I owned a red Maserati (no. '9') in '55/'56, only to have it confiscated by a sadistic teacher. It must have been the first of my Dinky Toy collection to disappear, followed soon after that by the blue Talbot Lago which took its smart, white-overalled driver to a watery grave by rolling down a grid. Now only a dull green B.R.M. survives, minus one tyre.
I used to chew the rubber tires off my Lesney, Matchbox Superfast and Corgi toys. They reminded me of licorice. That was until Hot Wheels took over most of the collection with all-plastic wheels and tracks
sadistic employers ......renders life ..............without jobs .......... confiscated by employers ... who is not sadistic ? from the Johnny Philips sunny Philips Surya dilip Kumar
Cool flick! Nice tension, stylistically looks like it influenced the early Bond movies. Great film quality, good plot, staging, etc. Stanley Baker as always is terrific.
52:39 The Le Mans start (running start) was last used in 1969, and thereafter ended due to safety issues. John Woolfe was killed in 1969 on the first lap being thrown from his car having not fastened his safety belt properly. That said, this is a worthwhile movie to see.
I did not know it until a few days ago, the movie goes through the village near Florence I have lived about 20 years of my life (Le Sieci). Quite different from how it was when I lived there (our building was still a wineyard) and now even more different. That village went from about 1000 to about 3400 people since then, most of newbies working in Florence like my family and going home some miles away.
🧔Checkpoint Always liked STANLEY BAKERS films. Impressive stark and troublesome character in this film. What a fine actor Stanley BAKER is on top form here. PERFORMANCE an Intense concentrated 100% performance in this film.
To Bram Huysen To respond to the likes of those morons who come into u/tube to be rude is to add fuel to their abhorent thoughts and ignorance, these sorts are best left to their own miserable and lonely lives, qhat goes round comes round, ignoring them is the quickest cure. They are simply talking to themselves, because they have nothing better to do.
The gruff ones on youtube are chicken shit bastards who are too scared to be gruff in front of one's face. Plus they are poor bastards who are jealous of one doing better.
+Wow! Is that what they call a cliffhanger at the end? Good scenery and colour for 1956. As they are approaching the frontier the co-driver asks how fast can car go? Driver answers we are doing 100 mph, top speed is 160 mph. How much faster are these kind of cars now?
200 mph sometimes more. Depends on the car, the tune, and the track. You can see some videos taken on the Autobahn. Even the slow lane is scary. There's one with a Maserati clipping past 205. It'd be more exciting if the driver was texting of course. The matter of ground effects comes into play, a hundred plus ton 747 lifts off at 160. Lift plus thrust greater than weight plus drag, and you can fly to work.
There were no "mph" in those cars at that point in time...... it was all "kmph". Europe was always "normal" and only the UK was playing out of tune until they also adopted the Kilometer way of thinking. Today only the US keeps playing out of tune .......call it stubborn....or is it stupid?
elio De Carolis no, no. just noticed the chicken slaughter part way through the flick. But I was A vegetarian for 14 years. Now I'll chomp down a chicken....
Clint Eastwood really should have received an Oscar for best actress in this classic. Also if you look closely at around the 1 hour mark you will notice that fish don't have fingers and the product must be compressed cod with an outer crisp golden coating.
Ha, bought this on DVD and then found it on here for nothing. Oh well! Good to see simple films when men were men, rotters got their just deserts and hardly anyone was fat. This said I bought it for the cars!
5,000 Pounds Sterling for the stolen plans of a "fuel intake"? What amateurish gibberish! Even then, those cars are all supercharged and/or fuel injected with desmodromic valve trains like Maserati and Ducati. "Fuel intake" indeed, perhaps he means the air filter or fuel cap [they don't burn "gas"]????? Kirk Douglas and Gilbert Roland did a better job the year before in "The Racers" with Peggy Lee's singing to boot.
My dad loved the cars from this era , he was born in Australia in '43 and , and even though he was never in europe , he thoroughly enjoyed cars of this type that ran in the European circuit. R.I.P. dad.. 26/06/43 - 17/11/2017
What a really unique and well-written storyline for a keenly suspenseful 'heist, escape, true love adventure' drama!! An unusual role for Stanley Baker too, with historically rewarding scenes of classic sport racing models of MINT 1950s Ferraris, Jaguars, Aston Martins, Alfa Romeos, Mercedes, Maseratis, and even an early BMW racer!!! I loved the ending = Definitely "a cliff hanger"....!!! :-)
The producer of this film Betty E Box was a very successful trailblazer for women in the film industry. She began her career during World War 11 making propaganda movies and, after the war, produced a large number of films. She collaborated with director Ralph Thomas on more than thirty films. She was married to Peter Rogers, the producer of the hugely popular Carry On series.
I met Betty Box several times in the late 70s and early 80s without realising until some years later who she was. Her brother Sydney was also a film producer and screenwriter.
