The Mrs. adores old movies—speaking frankly, a crack addiction would likely occupy less of her psyche than a Fred Astaire film. But I digress...
So, recently, during one of her epic TCM sessions, she came across the 1950 flick, To Please a Lady, starring Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, and [4-year-old-boy voice] WACE CARS!
The Mrs. is smart, beautiful and, without question, thoughtful, so she quickly snapped it to the DVR for me.
Simmer. This isn't going to be a long-winded cinematic critique. Just wanted to give my peeps a heads-up that there's a lot of awesome racing footage that lies within. In fact, the writer definitely had the dudes in mind, because it's equal parts dialogue and racing porn.
Some killer midget footage (which I had no idea was as big a phenomenon as it was back in the day), but the real star? The Indianapolis Motor Speedway. kaBOOOM. Awesome scenes in the latter half of all the sights and sounds of a 50's-era Brickyard spectacle—crowd shots and all kinds of rare delights.
Here's the point: Watch. It. Even you cynics who wouldn't normally have anything to do with a black and white film or a movie made before, say, Meatballs (highly, highly underrated for its cinematic importance, by the way).
Here's the official trailer, but WHOA UP, there, quick-draw. The trailer is short on the race scenes I speak so highly of, so don't turn your nose up until you've laid eyes on the full-length feature (it's a quick 90 minutes, or so).
Check your local listings on TCM, dial up Netflix, whatevs... just do it.
Two thumbs up!
—JM
