It had to happen. It’s been a while. I’m afraid to tell you it’s the Dreaded Hiatus Bleat Week - but just one week! Steel yourself for the inevitable stuff to follow, a collection of also-ran material I couldn’t fit anywhere else, or have accumulated because I knew I’d need it some day.

All the usual niceties will be required - don't skip ahead! You may be disappointed. There will be updates, though - and hey, custom google ad art! It's so special!

Just wanted to get that out of the way. Okay, let's start. Monday is when we look at Black and White movies, so why not flip the script? Whoa: COLOR.

It’s the proto-NASCAR movie, high mid60s swank with the smell of gas, cigarettes, perfume, and hairspray. It’s a Howard Hawks movie, but don’t get your hopes up. Miles and miles of stock-car footage - hah! Get it? - interspersed with some track scenes, utterly extraneous romances set in the same bar, romantic subplots that fail to interest the target audience because they don’t get to see anything. If Hitchcock had made the movie, it would’ve been called “Rear Projection.”

Our hero, such as he is:

James Caan is tense but not angry - you know how he gets - and there’s this guy named John Robert Crawford. Imdb: he was “born on December 30, 1936 in Boise, Idaho, USA. He is an actor, known for Red Line 7000 (1965).”

And that’s it.

From a book about Redneck Cinema:

Yeah, about that nightclub:

The groovy-swinger rock-and-roll scenes are mortifying.

It has purdy gals, though.

Gail Hire. Imdb: "Ms. Hire is mostly remembered due to her performance in Howard Hawks' racing drama, Red Line 7000 (1965), in which she starred as Holly MacGregor, a girl who feared the speed and danger of auto racing. But in real life, Ms. Hire was a staunch sports enthusiast and student airplane pilot at the time the movie was completed."

She's bohemian!

Do you like the way Suzette Pleshette sounds? Well:

Ah, the Sixties.

Imdb:

By this time, Laura's first marriage had dissolved. Husband Brian had become a TV star via his Porter Ricks character on the dolphin show Flipper (1964). Within a year of their divorce, Laura married renowned French film composer Maurice Jarre, hailed for his Oscar-winning scores in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and A Passage to India (1984).

Laura immediately retired and never looked back. She and Jarre divorced in 1984. Little was heard from Laura until notice of her 2007 death at her Beverly Hills residence at age 76.

And then there's this fellow:

His character is named . . . Kato.

Makes you wonder if "Sulu" will be a derogatory term some day. Don't think so.

Anyway, I mentioned rear projection: pay attention to the flags.

Let's zoom in:

I wonder how much it cost. Absolutely needless.

Well, that's it for today. There's an update! Yes, for once I'm going to give you the full boat for updates during a hiatus week, because frankly I have so much stuff I can't allow it to back up. See you tomorrow.

DON'T SKIP AHEAD. Shame on you if you do! Shame!