Racing Films

Ever wondered how Ronald Reagan became president?  I think it was solely because of his acting the 1964 film ‘The Killers’, his last film role before becoming the Governor of California in 1967.  His presidential credentials are put forward strongly as he demonstrates prowess in robbery, misogyny, wife beating and being a mob boss.  Based on this alone he has better credentials that most recent US presidents who can only tick off one or two of these boxes. 

‘The Killers’ is a screen adaptation of an 1920’s Ernest Hemmingway short story of the same name.  Essentially the plot revolves around two hit men, Charlie Storm (Lee Marvin) and Lee (Clu Gulager) who are sent to murder a racing driver called Johnny North (John Cassavettes).  They find Johnny working at a school for the visually impaired where he is helping them learn about motor mechanics.  What Johnny has done to attract the attention of two professional hitmen is unclear, but he ends up being gunned down pretty early in the film.  The hit goes exactly to plan, however, one of the hitmen, Charlie, is troubled by the killing because Johnny does not put up much resistance, it is almost like he wanted to die.  Instead of just taking the money and moving on, Charlie is so troubled that he decides to investigate why someone wanted Johnny North dead in the first place.  Charlie is also motivated by the fact that they are paid an unusually large fee of $25,000 which makes him think whoever ordered the hit must have a great deal more cash they could get their hands on.  So, in a strange twist of irony the hitmen commence investigating the murder that they have committed.

In terms of racing action this film is not the greatest, but it is a pretty good thriller of a film generally.  The 1964 film was not the only version that was made, the story was made into a film in 1946, 1956 and later a TV adaptation in 1959.  An Italian version was also made which probably has the best title of the lot ‘Femmine insaziabil’ also known by an English title ‘Carnal Circuit’.  This introduces another significant feature of this film, a classic femme fatale called Sheila Farr (Angie Dickinson).  Angie Dickinson plays the femme fatale role perfectly demonstrating her prowess as a golden globe winning actor. 

The hitmen begin their murder investigation by tracking down and speaking with Johnny North’s long time friend and race mechanic Earl (Claude Atkins).  Earl is devastated to learn of Johnny’s death and starts recounting his relationship with him, which in the film, triggers the first of a few flashbacks. Earl takes us back to a time when Johnny was a top racing driver winning every race he entered.  This was until he meets Sheila at the track one day.  Johnny is seduced by Sheila, not just because of her incredible beauty but also her sharp wit and cheek that highlighted in some cracking one liners like;

Johnny: Do you like fast cars Ms Farr?

Sheila: I haven’t seen any lately

Johnny falls hard for the beautiful woman and starts spending a lot of time wining, dining and fornicating with her instead of preparing properly for races.  This begins to bother Earl who feels he is doing the hard yards preparing the car for races while Johnny is out romancing.  The truth behind Sheila is that she is actually the wife of a mob boss called Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan).  Jack seems to enjoy watching racing but also seems to enjoy watching his wife seduce and manipulate other men.  While this is not a conventional approach to matrimony, it does work to Jack’s advantage as he is able to utilise Sheila’s charms to manipulate the men she seduces.

Due to the lack of sleep largely caused by Shiela’s incredible talents in the bedroom, Johnny becomes fatigued which results in a fiery crash on the racetrack.  This crash essentially ends his racing career.   While in the hospital Earl tells Johnny what he knows about Sheila.  This causes Johnny to become bitter, he ends his friendship with Earl and relationship with Sheila.  Now broke, bitter and twisted, Johnny is now the perfect person to help Jack with his next endeavour, a $1 million robbery of a postal van.  Jack needs a good getaway driver.

The hitmen, now turned investigators, uncover this elaborate plot through a conversation with one of Jack's goons called Mickey (Norman Fell).  Mickey proceeds to take us on another long flashback.  This puts the hitmen on the trail of the cash from the robbery and they go to meet with Jack.  After the meeting, Jack tries to kill both of the men as they leave with a sniper rifle he fires from his office window.  Watching this scene today you can’t help but see the glaring irony of a future US president attempting an assassination from a high-rise building.

Jack rushes home and prepares to flee with Sheila and the robbery money.  Charlie, who has survived the sniper assault, tracks them down.  He confronts the pair in their home where, through another flashback, we learn more details of the robbery and that it was in fact Jack who hired the two killers as he saw Johnny as an inconvenient and risky loose end.  Charlie coldly guns down Jack and Sheila.  He picks up the money but succumbs two his earlier gunshot wounds as he tries to leave.  Everyone involved in the plot is now dead, which bears some resemblance to recent Tarintino films where all of the main characters end up dead, largely because of their individual greed.  This film is probably due for another remake and I reckon Tarintino would do a good job of it.

There aren’t really a lot of race scenes in this film.  The ones that are there were shot at Riverside Raceway and Ascot Park speedway in California.  Peter Brock from Shelby played a key role as a consultant and stunt driver in the film (note this is not the Australian Peter Brock).  Brock had a very similar name to a film director the time so to avoid the confusion he is named as ‘Hall Brock’ in the film credits.  Presumably due to the Shelby connections the racing features a lot of Cobra roadsters.

For the history alone this is a really interesting film.  While it is not so much about racing, the story comes out of the sometimes twisted mind of Ernest Hemmingway.  It is Ronald Reagan’s last film role and we get to enjoy the on screen talents of Angie Dickinson.  Throw in some cars and plot that hinges around the slow demise of a successful racer it all makes for compelling viewing that stacks up against films of today.  At the end of this film it is hard to identify who the hero was, there really wasn’t one.  The endeavours of almost every character in the film are eventually portrayed to be pointless.  The racers career is shortlived, the hitmen get too greedy, the lies and manipulation come back to bite the mob boss.  I guess it is a reminder of some of Hemmingway’s words of wisdom “Every man’s life ends the same way.  It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”