tomgillespie2002 Following work on a couple of Francis Ford Coppola films, directing a couple of cheapie's for Roger Corman, and the delayed but supremely stylish Spider Baby (made in 1964 but unreleased until 1968), man-of-many-talents Jack Hill turned his attention to figure eight racing for Pit Stop, aka The Winner. The subject repulsed the director, but Corman insisted and, during his research, Hill became fascinated by the attitudes of the death-wish men behind the wheels. So, although the topic is pure exploitation, Pit Stop is character- driven, following the exploits of the stoic Rick Bowman (a brooding Richard Davalos) and his increasing obsession with the thrill of the win and the dance with death in every race. As racing promoter Grant Willard (Brian Donlevy) says, a suicide is born every minute.Shot in grainy black-and-white, Hill employs European, guerilla- esque tactics to film the movie as effectively as possible, squeezing as much out of its obvious budget limitations as possible. It helps achieve a neo-noir atmosphere, heightening the gloom yet amping up the style. Modern racing films tend to be sleek and shiny, but Pit Stop is pure grit. The racing scenes, which consist mostly of footage of real figure eight racing, are insanely entertaining, with every crash, flip and slide unhindered by editing, special effects or stunt work. It puts movies like The Fast and The Furious (2001) to shame, as although said franchise is entertaining in its own right, as a movie depicting the sheer thrill of the race, Pit Stop puts it to shame.The performances are effective too. Davalos proves to be a charismatic "I play by my own rules"-type, hesitant at first, but eventually unable to resist the lure of the competition. Donlevy, Hammer's Quatermass, delivers reliable support, but the screen is inevitably chewed up and spat out by Hill regular Sid Haig as outlandish racing champion Hawk, putting his usual obnoxious redneck shtick to effective use. This being a Corman production, it often resigns itself to underdog genre tropes, but Hill's direction and screenplay means that there is always something more existential and cynical lurking beneath the surface. It may be one of Hill's lesser known works when compared to his exploitation classics Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974) and Switchblade Sisters (1975), but it is certainly one of his best.

Coventry "Pit Stop" feels like an amalgamation between modern day racing flicks "The Fast and the Furious" and "Days of Thunder", only this Jack Hill film is way, way … WAY cooler, of course. Perhaps the aforementioned movies benefice from higher budgets, greater names in the cast and far more impressive (to teenage audiences, at least) car turning gimmicks, but both the characters and the actual racing footage in "Pit Stop" are genuinely more plausible and convincing. Regular race tracks are for pansies now, by the way, as Jack Hill introduces the Figure Eight Race Track! As its name implies, the track is shaped like an eight with a dangerous intersection in the middle and, the more the race gradually evolves, the harder it becomes for the drivers to avoid accidents. The plot centers on big shot Grant Willard (no less than Prof. Quatermass himself – Brian Donlevy – in his last film role) who sponsors young & reckless drivers and deliberately forces up the competition and hostility between them. Willard picks up the handsome and talented Rick from a vile street race and challenges him to defeat the reigning champion and ill-tempered Hawk. The competition between the two racers mutually and between them and the ultimate racing champ Ed McLeod becomes increasingly unbearable and even continues outside the racing tracks, as the men also share a romantic interest in the same women. "Pit Stop" is possibly Jack Hill's most ambitious and intellectual accomplishment as a director to date! Surely his more famous films like "Coffy", "Switchblade Sisters" and "The Big Doll House" are more sensational and easier to categorize as exploitation, but this film is stylish, involving and very realistic. The Figure Eight track was for real and most of the races exist of authentic footage and actual crashes interlarded with obviously fake images of Sid Haig and Richard Davalos pulling crazy faces and grotesquely turning a steering wheel. The character drawings are extremely legit as well, since the racers are depicted as obsessive and one-track-minded daredevils and their women as caring and supportive groupies that pray every race will have a happy ending. The performances are amazing, with a very young Ellen Burstyn in one of her first film roles after a lot of TV-work and Sid Haig portraying yet another delightfully freakish character. The film does run a little long and some of the padding buggy-racing footage in the desert, albeit spectacular, could have easily been cut a little. Jack Hill was also responsible for his own great editing and Austin McKinney's black and white cinematography is terrific. Highly recommended in case you're looking for a REAL cinematic highlight, rather than to watch Vin Diesel's big shiny bald head in a hideous car or Tom Cruise pretending to know anything about NASCAR driving.

