I don’t know how I came across this, but it’s kinda neat. Nice to see the XKs going and bit of impressions others had or attitudes towards them during the time period.
Though movie quality doesn’t seem correct there.
Never liked people calling the cars “Jags”…made a point never to say it myself, as if it were improper grammar.
Seems they called them that in the past as well…
Funny the gas station attendant rambling about his souped up ford or something, saying with pride he got it to 100mph at the track and it does 0-60 in 12 sec. or something…inquires what the xk120 can do.
They really must have been in awe of these cars at the time.
Thought it would be neat to find an old movie poster, hoping the xk120 was on it, etc…been into old posters these days, dunno why.
But search came across an original movie film reel of the movie!
Amazing the stuff you can find these days…
thanks for the link , I just watched it all the way through .Great to see those old sports cars . I think they spent the budget on the cars and not on a script writer .
Yep, per the (usually toxic) comments section, it was a “B-movie”…not mainstream.
It was discovered (somehow) and rights purchased for the recent, seemingly endless, movie series which I might add I attempted to watch once years ago.
The early version is far superior fyi, if that tells you something.
I couldn’t watch much at all of the newer version it was so bad. Cheesy and just plain poor acting, storytelling, etc.
And the first iteration of a series is supposed to be the best!
So bad. Extraordinary they made 7 of them or whatever.
But I digress…
I don’t think anything Roger Corman was involved in elevated itself above B status. But hey, he got Chet Baker for the soundtrack, and lots of cool cars.
Also evident in the footage were two C-types, a Lotus (9?), various Porsche models, a TR2 and M.G. TDs, and a Kurtis along with the Allards. Obviously footage lifted from coverage of some local west coast events–anyone recognize the track, Paramount Ranch? I love the footage of the two stars in the car, he, helmet undone, sawing away at the wheel like he was steering a truck (I recognize that an early complaint about the XK120 was heavy steering, but come on!). In addition, she, minus the racing aeroscreen, showing not a hair disturbed by the slipstream. I recall driving my M.G. TF with the windscreen folded flat back in the sixties (prior to buying my XK) and even at 30 mph it seemed like I was driving into a hurricane.
I recognize it is a matter of taste, but the only motor racing film I ever watched that I thought was credible was Michael Keyser’s “The Speed Merchants”. A documentary to be sure, however it was simply a straight up impression of one year in the sport. I always remember the voice over during the Le Mans coverage: “And then at 2:00 am we lost Jo”. A very matter-of-fact commentary on Jo Bonnier’s fatal accident. Cryptic, short, but it emphasized what was printed on virtually every page of the program for the first race meeting I ever attended at the old Crystal Palace race track in south London: “Motor Racing Is Dangerous”.
These copyrighted movies don’t always last too long on youtube, but it is on DVD. I remember finding 16 copies of it on DVD at the dollar store and mailing them out to friends on this forum.
Here are some reviews.
Funny when you search on this site for films entitled Fast and Furious you get quite a few going back to the silent era, some even involving cars.
Copyright expired. It is also on archive.org. I remember watching it there years ago, my only complaint is that there is no better quality scan available anywhere.
