Spinout

• Directed by Norman Taurog
• October 17, 1966
• Released as California Holiday in the UK

A band singer/race driver must choose between marrying a beautiful rich girl (or two others) and driving her father’s car in a prestigious race. Tough life.

This is a movie that definitely asks you to leave your brain at the door. It’s nonsensical and a bit stupid. Spinout is pure entertainment designed largely as a showcase for a few Elvis songs. The plot alone makes the movie feel a little like a play on Viva Las Vegas. How many times did Elvis play a race car driver of some type?

Spinout is a movie where Elvis Presley is a singer that moonlights as a race car driver while strongarming his bandmates into the gypsy life because he is pathologically adverse to success and romantic commitment. He has three attractive (two of whom have some money) women after him and one that can help hand him the keys to success. He runs from all that faster than a politician asked tough questions about an intern he is far too cozy with.

Mike McCoy (Presley) is part con artist though not in a harmful way. More like Faceman from The A-Team. The movie is him avoiding tying the knot while also romancing the women and skipping the easiest road to success by being adverse to auto magnate Howard Foxhugh (Carl Betz).

The scheming against the automotive magnate amounted to little more than convincing an old couple to go on a romantic trip and leave their home in Mike’s care. I would’ve liked to have seen a little more plotting. Make Mike perhaps a bit more of a playful con artist rather than a harmless occasional con artist. He just mildly irritates Foxhugh instead of matching wits.

Cars weren’t featured in nearly enough in the movie as one would think obvious. When they did become important, such as the discussion of Mike’s 1929 Model J Duesenberg, they were the focus. Maybe Spinout should even been a little bit more of a rock ‘n’ roll Fast & Furious. I don’t know what car culture of the mid 60s was like but maybe some more of that.

In Mike’s band is Les (Deborah Walley). She’s supposed to be a tomboy, but she doesn’t dress in less than feminine clothing and she’s also able to cook up a strong meal in comparison to the rest of the guys so I’m not sure how they view her as a tomboy. Is it just because she can play drums?

There is some definite sexism in this. It’s not even done in a cringe worthy cutesy way but I guess it was aimed at being comedy. Different times with different sensibilities. You could not casually get away with a butt slap in even a comedy today. And that slap comes from a cop meant to be a good guy! The characters are as two dimensional as you would expect. There’s a running gag about Foxhugh’s aid Phillip (Warren Berlinger) always passing out when stressed. Keep in mind he drives a race car at one point in the movie and doesn’t pass out.

It subverts expectations because at no point does Mike get snagged by anybody. The three women that are after him get married off to random characters introduced along the way. He and his boys are able to keep going on with a new drummer because Les married the cop that slapped her butt. Phillip marries Foxhugh’s Cynthia (Shelley Fabares) because who doesn’t want a materialistic girl that ignored them for a long time? Diana St. Clair (Diane McBain) who has been stalking, er, writing about Mike and other men gets married to Foxhugh making her a stepmother that’s only a smidge older than her daughter. What was the divorce rate amongst the three?

Maybe Mike should’ve gotten a girl. Or at the minimum come to the realization that being single wasn’t the way to be when he married off all the other people with a wink that maybe being single wasn’t so bad.  The ambiguity would have certainly been cute.

Spinout was entertaining even though it’s not much more than fluff. It’s carried by the music and just some silliness perpetuated by questionable logic. Entertaining and probably more enjoyable for Elvis fans than the general moviegoer. Not a bad choice though.