The Racers

Racers, The (1955)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely poor racing film about a hot shot driver (Kirk Douglas) who tries to woo a woman (Bella Darvi) while pissing everyone off. Think Champion and take away everything great and you end up with this movie, which is pretty bad from start to finish. I'm really not sure what the point of this thing was but I can say it's the worst Douglas picture that I've seen to date. A lot of the film has various racing scenes, which were boring but they were the best thing about the movie. There's some nice crashes and stunt work but all the dramatic stuff sandwiched between is just deadly dull, lifeless and pointless. Douglas really sleepwalks through his role and it's probably the worst I've ever seen him. I'm not sure what was up with Darvi but she is one of the worst actresses I've seen in a major picture. Her sexy routine was just dreadful. The supporting cast includes Cesar Romero and Lee J. Cobb but neither are given much to do. The film was shown with a 2.55:1 ratio but I had to see it in 2.35:1, which makes for some nice shots but there's no meat with those shots.