Does Life Imitate Art or what?

One time late at night I vaguely recollect seeing a movie on TV called Johnny Dark.
The star was Tony Curtis.
I found a ref. to it on the net and quote from it liberally here:


Johnny Dark (1954) is a William Alland production that starred Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, and Don Taylor.

Here's the plot line:
"Johnny Dark (Curtis) is a young and talented automotive engineer for stodgey carmaker Fielding Motors. Fielding Motor's cars seem to look an awful lot like frumpy 1954 Willys sedans, but never mind. "

"Johnny Dark, his chief Engineer mentor, and Fielding Motor's enthusiastic Board of Directors, convince old-man Fielding he could snaz-up his car line, and maybe even make a few bucks, if they'd make a sports car that they could enter in the big Canada-to-Mexico race! Johnny "just happens" to have a complete set of plans for the sports car designed and "drawn up" in his desk. The old man reluctantly agrees to allow the car to be built, mostly to pacify the Board of Directors, and assigns Johnny to be the lead Project Engineer. The car will have custom "Dark" chassis, a Fielding engine, and, Mr. Fielding even assigns his lovely grand-daughter (Laurie) to design the body for the sports car. "

The poster shows a red roadster which was pretty wild in terms of styling back in '54 but wasn't an Eye-talian sports car (like the Ferrari used in The Racers) but was really a Woodill Wildfire, a real car that was built by SoCal's Robert "Woody" Woodill in 1952-53, basically a kit car body for an existing frame.

The website continues: "But, old-man Fielding gets cold-feet after the car experiences some accidents during testing out on a race track. And, he refuses to allow the sportster to compete any longer, especially with a Fielding name attached. So, the car is exhiled into storage. Mr. Fielding intends for the car to never been seen again. You see, Fielding builds sensible cars for sensible people. "

"But, not to be deterred, Johnny and his crew expatriate (steal) the car from the Fielding warehouse, take it home to their shop, and prepare it to race it anyway. They rename the car "The Idaho Potato Special" so nobody will recognize it as a Fielding. Huh? "

"Anyway, as the Canada-to-Mexico Border-to-Border event begins (at what appears to be downtown Solvang, CA), the racing action across North America is a wonderful sight to behold. No kidding. (By the way, watch for the Muntz convertible racing) And, all of the way through the second day, Johnny is in contention in the 'Tater Special near Las Vegas, until he hits a rock in the road, cracks the oil pan, and burns-up the bearings....uh, oh! Now what? Apparently, Johnny and the Idaho Special are finished. "

"Here's a couple of big questions that need to be answered before the closing credits roll in Johnny Dark, though. When Mr. Fielding learns that the car has been identified as a "Fielding" car, a Fielding car with a "blown engine", will he come thru with a brand-new engine so that Johnny can win the border-to-border race, and perhaps even agree to put the groovy sports car into production as a Fielding? And, at the same time, can Johnny secure the ultimate affections of Fielding's grand-daughter, perhaps putting a future new line of "Dark's" into production? Come on now....do you have to ask? "

Maybe the movie I saw was actually a remake called The Lively Set, done in 1964 by William Alland, almost the same plot though in that movie they get to crash bang and generally use up the Chrysler turbine cars which had to be destroyed or Chrysler would have to pay import duties on each one they kept. I bet they didn't run them in the movie with turbines, I drove one once and they were lead sleds, even at 22,000 rpm!

Anyhow so much of it parallels Shelby's story. In the Fifties, he did crash in Mexico and therefore didn't win the Carrera Panamericana. That time he was racing for Donald Healey who I don't think had a daughter....