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Speedway
(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1967)





Following Elvis's marriage to Priscilla in May 1967 he was back in Hollywood's MGM Studios in June working on his 26th feature film, Speedway. This movie provided Elvis with the role of a race car driver for the third time in his screen career, following Viva Las Vegas and Spinout. Co-starring with Elvis was his old friend Nancy Sinatra, who was certainly not the most accomplished actress. She would make very few film appearances in her career. Providing male support was Bill Bixby (fresh from Elvis's previous film, Clambake) as Elvis's unscrupulous business manager, and Gale Gordon as an overwrought Inland Revenue operative. Also featured, as one of Elvis's race car crew, was an actor with the most unlikely name of Poncie Ponce - he had appeared as a regular years before in the TV detective series Hawaiian Eye. In a different slant to the two previous race car movies, several professional drivers such as Cale Yarborough and Tiny Lund took part in the action and were given billing over the credits. The racing sequences in the film made for quite exciting viewing but were overlong at times. Twenty-six films down the line and still working in what were effectively juvenile productions, Elvis appeared pretty bored at times and his acting had just a shade of amateur about it. 1967 was fortunately the same year that he moved on to some screen challenges and he was to leave the totally lightweight roles behind him.

The music recorded for the soundtrack was unremarkable. The LP release for the film was to be the last full soundtrack release from Elvis's scripted movies, but of course it featured - as so many had - a selection of 'bonus' songs alongside those actually featured in the film. In an unusual move, the LP also featured the song Your Groovy Self, performed solely by Nancy Sinatra - the first such occasion on an Elvis soundtrack album. Nancy Sinatra also performed a duet with Elvis on There Ain't Nothing Like a Song. The single release from the film coupled Your Time Hasn't Come Yet Baby with Let Yourself Go. This failed to set the charts on fire but proved a moderate hit. Elvis would feature Let Yourself Go in his NBC TV Special in 1968, but the sequence was cut from the final broadcast version. Writers Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett composed a song called Five Sleepy Heads, based on Brahms' Lullaby, for the movie. Although it made it on to the album, the song was cut from the film. (Unconfirmed) reports have suggested, however, that the song features in prints of the film in some other countries. The song He's Your Uncle Not Your Dad is one of those embarrassing songs that even upon the film's release in 1968 seemed way out of date then. From this point on, Elvis's few remaining scripted films would feature considerably less songs. The time was absolutely right (if not in fact a shade late) for such a decision to be made, and there was probably no-one more pleased with the outcome than Elvis himself.


This information was produced by the Elvis Presley Film Society in September 2003
© 2003 Elvis Presley Film Society