The Devil's Hairpin

That includes an extra point or two because I've met several of the auto racers who helped stage the 'competition" scenes, heard their stories about the production, and enjoyed tramping around almost all of what's left of the old Paramount Ranch racetrack. The track is still accessible as part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, inland from Malibu, north and west from Los Angeles.

Both the movie and the experiences with the racers and the track were enjoyable; the racers are stellar, the movie, not so much.

Wilde and Wallace were kind of a prototypical pair of capable actors, and in this outing the material doesn't inhibit their natural inclinations. The story gets told, the action moves right along, for the most part, and the ending follows the beginning and middle.

As a theatrical film, I'd probably not have gone to see it if I weren't a racing fan and it hadn't been 25 cents at the base theater.