Nov 20: Those wild '50's car movies

Saw "Skyfall" the other day and although I enjoyed it, the part where Bond's Aston Martin gets blown up broke my heart and probably ruined the movie for me. Same reason I could never enjoy "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". But this got me to thinking about the car movies from the '50's (I known this is a leap, but bear with me). The poster above is typical of these flics  -  hot babe, fast cars, wild action and a touch of sex (see upper right). And who can forget those Oscar winning performances from thespians such as Brett Halsey and Yvonne Lime.

Drag strips seemed to be sin strips in the '50's as a lot of the action took place in these venues. I guess only the really bad guys hung out there and bullied the heros like Frank Gorshin below in "Dragstrip Girl". Wasn't he the Joker in the Batman series? You can find all the elements that I mentioned above in this poster.......

This must have been a classier drag strip, since one of the ladies is wearing a dress. Typical race track attire? By the way, Fay Spain's first screen test, which she failed, was with James Garner. What other car blog gives you this sort of stuff?

If I was to guess, "Hot Rod" probably failed at the box office, since it seems to be missing a very important ingredient of this genre  -  no sex showing in the poster.

Wow! This one has it all in the era before seatbelts. Police chase, custom car, great speed, a tight dress and "She's.......fired up for any thrill!". By the way, note the Mercedes in the background  -  foreign cars were usually driven by those super smooth and rich bad guys.

Think the "Fast and Furious" series is so original? So what about this........

Way back in the 1950's there was the real original  -  sex, action, tight dresses! Nothing hits all the buttons better than this. One more.......

And look at this......starring Jack Nicholson way back in 1960, long before his "Easy Rider" role. Betcha he's proud of this movie.

We just don't see this type of movie anymore and thank goodness for that. Check out clips from youTube, the acting skills will make you smile or click to a better website. But often you'll catch some neat cars and that afterall is what we are all about. Right?

Until next time.......