Winning **** (1969, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Robert Wagner, Richard Thomas) – Classic Movie Review 8196

Director James Goldstone’s little-known 1969 sport action drama Winning is a happy occasion for Paul Newman, who gets to follow his real-life hobby on screen – racing driving – and to act again with his wife Joanne Woodward as well.

He plays Frank Capua, a rising star racer driven to win, who weds the alluring widowed Elora (Joanne Woodward), who has a teenage boy Charley (Richard Thomas), and then neglects her. Wagner gets a good role as the bad guy Luther Erding, his rival on and off the track, who has a fling with Elora (Woodward).

Winning is a winning mix of glossy Technicolor soap opera and race action filmed in documentary style, with charismatic performances from four real stars. The finale of the Indianapolis 500 race, starting with a 17-car smash, is sensational.

Also in the cast are David Sheiner as Leo Crawford, Clu Gulager as Larry the Mechanic, Barry Ford as Bottineau, Toni Clayton, Maxine Stuart, Karen Arthur, Eileen Wesson, Robert Quarry, Pauline Mayers, Ray Ballard, Charles Seel, Alma Platt and Allen Emerson.

Racing folk appear in the film, including Bobby Unser, Tony Hulman, Bobby Grim, Dan Gurney, Roger McCluskey, and Bruce Walkup.

Winning is shot by Richard Moore in Technicolor.

The film includes footage taken at the legendary 2.5 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Most of the footage is from the 1968 race, but the accident during the first green flag is from the 1966 race.

Newman earned $1.1 million, at the time the highest salary offered to an actor for a single film. To put it in perspective the total cost was $5 million. And it was a nice earner, grossing $14,644,000 in the US.

The main cast are Paul Newman as Frank Capua, Joanne Woodward as Elora Capua, Robert Wagner as Luther Lou Erding, Richard Thomas as Charley Capua, David Sheiner as Leo Crawford, Clu Gulager as Larry the Mechanic, Barry Ford as Bottineau, Karen Arthur as Miss Dairy Queen, Bobby Unser as Himself, Tony Hulman as Himself, Toni Clayton, Maxine Stuart, Eileen Wesson, Robert Quarry, Pauline Mayers, Ray Ballard, Charles Seel, Alma Platt and Allen Emerson.

Clu Gulager’s first major film role was in Don Siegel’s The Killers (1964) with Lee Marvin and Ronald Reagan, followed by Winning (1969), Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971) and McQ (1974) opposite John Wayne. Gulager’s final screen performance was as a book store owner in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019.

Clu Gulager (born 16 November 1928) died of natural causes at the Los Angeles home of his son John on 5 August 2022, aged 93.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8196

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com