Pit Stop

Pit Stop is one of director Jack Hill’s (The Big Bird Cage, Foxy Brown, Spider Baby) less known films, but undoubtedly it has to count as one of his best. This Crash-O-Rama stock car racing melodrama from 1967 is fast and furious, and with compelling performances by cult actor Sid Haig (House Of 1000 Corpses) and Richard Davalos (East Of Eden, Cool Hand Luke).

Hill filmed the majority of the action at real ‘Figure 8’ racetracks; these were über-mean racetracks where cars crossed the intersection in the centre, prompting nasty crashes and general mayhem… thus adding further grit to the story.

Richard ‘Dick’ Davalos (who played James Dean’s brother Aron in ‘East Of Eden’) is drag-racer Rick Bowman, a selfish prat who recently got bailed out of jail by race PR guru Grant Willard (veteran actor Brian Donlevy – The Quatermass Experiment).
With his ‘up yours’ attitude and juvenile delinquent behaviour, Rick is out to break car engines and hearts galore, but walk away trumps in the end. Easier said than done, for his nemesis on the tracks is Hawk Sidney, a maniac behind wheels who welcomes the challenge of crushing Rick at every occasion. Hawk is brilliantly portrayed by Sid Haig in a demented, over-the-top performance. Watch him moving and twisting like a speed freak in the beat-a-go-go dance scene!

Where there are race drivers, girls can’t be too far away, and here it’s Jolene (Beverly Washburn - ‘Spider Baby’) who initially steps out with Hawk but then falls for the roguish charms of Rick. Do I need to mention she gets her heart broken? In turn, Rick falls for married car technician Ellen (The Exorcist’s Ellen Burstyn, here billed as Ellen McRae), but no prices for guessing that the forbidden romance won’t have a happy ending – far from it! The movie ends as one might expect it to end: with lone drifter Rick walking away from the wreckage he caused, and towards his next adventure… not giving a damn about anyone but himself.
In an interview with director Jack Hill, the taglines ‘Raw guts for glory! Flesh against steel!’ are mentioned. It comes pretty darn close to describe the essence of Pit Stop!

This Dual Format Blu-Ray and DVD release comes packed with director-approved Special Edition contents:

• New High Definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Jack Hill
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
• Original mono 1.0 audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
• New audio commentary with Jack Hill moderated by his biographer Calum Waddell
• Crash and Burn! – Jack Hill on the making of Pit Stop
• Drive Hard – actor Sid Haig speaks about his experience of acting in Pit Stop
• Life in the Fast Lane – producer Roger Corman on the genesis of Pit Stop
• Restoring Pit Stop – restoration demonstration by Technical Supervisor James White
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw
• Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Glenn Kenny and musicologist and writer Gray Newell on the film’s soundtrack, illustrated with original stills and artwork.