#2,274. Pit Stop (1969) - The Films of Jack Hill

Directed By: Jack Hill

Starring: Brian Donlevy, Richard Davalos, Ellen Burstyn




Tag line: "Raw Guts For Glory!"

Trivia: This was Brian Donlevy's final film








Quentin Tarantino once called director Jack Hill “the Howard Hawks of exploitation”. Like Hawks, Hill worked across a variety of genres, from sex comedies (The Swinging Cheerleaders) and blaxploitation (Coffy) to horror (Spider Baby) and women in prison (The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage).

With 1969’s Pit Stop, Hill took a stab at car-racing flicks, and thanks to co-star Sid Haig and some bat-shit crazy race scenes, it’s one of the subgenre's more memorable entries.

When Rick Bowman (Richard Davalos), a newcomer to the dragstrip circuit, wins his first race, promoter Gavin Willard (Brian Donlevy) recruits him to take part in a new style of racing: figure eight, in which cars travel at top-speed around a track in the shape of the number eight, crisscrossing each other as they go.

Not ready to put his life on the line, Bowman initially balks at the idea (the main draw of figure eight racing are the number of crashes). But when he’s insulted by the current champ, Hawk Sidney (Haig), Bowman decides to give it a whirl.

It isn't long before Bowman is challenging Sidney’s status as top dog, and so impresses Willard that he invites the newcomer to participate in a legitimate race. Unfortunately, Willard’s best driver (and chief mechanic) Ed McLeod (George Washburn) isn’t too keen on bringing Bowman along, in part because McLeod’s wife Ellen (Ellen Burstyn) has taken a fancy to the newcomer.

With the stakes high, though, McLeod agrees to let both Bowman and Sidney run interference for him in the big race. The question is: which of the three will cross the finish line first?

Richard Davalos, who played James Dean’s brother in 1955’s East of Eden, does a fine job as Rick Bowman, the hard-nosed, arrogant racer hoping to make a name for himself; and Ellen Burstyn (billed here as Ellen McRae) is equally good as the bored wife looking for a little romance. But it is Sid Haig, charismatic as ever, who commands your attention. From his first appearance, when he wins a race and, ignoring the boos of the crowd, plants a kiss on the bikini-clad trophy presenter (an uncredited Denise Lynn), it’s obvious Hawk Sidney is a show-off, and has an ego twice the size of his car. Later, we discover that Sidney is also a sore loser. Yet even when he crosses the line and behaves like one of racing’s bad boys (he does something about 2/3’s of the way into the movie that will have you seeing red), you can’t help but kinda like the guy.

In addition to Haig’s scene-stealing performance, Pit Stop features stock footage from actual figure eight races, complete with dozens of car crashes and other calamities (one vehicle bursts into flames), leaving us wondering why anyone would sign on for something so dangerous.

If you’re not familiar with Jack Hill’s work, you should definitely delve into his filmography (there are plenty of hidden gems there). And Pit Stop is as good a place as any to start.