Woodyanders Surly, thuggishly handsome Dick Davalos superbly carries the day with plenty of rugged, growly, super-slick hipster punk attitude as Rick, a brash, hustling, opportunistic amateur drag racing young turk who willingly compromises what few teensy, faintly held on values he has in order to make it big in the harshly competitive world of professional stock car racing. Backed by pitiless rich sponsor Brian Donlevy (who's pure icy perfection as a ruthlessly avaricious jerk who strictly cares about money and winning), Rick cuts loose his savage, animalistic instincts on the track, taking "dingy," lunatic rival driver Hawk Sidney (a typically wired turn by the ever-manic Sid Haig, who appears here sans beard, but with a near complete head of hair) down a few pegs, romancing sweet, bubbly, gum-chewing wild cat groupie Jolene (an exuberant performance by the adorable Beverly Washburn, the most catty and spiteful of the Meryl family sisters in Hill's wonderfully warped "Spider Baby"), striving to best composed, always in control reigning champion Ed McCleod (the excellent George Washburn), and flirting with McCleod's forlorn, neglected wife Ellen (movingly played by Ellen McRea in her film debut, who later changed her name to Ellen Burstyn and received a Best Actress Oscar for her remarkable work in Martin Scorcese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore").More of a moody, incisive, stingingly critical and flatly unsentimental film noirish character study centering on the horrible spirit-crushing price fiercely aggressive macho males pay for engaging in a taxingly brutal dog-eat-dog sport like stock car racing than your usual mindless smash 'em up car racing action romp, "Pit Stop" might very well be Jack Hill's most sharply atmospheric and tautly self-contained picture to date, a starkly dramatized stunner that casually oozes a certain pungently thick, heavy, oppressively brooding no-kidding grayish and uncompromising sense of overweening moral blackness. The metal-mangling, tire-yelping, dust and dirt flying everywhere race car sequences possess a tense, kinetic, dangerously loose and truly harrowing quality, depicting the ultra-masculine confrontational world of professional stock car racing as totally crazed mondo destructo demolition derby-style pandemonium. Moreover, the burning male desire to win at any cost and be the greatest at something is boldly shown as a kind of severe, seething, deep-seated psychosis.Sumptuously shot in stark, shadowy, steely black and white by Austin McKinney, with a superlative finger-snapping, kicked-back cool hopping blistering fuzztone guitar-driven beatnik rock score by John Fridge and the Daily Flash, uniformly tops acting from a first-rate cast, and a bracingly caustic, penetrating, rough-edged script by Hill, "Pit Stop" makes many startling insights into the grim, ugly barbarism and cold-heartedness at work in male aggression and competitiveness, courageously stating that winning can come at the cost of one's soul and body. Hard, gritty and flinty, done with real guts and style by Hill, "Pit Stop" rates as a raw, nervy, very daring and unjustly overlooked winner that's well worth seeking out and deserving of substantial cult film status.

z0mb0y There's a genuinely unhinged quality to the stock car drivers depicted in this movie. Their lives are empty except for the thrill of racing, which amounts to a death wish. The black and white cinematography is excellent, with a very moody documentary/chariscuro feel. The principals are all very good, especially Sid Haig as a particularly unhinged driver. Beverly Washburn (also from the incredible SPIDER BABY) plays the protagonist's teenage girlfriend. For me, this movie shows a more complete mastery of the cinematic form then Coppola or Bogdonovich or any of those guys had when they were with Corman. And of course, the car wrecks filmed at real race tracks don't hurt either.