I love how the lights of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre throw a golden glow across a nighttime Hollywood Boulevard. This photo was taken in February or March 1955—that’s when Twentieth Century-Fox’s “The Racers” played Grauman’s. I’m surprised it lasted three weeks there because the picture was a huge and expensive flop. Maybe it’s because studio chief, Darryl Zanuck, foisted his … let’s be kind and call her his “protégé” … Bella Darvi on Kirk Douglas. I haven’t seen the movie so I’m not saying she was the reason why it flopped but I doubt she out-acted Douglas, Gilbert Roland, Cesar Romero, and Lee J. Cobb.
UPDATE – Robert Cullen says: “The back story is great. Fox wanted to get rid of all the used race cars. A guy wanted to buy one for $10k but Fox said, “No. All or nothing for $200,000.” He bought the lots and the cars ended up being worth many millions. The three drivers Douglas, Roland, Romero were pretty great.”
If not Bella, the plot gets my vote for why it failed. She’s a ballerina and he’s a race car driver whose bizarre “meet cute” involves her poodle causing a wreck at the racetrack. That and the fact that Kirk Douglas is playing an Italian. Kirk was good but not that good.
I love how the lights of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre throw a golden glow across a nighttime Hollywood Boulevard. This photo was taken in February or March 1955—that’s when Twentieth Century-Fox’s “The Racers” played Grauman’s. I’m surprised it lasted three weeks there because the picture was a huge and expensive flop. Maybe it’s because studio chief, Darryl Zanuck, foisted his … let’s be kind and call her his “protégé” … Bella Darvi on Kirk Douglas. I haven’t seen the movie so I’m not saying she was the reason why it flopped but I doubt she out-acted Douglas, Gilbert Roland, Cesar Romero, and Lee J. Cobb.
If not Bella, the plot gets my vote for why it failed. She’s a ballerina and he’s a race car driver whose bizarre “meet cute” involves her poodle causing a wreck at the racetrack. That and the fact that Kirk Douglas is playing an Italian. Kirk was good but not that good.
Ah, well, all of that sounds incredibly misguided. I guess it’s no mystery why so few people remember it!