​​Once again, Elvis is a race car driver, this time named Steve Greyson. The movie starts off interestingly, with the first cold open in any Elvis movie.  Steve walks into his trailer to find his manager Kenny, played by Bill Bixby (back from Clambake) making out with Miss Something Or Other. Steve breaks it up, and the film cuts to the very groovy credit sequence with the great title tune, “Speedway.”* The credits include a who’s who of late 60s racing greats including Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty.**

​

From there, Steve races in and win the Charlotte 100. Nancy Sinatra, playing Susan, is there, checking Steve out. She calls Mr. Hepworth, played by Gale Gordon, who is essentially reprising his Mr. Mooney character from I Love Lucy. They both are very concerned about his winnings, for as yet undisclosed reasons.

​

Steve and Susan both end up at the super cool restaurant/ nightclub called the Hang Out. There is a band and an emcee who shines a light on people and they have to perform. Who do you suppose he shines the light on? That’s right, the unwilling-but-gee-ok Steve Greyson. Luckily the band is ready to play “Let Yourself Go.”*** They also have some dance moves ready. Nice work, fellas!

​

Up next, Susan, all I’d-rather-not-oh-I-guess-so-Hit-It! with “Your Groovy Self.” The band once again is up to the challenge of knocking out the song and the choreography at the drop of a hat. Good job guys!

​

There’s another race, this time the Charlotte 200. Steve races. Steve wins.

​

There are a lot of scenes of Steve spending money to help strangers. He buys a car for an ex-racer who lives with his daughters in an old station wagon. He helps a waitress pay for a wedding and buys all of the presents. He seems to be made of money.

​

Turns out, Steve’s been making a ton of money, but his agent Kenny has been blowing it all at the track, and buying things on credit instead paying cash, and now the IRS is auditing him, and hold on a minute! This movie’s plot isn’t uninspired. It’s literally inspired. By Elvis’s life! Elvis had a habit of spending money on strangers, and Col. Tom had a gambling problem and spent Elvis’s money wildly. Part of the reason Col. Tom was able to convince Elvis to make these movies was that Elvis owed the IRS a boatload of money.

​

So we finally find out why Susan is stalking Steve. She works for the IRS. Note to aspiring screenwriters: If you’re looking for an interesting career for the love interest in the movie you’re writing, go with IRS agent. In fairness to the writer, Nancy Sinatra’s acting is so wooden I don’t think any writing choice regarding her character would have helped much.

​

Steve has to go in for an audit with Mr. Hepworth, which leads to a stupid musical number in the waiting room where a bunch of guys in suits back up Steve and Kenny performing “He’s Your Uncle, Not Your Dad.”**** They, too, are ready with the choreography. Good job, guys in suits!

​

The audit goes badly for Steve, and Susan has to enforce Steve’s $100 a week allowance. They don’t get along until he tracks her down at her hotel, punches a door, drags her around, beats up a rival race driver,***** sits her down on a counter, insults her, and then suddenly kisses her. Then he sings "Who Are You (Who Am I?)" and they move ahead as a couple. Sorry, but my description makes exactly as much sense as the actual movie.

​

Somewhere in there is the now obligatory scene of Elvis singing to children. As he is doing a nice deed for the family, one young daughter says she’d like to marry Steve if she was older, and he sings “Your Time Hasn't Come Yet, Baby," and it’s gross. I just can’t get my head around the thinking behind these scenes.

​

There are also several scenes of Kenny trying to take advantage of women at the trailer that he and Steve share. I guess Elvis and Bill hit it off in Clambake, and E just wanted him back around or something. Because, honestly, his character is just kind of pointless.

​

All that’s left is for Steve to race in the Charlotte 500, which is all part of the Charlotte Exponential Series, which by 1970 became the Charlotte Infinity and is still going on to this day. Steve wrecks his car in the qualifying race, so now he has to re-create the exact scene from Viva Las Vegas where he and his team and the love interest rebuild his car right up to the last second.

​

Does he make it in time? Duh.

​

Does he win the race? No, smarty pants. He doesn’t. But he wins enough to buy back the stuff for the strangers that got repossessed by the IRS earlier in the movie. Cuz he’s a good guy.

​

Things end on a high note when Steve and Susan go back to the Hang Out and sing "There Ain't Nothing Like A Song,” a fantastic song that I am planning to add to the Little Elvis set list.

​

It’s disappointing that Speedway isn’t a better movie. This is the eighth Norman Taurog directed Elvis movie, and even after his stumble with Double Trouble, I had hoped that he would be able to re-create the magic of Spinout. Sadly, he was mostly back to his old tricks here. Interiors look like sets, exteriors look like sound stages, there’s a lot of campy acting, and the racing scenes pale in comparison to previous Elvis racing movies. They’re all rear projections poorly edited together with stock footage of stock cars on an oval track. For all of their importance to the story, the race scenes are just not exciting.

​

I was worried that Speedway and Spinout would be virtually the same movie. Now I realize that would have been a vast improvement.

_______________________________

​

ACTING: 6 Elvises

MUSICAL PERFORMANCES: 5 Elvises

BEST SONG: “Let Yourself Go.”

STUNTS: Door punching, girlfriend dragging, hotel fight, simulated driving

CRINGE FACTOR: Little kid scene, token Asian pit crew member with eating disorder, girlfriend dragging

KISSIN’: A lot, but it’s mostly by the horn-dog Kenny character

​__________________________________

​

*Greg “Pacer” Baxter sings “Speedway” with Little Elvis.

**They never actually appear as characters. I guess they are credited for the stock racing footage that is used.

***Steve “Lucky” Marshall sings “Let Yourself Go” with Little Elvis.

****I’m convinced that this song was a throw away from G.I.Blues. I have no proof.

*****This is the first time Elvis doesn’t beat someone up for noble reasons. He’s literally just on a rampage, and the guy tries to stop him and gets knocked out for it.

​