SILVER DREAM RACER. (1980) DIRECTED, PRODUCED AND SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY DAVID WICKES. STARRING DAVID ESSEX, BEAU BRIDGES, CLARKE PETERS, CRISTINA RAINES, HARRY H. CORBETT AND PATRICK RYECART.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Network is home of "The British Film" collection;
the ultimate destination for vintage British films.
#TheBritishFilm
Available on Blu-ray & DVD - 28th August 2017
I'm genuinely not old enough to have had posters of 'Seventies pop idol David Essex on my bedroom walls when I was growing up, but he's certainly a nice bit of all right, as they say, in this classic British film about motorcycle racing.
Masses and masses of dark curly hair, as much on his lovely chest as on his bonce, little gold earring and a nice fit body that we sadly only see unclothed from the waist up only. Still, though, he's a fine thing all right, nice and easy on the eye. He sings the theme tune to the film too, the talented so-and-so, as well as some of the other songs. Massive helpings of early 'Eighties cheese on offer here, so be warned...!
Having recently watched Bruce Brown's excellent documentary from 1971 (ON ANY SUNDAY), I'm not as ignorant about mototcycle racing in the Dark Ages as I might otherwise have been. I still much prefer the human element and the male-female dynamics of a film, however, to the nitty-gritty of motorcycle racing, surely the most dangerous and foolhardy sport known to man.
Any man who engages in it, and I do believe that it's still mostly men, must have a bloody death wish. Exciting to watch, though, if you like watching a sport where there's a high chance that one or more of the contestants will leave the track in a stretcher...!
Anyway, in SILVER DREAM RACER, David Essex plays Nick Freeman (such a bad boy name, isn't it?), a mouthy Londoner wiv' a chip on his shoulder that would feed your average family for a year, if they weren't fussy about getting their five-a-day and all that jazz.
Nick's dead fit and cute and all that, but he's miserable in his job as a garage mechanic and what he really wants is to be a professional motorbike racer, like the cocky, over-confident American rider Bruce McBride, played by Beau Bridges.
Interesting to see Beau Bridges here in a bad-boy role. I've always loved him and his brother Jeff Bridges in my favourite ever romantic movie, THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS. Here, Beau plays the boring sensible married-with-children Baker Boy while his brother is very definitely the Rolling Stone, the wild boy gathering as little moss as he can get away with as he beds cocktail waitresses and what-not while keeping his heart strictly under wraps.
Anyway, Bruce McBride really gets on Nick's wick. Nick's wick, haha. Nick would like nothing better than to rub McBride's face in the mud, figuratively if not literally. His chance comes when a death in the family leaves Nicky Baby the proud owner of the 'Silver Dream Machine,' a motorbike to- quite literally- die for.
Now, with the World Motorcycle Championships at the legendary Silverstone drawing ever nearer, it seems that the race between the pair of stubborn young hotheads is well and truly on. God help us all, haha. Nick's going to put everything he's got into this race, and I do mean everything, so you'd better cue the ominous music...!
Cristina Raines is annoyingly American as the woman behind the wanna-bee motorcycle champion, the woman who's prepared to sink everything into backing Nick's one chance for success. Let's hope that Nick doesn't let her down, eh? He was a total prick to his last girlfriend, anyway. Treated her like a bloomin' convenience, he did. No wonder she walked out on him.
Clarke Peters plays Nick's co-worker and fellow bike nut, Cider. You'll know he's black because of all the crazy embarrassing 'jive talk' the film-makers give him to say...! It's obviously not until a bit later that black guys start to be allowed to talk like everyone else in the movies, without having to talk that damned 'jive' all the time, haha.
Harry H. Corbett (STEPTOE AND SON) makes his final film appearance here as Nick's
long-suffering boss Wiggins from the garage, where Nick's attendance is becoming more and more erratic. I loved the posh blonde Patrick Ryecart as Benson, Nick's backer and a fellow motorcycle enthusiast-slash-collector.
I was also thrilled to see American character actor Bruce Boa here too, playing the part of an excitable Silverstone commentator with a cigarette permanently dangling from his lips. Remember when he appeared in British sitcom FAWLTY TOWERS as the hard-to-please American guest who wanted a hard-to-make Waldorf salad?
I'll never forget the ingredients myself after watching and re-watching that hilariously funny episode about a million times: celery, apples, walnuts, grapes...! Mind you, it's not as good as a Ritz salad but it's still quite a yummy dish. Miles better than anything that tired old hack Harold Robb-ins could knock out, anyway...
SILVER DREAM RACER will be available to buy on Blu-Ray and DVD from NETWORK DISTRIBUTING on 28th August 2017. NETWORK DISTRIBUTING is home of The British Film Collection, the ultimate destination for vintage British films. This release is in conjunction with BLUE DOLPHIN PR & MARKETING.
Network is home of "The British Film" collection;
the ultimate destination for vintage British films.
#TheBritishFilm
Available on Blu-ray & DVD - 28 th August 2017
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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