User Reviews

Why does Thunder In Carolina score a paltry 1.9 rating on IMDb? I'm absolutely puzzled, because while the film is no Citizen Kane it is a million miles better (and better made) than your average Doris Wishman or Al Adamson pic. Heck, it's much better than your average Howco International production - though admittedly that's setting the bar pretty low! Well directed by Paul Helmick, the film features a strong cast (Rory Calhoun, Alan Hale Jr., Connie Hines) in its tale of injured stock car driver Mitch Cooper (Calhoun) living vicariously through grease monkey and aspiring pro racer Les York (John Gentry). Shot in vibrant color by Joseph C. Brun (Who Killed Teddy Bear), this is an entertaining 'B' picture and a solid example of old-time regional filmmaking. You don't need to see it, but you also won't regret watching it.

Filmed at small dirt ovals throughout the Southern U.S. and set at the 1959 NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway - with footage shot at the event itself with star Rory Calhoun actually racing some actual laps - this stock car racing movie is a favorite of Quentin Tarantino. He said of the film, "There are some fun Southern ones too. Rory Calhoun did a movie called Thunder in Carolina where a driver teaches his mechanic how to race."

If you love early TV, then this movie is perfect for you, because the Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) and Connie Post from Mr. Ed (Connie Hines) are both in it.

Anyways, Calhoun plays Mitch Cooper, who teaches his mechanic Les (John Gentry) how to race cars but falls for his protege's wife (Hines), which ends up an injured Mitch racing the big one against his former friend, who now is on the team of an unfeeling rich guy.

Paul Helmick only directed this film and Teenage Thunder, but was the assistant director on everything from Hello, Dolly! and Rio Bravo to Marty, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and To Have and Have Not.

Rory Calhoun (Farmer Vincent in "Motel Hell") gives a dead bang-on solid portrayal as Mitch Cooper, a smoothly charming former moonshine runner turned professional stock car racer who, after wrecking both his car and his ankle in a brutal smash up, takes time off from racing to teach cocky eager beaver kid Les York (played with bright, wide-eyed gusto by the likable John Gentry) how to drive well on the track. Mitch takes a fancy to York's lovely, no-nonsense wife Rene (a winningly sparky'n'spunky performance by toothsome blonde Connie Hines), which leads to Les ditching Mitch so he can drive for a jerk millionaire who only cares about winning. In fact, success transforms Les into a greedy and selfish egomaniac, therefor causing Mitch and Les to become bitter adversaries. The two race against each other at a grand high stakes race. Granted, Alexander Richards' stand-issue script doesn't cover any new ground, but Paul Helmick's efficient direction, a hearty supporting turn by the always engaging Alan Hale, Jr. (The Skipper on "Gilligan's Island") as an amiable, anecdotal pit crew chief, an interesting, commendably unglamorous warts-and-all depiction of professional stock car racing which shows how the sport can become an addiction and poison a man's blood, a colorful evocation of the grimy, sweaty, ferociously competitive and occasionally dangerous ultra-macho racetrack milieu, a marvelously mawkish ballad called "He's Gone Away" sung by Ann Stevens, Joseph Brunt's nifty cinematography (there's some nice use of cheesy fade-outs and snazzy super-impositions), and authentically gritty racetrack footage of the Darlington, South Carolina Southern 500 that doesn't skimp on the dust-flying, dirt-kicking, rubber-shredding, tire-screaming, butt-tearing floor it and go the distance action movie goods make this honey a perfectly enjoyable and up to speed Southern-fried drive-in potboiler.