At first glance, a seemingly typical 50's style entertainment b-movie aimed at the youth crowd featuring hopped up jalopies with a rock n' roll soundtrack. The kids that comprise the characters of the story are of course members of a west coast hot rod club in search of a permanent pad for their roadsters which invariably leads to a vacant haunted mansion providing a platform for ensuing adventures. However, the genre gets turned on its head when the biggest gear heads and racing rivals that provide much of the dramatic tension are female, namely Lois ( Jody Fair ) and Anita ( Nancy Anderson ). These two femme fatales start the flick with an illegal race in the L. A. River bed, continuing the rivalry throughout the narrative until sanctioned by male figures in the form of a boyfriend, a father and a policeman. This is pure 50's American pop culture cinema where the radical concept of women being the biggest competitors in a traditionally male avocation is seamlessly woven into the story making the film function simultaneously as a vanguard of social subversion. Meanwhile, fresh faced speedster Tommy Ivo talks over your head about the engineering principles behind his new dragster while his bud waxes figuratively and literally on the metaphysics of chrome machinery. Actually some of the best dialog belongs to Alfonso the parrot with quips like " Yipes, those threads are for buryin " and " That was a blast, somebody bring a mop ". Paul Blaisdell reprises and references his roles in previous American International features as the monster who gets exposed in the spooky manse during the course of a macabre housewarming party which includes a tune sung by Jimmy Maddin, who gained fame for a fifties style of sax playing known as " honking " and was self described as one of the inventors of rock n' roll. Cool black and white cinematography graphically underscores a flick that, despite its limitations, reminds us that sometimes less is more, at least in terms of retro entertainment value.
Review of Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow
