Indianapolis Speedway (1939)

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely brilliant

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

***SPOILERS**** Coming back home after another of his many big victories on the race track cigar chomping race car driver Joe Greer, Pat O'Brien, is shocked to find out that his kid brother Eddie, John Payne, who's collage tuition he's been paying for the last five years has gotten race car fever in his blood. Like big brother Joe Eddie want's to a racer and make it big on the California race car circuit. Just when Joe is about to give into his kid brother's future plans he's double shocked to find out that Eddie is romantically involved with the wild and hot as a branding iron Frankie Merrick played by the "Oomp Girl" Ann Sheridan. It was Frankie who Joe held responsible for the car crash death of his good friend Eddie Musco who instead of keeping his eyes on the road kept his eyes on her having his car crash and go up in flames, together with Eddie, at the 1935 Indianapolis 500 car race.As things turn out Eddie becomes the big banana in California racing when he's soon nominate to race against Joe in the California Championship Racing Series to prove to the world of car racing who of the two is #1 in the sport. It's in the final lap that Joe's partner who's running interference for him "Spud" Connor, Frank McHugh, ends up dead when he loses control of his car and crashes into the stands. In a state of total shock Joe loses his will as well as nerve to go on in life and slowly becomes a listless bum until he gets a second chance to redeem himself. That's when he drifts into Indianapolis on the weekend of the big race, Indianapolis 500, end ends up due to circumstances beyond his control competing in it.***SPOILERS*** Great racing scenes mostly taken from the 1932 film that it was a remake of "The Crowd Roars" with at first a mistaken, by myself, the lean and fit John Payne looking like the string-bean like and undernourished James Stewart. Just when it looked hopeless for Joe to win with one of his tires about to blow itself out his nerve suddenly comes back, together with his cigar, as he hits the finish line of the race first winning it. It was in fact Eddie that Joe replaced halfway in the race when he ended up getting injured in a pit stop making him unable to continue and finish the race. Joe in fact beat Eddie again in the end of the movie by his taxi driver, under Joe's urging, beating Eddie's ambulance driver to the hospital, risking everyone's lives, to be treated for their injuries.

Some spoilers maybe, sorryI think I saw this before "As the Crowd Roars". I don't remember liking that one much either.The characters are not interesting. The lead character is a jerk. The girlfriend seems like she's supposed to be intelligent but stays with him in spite of his annoying behavior ( I guess that's not totally unrealistic, seen that in real life.)The younger brother should have been in a racing movie of his own. He at least showed a little charisma,You might be surprised to hear the thing that annoyed me the most - the screeching of tires...on dirt tracks...sighWhy did the THREE TIME INDY champion suddenly suck and his far more inexperienced brother suddenly become a world beater - that's a pretty unlikely scenario. Takes years of high level competition to win at the highest level. Maybe he was just a born genius even better than his brother but it seemed pretty unbelievable.The racing was awful. You can't drive a race car like that. Sad how few movies have anything resembling believable racing. Really sad actually as racing can be beautiful.The plot, well...you have seen it before.If there was any one part that was good, acting, plot, dialog, racing something...maybe I could give it a higher score,See Grand Prix instead. Seen it already? See it again :) Or maybe watch Le Mans (if you can stay awake :)Don't like to be so negative but I couldn't get into this movie.

Although this was a remake as the 3 other reviewers cite, it was well done with refreshing portrayals by Ann Sheridan, and Gail Page. Pat O'Brian? please, he's a genius. in the thirties, unlike today, the oldest sibling did take up for the family more often than not, in fact my grandfather turned down a chance to go to college (notre dame) because his father passed away and he went to work to support his mom and siblings. I think the train scene early on set the tone of what kind of guy Joe is and then when seeing his brother not in school, who could blame him for being upset. This movie is a wild ride with great old racing footage, including a (non fatal in real life) fiery crack up that was actually a driver named Friday from the mid-west. I loved the cast and I loved the movie, the two, The Crowd Roars & this one are in a virtual dead heat at the finish line.

The movie that this was based on, THE CROWD ROARS, starred Jimmy Cagney and was simply a better film in every way. Thanks to a very astute reviewer (Arthur Hauser), the footage of the races is identical in the second movie and many other scenes were just lifted from the original. So, apart from the remake not being original, why else did I dislike this film? I think the biggest reason was Pat O'Brien's character. While he was a controlling jerk in the original, in this case he also seems very shrill and totally unlikable. So here we have a retread movie with an unlikable star--what is left? Well, not much. All you really have is a time-passer. Period.It's really a shame. The actors in the movie were better than the material and the complete rip-off of the footage from the original makes this a cynical attempt by Warner Brothers to expend little money or effort to squeeze a few more bucks out of an ancient story.