Thunder Alley

What impresses me about this picture is just how slick it is. The auto racing genre is a tough, gritty one. And American International Pictures was a small, scuffling outfit. Yet "Thunder Alley" looks slick. It isn't quite up to major studio production standards, but "Alley" give the impression of being machine tooled junk. Well, not exactly junk. It's a machine-tooled, formulaic genre exercise, with most of the grit and idiosyncrasy removed. Arkoff, Nicholson, Topper, and Rush apparently had this genre down to a science, so here they are content to present a "safe" genre exercise and leave it at that. Annette Funicello is good. (She really was an underrated actress, and it's a shame she didn't have a longer and more active career.) A Funicello-Avalon pairing would have been more fun, but Fabian Forte is effective as the male lead. (He had genuine talent as an actor, perhaps more talent than he had as a singer.) Monroe Askins' cinematography is professional, yet, as indicated earlier, not quite up to major studio standards. (This actually works in the film's favor, since the photography gives it a bit of the grit that it so sorely needs.) And Daniel Haller's art direction does give the film a bit of flare. All in all, "Alley" is an entertaining action flick. But if you're looking for grit, you'll have to settle for slickness instead.