You wouldn’t expect to be impressed by the racing sequences in a 92-year-old movie, but “The Crowd Roars” uses practical effects that really held up in a way that ‘special effects’ never could have. Even the story, the allure of racing at Indianapolis, is as true today as it was a century ago.
The protagonist of “The Crowd Roars” isJoe Greer; a hard-drinking, hard-charging, three-time Indianapolis 500 race winner. He’s returning to his hometown as a hero. While competing in a small-town race on Saturday night, Joe learns that his kid brother Eddie Greer has become the local track champ, and wants to follow in big brother’s footsteps. Joe tells his kid brother to forget it. Racing is dangerous, the fans are fickle and you can’t take the roar of the crowd to the bank.
After the ‘Cain vs Abel’ race on Saturday night, Joe has a change of heart. Maybe it was pity that his kid brother’s jalopy broke while leading the race, or maybe he saw real talent in lil’ Eddie. Regardless, Joe decided to add the kid to the crew and take him along for the rest of the racing season.
The racing scenes are what makes this movie so great. Other than the final race at Indianapolis, this movie was shot at long-gone Ascot Speedway in California and Nutley Velodrome in New Jersey. The race cars four-wheel drift the length of the straightaway and oversteer through every corner of the dirt-ovals. Rear projection is used extensively, but it looks so much better in black an white, as it’s difficult to discern differences between foreground and background. Clearly, the movie was high-tech for it’s time, as we are treated to onboard shots from the racer’s perspective, and shots from the surface of the track (what NASCAR now calls the ‘gopher-cam’).
Just before a big race, Joe fights with his little brother about the evils of ‘dames and booze‘ and kicks him off the team. Half drunk yet still driving, Joe causes the horrific crash. He crashes into his teammate Spud Connors’ car, which causes a fire that takes poor Spud’s life. Times were different then, and the race was not stopped just because a driver was burning to death on track. The horrified expression on the drivers’ faces let’s the audience know that the stench of Spud’s burning body was sickening them, yet they still drove through the plumes of smoke for racing glory.
Joe hits rock bottom. Blaming himself and his drinking for his buddy’s death, Joe quits racing, wanders the country in train box-cars (like hobos in the old cartoons) penniless and drunk. Watching his friend get burned alive has deeply impacted Joe. But this wouldn’t be a Hollywood movie if there wasn’t a redemption arc for this character. We won’t spoil the ending. Just know that when Joe shows up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway looking to drive in the race, everything turns into sunshine and roses.
The character of Joe is puzzling. The movie hero really is a bad guy; he’s terrible to his girlfriend Anne, and controlling of his brother Eddie. All the terrible things about ‘dames and booze‘ that Joe preaches about are exactly the behaviour he demonstrates. His drinking leads to his downfall and only when he reciprocates the love his devoted woman shows to him, can Joe be redeemed.
Finally, a racing movie men and women could both love!
“The Crowd Roars” was re-cast and re-shot in 1939 under the title “Indianapolis Speedway” as the original was a Pre-Code film, depicting sexual relationships between unmarried people. Special interest groups believed the ‘immorality of cinema’ would lead to the decay of American society. Movie studios caved to the political pressure, and the Hays Code was born. Footage from “The Crowd Roars” was temporarily removed and used in “Indianapolis Speedway” but when the footage was returned into the film negative for “The Crowd Roars” some of the new footage from “Indianapolis Speedway” was added as well, like scenes of a 1938 ambulance speeding through the streets of 1931 Indianapolis, thus the two movies are forever linked.
your movie reviews are SUCH fun. i saw a good brothers movie the other night but the arena was MMA not racing. called “warriors.” really good.
I think I remember that one from a couple years ago. I’ll see if its streaming somewhere.