Le Mans *** (1971, Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch, Elga Andersen) – Classic Movie Review 5282

Directors Lee H Katzin and John Sturges’s 1971 documentary-style sports action adventure drama allows Steve McQueen to bring his car-racing hobby to the screen in a fictional star role as Michael Delaney, a sullen American driver who is determined to win the French 24-hour endurance race over 14.5 kilometers, despite brushes with death in earlier attempts. A year ago Delaney was involved in a crash that killed the husband of his friend Lisa Belgetti (Elga Andersen).

An at-ease McQueen looks both comfortable and good behind the wheel in Gulf Team Porsche 917 and the racing footage is thrillingly filmed by cinematographers Robert B Hauser and René Guissart Jnr, and brilliantly edited (by Donald W Ernest and John M Woodcock) for maximum excitement as the cars reach 200mph and some come to grief.

The rest of the movie is a bit flat and there is barely a wisp of a story in Harry Kleiner’s screenplay to help him out, as Delaney battles the German Erich Stahler (Siegfried Rauch) in Ferrari 512LM for supremacy. It is all eyes on the star and his car – it is very much a Steve McQueen showcase.

Also in the less than starry, mostly European cast of decent actors are Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Fred Haltiner, Luc Merenda, Christopher Waite, Louise Edlind, Angelo Infanti, Jean-Claude Bercq, Michele Scalera, Gino Cassani, Alfred Bell, Carlo Cecchi, Richard Rüdiger, Hal Hamilton, Jonathan Williams, Peter Parten, Conrad Pringle, Erich Glavitza, Peter Huber and Nathalie Vernier.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5282

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