Speedway (1968)

Speedway

Again, I'm writing this review for my husband. He loves all things Elvis. He enjoyed the movie very much. July 24, 2008

Racers other than Elvis

I give Elvis a thumbs up on this one. "Speedway" is entertaining, perhaps not his best film, but definitely worth watching. Elvis was in his prime (physically) for this entry.

But mainly, I dropped in here to let folks know that there's a movie (a pretty awful one) about Tiny Lund, who co-starred in "Speedway," and who was a REAL racecar driver. Tiny, a huge and endearing fellow, won the Daytona 500 in 1963. It's called "Tiny Lund: Hard Charger!" If you're a drooling NASCAR fan you might want to see it, although it's hard to find.

In any case, that's my two-cent's worth. February 5, 2008

Not Elvis' best, but still entertaining

By 1968, Elvis was wishing his film contact was over. None of his movies could really be said to have high artistic value, although his pre-army movies like Jail-House Rock had some artistic merit, and in them he showed that when he was interested in a project, he had some not bad acting ability.

His post-army films (except King Creole) were more geared toward slick entertainment, exploiting his name and image, and they were very formulaic -- BUT, his early '60's movies were also very entertaining. Viva Las Vegas, Blue Hawaii, Fun in Acapulco and GI Blues are always fun to watch, and pretty hip time capsules of pop culture in the early '60's.

Unfortunately, after about 1965, the quality of his movies took a downturn, as even he himself would say, and he began to really look bored with the whole thing in the last 3 or 4 years of his Hollywood era. The films had always been easy-going fluff, but likeable. His early 60's movies had peppy songs, and were very much in touch with pop-culture of the time. By 1968, however, when Speedway was made, his image was no longer up-to-date, sort of stuck in a time warp, about 4 or 5 years out of style.

But still, Speedway is probably the best movie from the last 3 years of his movie making career. It's the third time he has played a race car driver, and this time they use actual footage of real NASCAR races. In fact, this film has some of the best existing footage of Charlotte Speedway and live NASCAR action from the mid-60's, with Richard Petty and Cale Yarbrough ontrack and in their prime during the race scenes (too bad they didn't make any cameos in the body of the film). So for NASCAR fans, this movie has historical value.

Nancy Sinatra, of the Go-Go Boots fame, could have been the sexiest co-star ever in an Elvis movies (or at least she could have tied with Ann-Margret), but the script doesn't give her much on-screen time, and there is only one scene with her wearing those trademark boots - at the very end of the movie.

One bit of irony is the theme of Elvis' character being a celebrity whose manager is cheating himout of some of his earnings, which is sadly what happened to Elvis in real life for much of his career.

Overall, though, mediocre Elvis is still more entertaining than alot of topnotch actors who specialize in long boring movies, and every Elvis fan should see this one at least once. August 16, 2007

I love Elvis Preseley

Thank you for such fast service . I am very pleased with my purchase. August 9, 2006

A cool movie!

ENTERTAINING film with a GREAT looking cover! LETTER-BOXED and restored! I love reading all of the negative reviews here on AMAZON...shows it takes all kinds of people to make a world. These films were made for ELVIS fans and to be ENTERTAINING...I have no idea how someone could even compare ELVIS and NANCY SINATRA to BEN and JENNIFER LOPEZ? July 18, 2004

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