What happens when you take a 60s ‘beach party’ movie and combine it with the excitement of motor racing? Teensploitation studio AIP (American International Pictures) wanted to know, so they hired Fabian and former Mickey Mouse Club star Annette Funicello to find out. The result is the 1967 motion picture ‘Thunder Alley‘.
Considering this is a B-movie from the drive-in era ‘Thunder Alley‘ has remarkably cohesive plot. The main character is racer Tommy Callahan, played by Fabian, a real life pop-star and teen heartthrob from the late 1950s. The opening scene occurs at a NASCAR Grand National series race where Callahan accidentally kills rival racer Jimmy Joe Johns, the most NASCAR sounding name ever invented. The series suspends Callahan’s racing license.
Now on the skids, Callahan and his hot blonde girlfriend drive around in a highly-modified 1967 Dodge Charger, seeking work for him as a professional driver. They stop in at Callahan’s old race team, where he was top dog before making it in Grand National racing. But the team turns him down flat, saying that if ‘Killer Callahan’ was driving, all their sponsors would drop them. Callahan slinks away, crestfallen. Interestingly, the exterior shots of the race team’s garage are actually of Barris Kustom City the Hollywood custom car shop that built the TV Batmobile, the Plymouth Barracuda from ‘Corky‘ as well as Callahan’s white, blue, and red ‘ Thunder Charger‘ with it’s custom targa roof.
Left with no options, Callahan is forced to join a stunt driving circus. How the mighty have fallen; from professional race car driver to a human cannonball in a smash-em-up sideshow. But there’s an unexpected benefit as the circus owner’s daughter is Anette Funicello! She’s also a stunt driver, and convinces her dad to give Callahan a break. Of course, she’s secretly smitten with Fabian. Who can blame her?
A disjointed love story is told between racing scenes and stunt driving shots. Apparently, before this movie was even written, producer Burt Topper had spent three years shooting stock-car racing footage, and it was the director’s job to figure out how to shoehorn in a love story between sequences. Originally called ‘Malibu 500‘ then ‘Rebel 500‘ the film shares racing footage with ‘Fireball 500‘ also starring Anette and Fabian… but some guy named Frankie Avalon got the girl in that one.
The movie is interesting but uneven. The film tried to duplicate frolicking at the beach with hijinks around the racetrack, but it doesn’t have the same carefree vibe. In the middle of the movie, there’s even a 10-minute long party scene, which resembles AIP’s beach party movies. Weird fashions and wacky dancing are captured in full Panavision glory as go-go girls take off their clothes for inexplicable ‘sexual liberation’ reasons.
Director Richard Rush was known to AIP from his previous low-budget pictures. His trademark style included anti-establishment, rebellious characters which reflected the attitudes of late 1960s youth. And since AIP specialized in teenage exploitation flicks shown at drive-in movie theatres, it was a good match. It didn’t hurt that director Rush’s agent was married to Anette Funicello back then. Although not on the same level as racing movies like ‘Le Mans‘ or ‘Grand Prix‘ from the same era, ‘Thunder Alley‘ does have it’s fair share of fans, including renown director Quentin Tarantino. He was an admirer of director Richard Rush and, as an homage to him, Tarantino used the song ‘Riot in Thunder Alley‘ from the soundtrack in his own 2007 carsploitation film ‘Death Proof‘.
Top billing went to Anette Funicello, but Fabian did a phenomenal job in this film. Totally believable as the tough but emotionally distant protagonist. He’s not silly or goofy, even when the movie is. ‘Thunder Alley‘ is similar to AIP’s 1968 picture ‘The Wild Racers‘ in which Fabian plays Jo Jo Quillico, an American stock-car racer who’s accidentally killed another driver, then moves to Europe to compete in Formula One. That movie is much more avant-garde in its style, but it seems that Jo Jo Quillico and Tommy Callahan may be the same character; a driver haunted by his past, searching for racing glory on a new track.
These old B-movies deserve to be remembered. Even though they’re kind of odd, they make for some great entertainment on a fast Friday night. Just wish they still played them at the drive-in theatre.
Some of those pretty faces can also act, eh?
I expected so little from a poster boy like Fabian. He’s actually quite a good actor.
I look forward to Fireball 500 in a couple weeks, but I think Frankie Avalon beats up Fabian in that one.
Along similar lines, from what I was taught as a kid, musicians were just vapid demon worshippers. How amazing to discover how smart and educated many of those music makers are.
Vapid… good word.
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I don’t really get the beach blanket movies, but that’s OK. This racecar / beach hybrid was pretty good, and I liked how they shoehorned jn an Anette Funicello solo song.
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Also glad Fabian didn’t let people around him convince him he was just a pretty face. The boy had talent!