cult film freak: PAUL CARPENTER AND SUSAN SHAW IN WOLF RILLA'S 'STOCK CAR'

Title: STOCK CAR Year: 1955 Rating: ****

Canadian actor turned British movie stock American character Paul Carpenter had one of the smoothest voices in the history of cinema, so much that he'd either play random announcers or sometimes co-leads, like in director Wolf Rilla's STOCK CAR...

By looks he didn't really stand out, yet with a cool enough demeanor suiting the vocal delivery, it's easier to believe that two polar opposite dames (bad blonde and virginal brunette) would be instantly smitten...

Susan Shaw in STOCK CAR

Rilla's THE LARGE ROPE starlet Susan Shaw is the closest thing to this semi-noir's femme fetale, the secretary/lover of a fat crooked businessman scheming to take over a lucrative motor garage from the daughter of a race car driver who died on the nearby track...

All gathered within a load of expository dialogue made more interesting with Interesting characters, like comic relief henchman Harry Fowler (teamed with stern/muscular Patrick Jordon), whose girlfriend Sabrina adds another gorgeous blonde to a B&W programmer that never loses focus of ingenue/business-owning brunette Rona Anderson's main dilemma...

Harry Fowler in STOCK CAR

She knows less about if that charming "Yank" Carpenter has any tricks up his seemingly perfect sleeve, while only really counting on scene-stealing Italian mechanic (played by a multi-vocalized Brit) Robert Rietty...

Winding-up out of the motor garage, a neighboring hospital and a lushy nightclub onto the anticipated STOCK CAR race track, adding not only action but an actual popular sport into this little British programmer fully loaded with pretty much everything.