker Elzie Wylie "Buddy" Baker Jr. (January 25, 1941 – August 10, 2015) was an American professional stock car racing driver and commentator. Over the course of his 33-year racing career, he won 19 races in the NASCAR Cup Series, including the 19 ...

Cale Yarborough William Caleb Yarborough (March 27, 1939 – December 31, 2023) was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, farmer, and rancher. He was the first driver in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships, winn ...

, Tiny Lund and more. They were shown individually with their names in the film's opening credits. This would be the final "formula" musical film of Presley's career. His remaining films would be less musical and more adult in tone. The film was a smash hit in 1968. Steve Grayson's generosity portrayed in the film was based loosely on Presley's real-life generosity, in which Presley would give cars, homes, and other expensive items to

Memphis Mafia The Memphis Mafia was the nickname given in the 60'sby the media to the group of Elvis Presley's friends, associates, employees and cousins whose main functions were to accompany, protect, and serve Presley. From the beginning of his career in 195 ...

members (the media's nickname for his close group of friends and coworkers), family and friends, and even total strangers.

Release

Although the film was completed in the early summer of 1967, it was not released in theaters until June 1968. It was a box-office success placing at #40 for the year on the '' Variety'' weekly national box office list. The only guitar to be featured in the film is during one of the film's closing scenes, during the performance of " There Ain't Nothing Like A Song", where a sunburst Fender Coronado is used.

Soundtrack

Reception

By 1968, Presley films had long become formulaic. Renata Adler of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote that ''Speedway'' was "just another Presley movie — which makes no great use at all of one of the most talented, important and durable performers of our time. Music, youth and customs were much changed by Elvis Presley 12 years ago; from the 26 movies he has made since he sang "

Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being g ...

" you would never guess it." A review in '' Variety'' declared: "Under Norman Taurog's know-how comedy direction even some of the silliness in the Phillip Shuken script gets by as entertainment, but the story lacks the legitimacy of the better Presley starrers. However, with Presley in there swinging in his usual style and his own particular brand of lightness the feature stacks up as an okay entry."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film two stars out of four, writing: "'Speedway' is pleasant, kind, polite, sweet and noble, and if the late show viewers of 1988 will not discover from it what American society was like in the summer of 1968, at least they will discover what it was not like." Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote that the film "has a script that ran out of gas before Elvis Presley was born. Presley pictures can be unpretentious fun, but this one is both uninspired and too much of an imitation of too many of his previous movies ... There aren't even very many songs to break up developments too predictable to outline here." He thought Nancy Sinatra's one song was "the high point of the picture."Thomas, Kevin (August 8, 1968). "Elvis Presley Featured in 'Speedway' Citywide". ''

''. Part V, p. 12.

Home media

''Speedway'' was released to DVD by Warner Home Video on August 7, 2007 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD.

References

External links

* * *
Review of ''Speedway''
by Bill Treadway at

DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose revie ...

, 3 August 2004.
Review of ''Speedway''
by Jeff Rosado at digitallyObsessed!, 1 August 2004. {{Norman Taurog 1968 films 1960s musical comedy-drama films American musical comedy-drama films American auto racing films Films directed by Norman Taurog Films shot in North Carolina Films shot in California Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1968 comedy-drama films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language musical comedy-drama films