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On June 12, 1968 MGM hosted a premiere party for "Speedway" in Charlotte/North Carolina and rolled the movie out nationwide on the following day. In the US and Canada the studio earned 2 million USD, so the box office gross was 4 million USD. Translated to the present by using the factor 15 MGM would have made 30 million USD and the public would have paid 60 million USD. Therefore "Speedway" was the most successful Presley movie since "Spinout" in late 1966, but still the revenue was a third less.
Because of the ever decreasing ticket sales of the musicals MGM had postponed "Speedway" and released "Stay Away, Joe" first. However, in Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand "Speedway" had been released in April and May while "Stay Away, Joe" was issued in late summer. MGM also planned to bring "Speedway" to Germany and even printed programme brochures. But at the last moment they pedaled back. And so the fans had to wait until December 8, 1976 when the movie was shown on tv.
The singing race car driver Steve Grayson (Elvis) has to discover that his manager Kenny had "forgotten" to pay the taxes and so he meets tax investigator Susan Jacks who puts him at the breadline.
Douglas Laurence (producer), Norman Taurog (director), Philip Shuken (script), Jeff Alexander (music), Joseph Ruttenberg (camera), Richard Farrell (editor).
Elvis Presley (Steve Grayson), Nancy Sinatra (Susan Jacks), Bill Bixby (Kenny Donford), Gale Gordon (R. W. Hepworth), William Schallert (Abel Esterlake), Victoria Meyerink (Ellie Esterlake), Ross Hagen (Paul Dado) und Carl Ballantine (Birdie Kebner). The German voice of Elvis was dubbed by Thomas Pieper.
At first MGM planned "Speedway" as a vehicle for the singing partners Sonny & Cher, but then they developed the idea of turning the project into a musical with Elvis. To offset his fading stardom the studio tried to hire the famous popsinger Petula Clark, but when she refused the part went to the no less popular Nancy Sinatra. The shooting went from June 26th to August 18th, 1967, the crew worked at the MGM Studios in Los Angeles and at the RIR (Riverside International Raceway) in Riverside. Besides that the Charlotte-500 race in Concord/North Carolina was filmed.
Once again MGM did everything to make their product look as up to date as possible. The sets and costumes were colorful and bestow the movie a wonderful retro-look - at least from today's point of view. But even back then it was obvious that MGM had put more effort into the sets and wardrobes than United Artists had on "Clambake". Elvis also appeared to be in better shape. His payment was $850,000 plus 50% of the earnings reduced by this amount. If we use the factor 15, the standard fee would be 12.75 million USD today.
Even though the movie was comparatively successful, the single never made it past number 71 of the charts, the album even stagnated at number 82. Combined both products sold barely two million units. A tap on the covers leads to the reviews.
In 2007 Warner released all movies, Elvis had made for MGM on dvds. While a random selection was compiled in a boxed set called "The Hollywood Collection" this one was issued individually. For a short review tap on the cover.
Without doubt "Speedway" was as entertaining and well produced as the Elvis musicals of the early 1960s. The only letdown was the fact, that the songs were not as good as they used to be.
Movie Poster (C) MGM, DVD Cover (C) Warner Brothers, Record Covers (C) RCA Victor