A friend called me up last night to tell me that the Turner Classic Movie
channel was showing racing films. I missed Grand Prix (it would probably
have lost its impact on my small screen), but caught most of The Green
Helmet, which I had never heard of, but which featured sports car racing
from the late 50s or early 60s (I'm guessing). I switched it on just as the
hero (William Travers) was crashing at Le Mans, then watched him testing at
Silverstone (in what I am guessing was a Lister-Jag). His car mysteriously
morphed into a birdcage Maserati for Sebring, where he partnered with Jack
Brabham (!), winning after his rival in a Corvette crashed and burned. The
big finale was the Mille Miglia (which I am thinking had already been
cancelled by then), with hair-raising in-car footage of what seemed to be
the actual course. It struck me as similar to driving the California Melee,
except balls-out (as opposed to a spirited cruise), and in truly fast
machinery, with crazed fans lining the route 10 deep -- in other words,
terrifying.
After that came To Please a Lady (terrible title), with Clark Gable as a
hard-charging, never-back-off Dale Earnhardt-type USAC racer. Great footage
of dirt track midget racing and classic Indy front-engine roadsters. The
finale at the Indy 500 had him going mano-a-mano with Mauri Rose in a
front-drive special (was that the Novi?). The romantic subplot with the
equally hard-nosed Barbara Stanwyck was unconvincing, but Gable looked right
at home in the cockpit and the paddock.
Great stuff...
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
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