SYNOPSICS
Red Line 7000 (1965) is a English movie. Howard Hawks has directed this movie. James Caan,Laura Devon,Gail Hire,Charlene Holt are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1965. Red Line 7000 (1965) is considered one of the best Action,Drama,Sport movie in India and around the world.
The story of three racing drivers and three women, who constantly have to worry for the lives of their boyfriends. Jim Loomis and Mike Marsh drive for Pat Cassarian. Jim expects his fiancée Holly, but before she arrives, he dies in a race. Since she doesn't have the money to travel back, she stays. The young and very ambitious talent Ned Arp joins the team, and immediately starts wooing Pat's sister Julie. Third on the team is womanizer Dan McCall, who brings with him his current girlfriend Gabrielle from Paris. So the basic theme of this movie is, "Whom with whom?"
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Red Line 7000 (1965) Reviews
I LOVE THIS MOVIE!
I first saw "Red Line 7000" in college. I was taking a class on the films of Howard Hawks, and the professor showed this the first week because it is considered by many to be Hawks' worst film, and the professor didn't want anyone who added the class during the "drop/add" period to miss one of the major Hawks films. Well, all I can say is that by the time this film was over, it became one of my all-time favorites. Sure, it's corny at times, and melodramatic at others, but who cares? It's a delicious soap opera with fun performances, a strange musical number, and clever usage of public domain music (check out the rockin' version of "The Old Gray Mare"!). Of the many cast members, the standouts are Marianna Hill as the French girl, Gaby, and the divine Gail Hire as Holly McGregor. Ms. Hire was described by one critic as a "junior-grade Paula Prentiss." I was going through a major Paula Prentiss phase at the time I saw the movie, so I was completely captivated by Ms. Hire's Prentissian performance (although her voice reminds me of Barbara Stanwyck's). But, really, this film is just brilliant. I love the dialogue, the interactions of the characters, and that they all live at the Holiday Inn. The use of the Inn creates a sense of community and, along with the presence of the Prentissian Ms. Hire, links this film with "Where The Boys Are." A must-see film!
For NASCAR Fans Not AFI Top 100 Fans
I have to agree with the comment about Ms Hire being a junior grade Paula Prentiss. I logged on to my account to write that Gail Hire (Holly) came across like Paula Prentiss, but it had already been noted. But, I also noticed that Marianna Hill (Gabby) seem like she was a substitute for Brigitte Bardot and Laura Devon (Julie) as Nancy Sinatra. I like the movie, even though it was full of clichés and all too typical of most racing movies. I like looking at the race footage. I remember many of the races and knew the full background of the races and accidents shown in the movie. I like the movie because it showed real production based race cars racing. The same makes and models my neighbors owned. If you like NASCAR this is a movie worth seeing. If you are looking for AFI top 100 films, this is not the movie for you.
Only James Caan and Marianna Hill are worth watching...
Red Line 7000, one of Howard Hawks's later films, is generally considered one of his worst, thanks to fake-looking racing scenes, hilariously inappropriate dialogue and musical sequences, and ghastly performances from never-weres such as James Ward, Laura Devon, Gail Hire and particularly John Robert Crawford. But the film is redeemed by the dynamic chemistry between James Caan and the exciting Marianna Hill in their individual scenes together. Caan shows in this film the intensity and talent that would make him one of the best actors of the early-1970s, and Hill's performance, on-par with other memorable Howard Hawks discoveries as Lauren Bacall and Angie Dickinson, makes you wonder why she didn't become a bigger star before fading into obscurity. Particularly memorable are Hill's two lusty dancing sequences, at the nightclub and later in front of the Holiday Inn Pepsi machine, as James Caan observes her from afar. Caan and Hill redeem Red Line 7000 from being a total disaster--the movie should have focused only on their characters and gotten rid of everybody else--but, even with its many weaknesses, the film is still more intriguing than the overrated Grand Prix (1966) anyday.
A Hawks Challenge
In Todd McCarthy's Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, the impetus behind RL7000 was a) Hawk's 10-year old son Gregg was into cars, or b) Hawks wanted to prove he could make a commercial film quickly for a million dollars. Too, Hawks loved cars, studied Mechanical Engineering at Cornell, raced cars after college, and made the racing film The Crowd Roars (1932) giving him the opportunity to work with Cagney (and wrangle a Deusenberg for himself from the Deusenberg company in exchange for product placement). In a sense, both films are indulgences which never translate into a coherent picture. RL7000 comes off a bit more like a Roger Corman film than a Hawks film, probably due to budgetary constraints. We see lots of young unknowns, dancing, loud music, interludes of unevenly-acted drama interspersed with bouts of frenetic action. Caan is a good, brooding Bradoesque study, though he squints and smirks to distraction, Marianna Hill looks great, and seeing cars like Cobra Daytonas is pretty enjoyable for mid-60's sports car fans. Ultimately, the film has problems because Hawks doesn't get what he wants out of the actors. All of his other films have very strong acting; Hawks could always get great performances from Wayne, Grant, Bogart as well as the veteran character actors he used. He didn't have such luck with most of the primary cast of three men and three women. Their bonding as lovers and as male and female groups is integral to the credibility of the film, and it just doesn't happen. Another possibility explaining the film's weakness is that this is the only one of Hawk's final six pictures (Rio Bravo to Rio Lobo) without writer Leigh Brackett on the team. One also senses that Hawks tried too hard to be "hip," perhaps in reaction to the fact that some critics had complained that his previous picture "Man's Favorite Sport?" seemed old-fashioned. Thus the plot is periodically suspended for some truly bizarre song and dance numbers, even by mid-60's standards. It seems inconceivable that "Wildcat Jones" was given us by the same Hawks who gave us the immortal "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" number. I want to like this movie, since I do subscribe to the school that a great director can never make a truly bad film. I also happen to love "Man's Favorite Sport?" which often critically lumped in with RL7000 as the two off-the-track films between a pair of Wayne/Hawks collaborations before and after. Furthermore, there are some vocal critics who love the film, such as Robin Wood. So I guess I need to watch it a few more times and hopefully can write a better review next go around.
(almost) the end of the line for Howard Hawks..
...two more westerns and he would call it a day.Considering the classics he made during a long and fruitful career which encompasses such classics as "Scarface(shame of the nation)" or "only angels have wings "or "land of the pharaos","red line 7000" is a mediocre offering.Although praised by the French cahiers du cinema ,it's little more than a soap opera in the motor races.Characters ,be they male or female ,are uninteresting and the scenes with the cars pale next to John Frankenheimer's "grand prix" .A sequence featuring James Caan and Gabrielle the FRench girl would make a nice ad for Pepsi Cola.Only the unexpected ending brings some originality.But it's too little too late.