Forced comedy by race car driver Dennis O'Keefe and his sidekick Nat Pendleton falls really flat in this second string programmer from MGM that seems an unlikely choice for their output, especially in the year of "The Women", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Ninotchka". It's their attempts to keep up with rival studio Warner Brothers who released films like this by the dozen each year. Cecilia Parker had a rare leading role as the daughter of race car legend Harry Carey who becomes O'Keefe 's mentor. The romance between O'Keefe and Parker seems really forced as she genuinely despises him for most of the film, preferring the company of Tom Neal.
The race car sequences are well done with a few crashes that are indeed very scary. Charley Grapewin is good as a tough doctor, and along with Carey gives the best performances in the film. But with an unappealing leading character with O'Keefe and Pendleton playing his stereotypical dolt, this just doesn't ring at all true. The film runs out of gas many times during its 70 minutes, and even the MGM lost can't save it. If they had made this an A picture with Clark Gable (who would play a race car driver at MGM in "To Please a Lady" a decade later), it could have worked.
The race car sequences are well done with a few crashes that are indeed very scary. Charley Grapewin is good as a tough doctor, and along with Carey gives the best performances in the film. But with an unappealing leading character with O'Keefe and Pendleton playing his stereotypical dolt, this just doesn't ring at all true. The film runs out of gas many times during its 70 minutes, and even the MGM lost can't save it. If they had made this an A picture with Clark Gable (who would play a race car driver at MGM in "To Please a Lady" a decade later), it could have worked.