Worth watching (many times) if just for the 1950s elegance of northern Italy and of the cars (such glorious sounds). The young boy's comic book style plot, scenes and dialogue only add to the charm. The actors are all such a pleasure to watch, also due to their wardrobe styling, not just their acting and good looks. Reminiscent to To Catch A Thief, which was romance with a bit of "adventure", Checkpoint is adventure with a bit of "romance".
50s Italy looked very chic and beautiful , but must have still been suffering after the war . And those racing scenes are pure magic ( wouldn't have been quite so glamorous if it was shot in Solihull or port Talbot . . . . )
Nice to see reference to the David Brown Organisation, David being the tractor designer who bought Aston Martin (and Lagonda) almost by accident, and was later immortalised by James Bond's DB5, reckoned to be the fastest tractor of its day!
@arhassoc........Actually, the 'Goldfinger' car was a DB4 with 'modifications' to make it look like a DB5. [the DB5 was still a couple of months away from completion at the time].
Same as turboslag, since seeing this at the cinema with my dad in 57. Revelation - Maserati's were red after all, even though they were always grey on the Newsreels and television. A classic of it's time with Stanley Baker, Anthony Steel, James Robertson Justice, to name but a few. One of the many British Classic Films that DVD has forgotten about. Big Thanks for uploading!
Hello, you saw this with your dad in the cinema and my dad saw himself in the film when he saw it in the cinema. He was in Italy, and traveling around Europe on his motorcycle. He took a break and watched some commercial being made. He had no idea it was a film until he went to the movies and saw himself in it in '58 or so. He was leaning against his motorcycle during a cafe scene, but I cannot find that scene! They must have cut it for distribution...and I'm searching for the version that is in its original form. Anyway, I saw you mentioned seeing it with your dad...and my story is somewhat similar, so I had to share.
After reading there comments and enjoying the memories of days gone by I can't wait to start this film. I am so looking forward to te-living the past. Thanks to you all Gema. Hx
Yeah not bad.. I enjoyed this. The ending was a bit sudden and would have liked to see some details wrapped up. But that was how they did it back then I guess.
Never heard of this movie, but it's about 1950's sports cars, so I'm in. With Stanley Baker and James Robertson Justice it couldn't be bad much at all.
@@EuroScot2023I have 'Brave' on my tablet. I didn't know utube could be watched add free on it . What about the Amazon Firestick ? Does that support Brave? 🤔
OMG!!! I have been looking for this film for years! I saw a short sequence once on daytime TV but never noted the title and was subsequently unable to track it down. Some of the film uses period Mille Miglia footage, and the cars are brilliant. To say I'm thrilled is an understatement! Huge thankyou to the uploader!
Let's put like this, the props are always right in these old films also the language, real actors, don't have to put up with Yankie slang and poor acting, thank you fif1706.
Nice period racing action - the genuine shots of the Mille Miglia were good. They must have been of one of the last before De Portago killed himself and some of the crowd including children in 1957 and the race was banned. Pretty ropey plot though.
I believe the Maserati 200si is chassis #4505 A factory built solid axle car from 1956... One of two... OEM Engine was lunched at Sebring... I drove that car with a '59 250S engine in it. (Ex-Scuderia Centro-Sud Cooper from 1959 Sebring GP) In early 1970 Out on Tampa's Eight Mile Dead End For some quick de-coking ..... It somehow had a pre-war 5 speed crash box.... I think an 8CTF box.... ??? Learned while driving my father's old pre-war pickups... This from on the lot at Bay Autos.... Bay to Baly Blvd. Only $3500 An old GT-40 was $12,500... With a plain vanilla 351 ford in back.. I made a143 mph average on two flying runs through the well marked 1/4th mile With a mile+ start I had de-coked XK-140s and 150s out there... For Bud's Sports Car Clinic.... & car lot... USF's source for older crocks... Making sure they had good tyres... Cheerio! Forza Ferrari! J.C.
Anthony Steel fascinates me. A blue-eyed, square-jawed, clean-cut hunk who was a matinee idol in the 1950's, marrying the hottest woman on the planet, Anita Ekberg. He did himself no favours by buggering off to Hollywood with her, breaking his contract with the Rank Organisation, which infuriated the head, John Davis, who felt back-stabbed, especially after all the support they had given him. Anthonys time in Hollywood was a disaster. He got nothing but bad publicity for fighting with Ekberg, attacking the paparazzi and being arrested twice for drunk driving. He only did one film in Hollywood. Out of sheer desperation he went back to the UK in the hope he could resuscitate his dying career but was unable to regain his earlier popularity. If that wasn't bad enough Ekberg divorced him. His marriage to her only lasted around 3 years. After that his career went into terminal decline. He continued acting on stage and TV but it was sporadic, spending long periods on the dole until he gave up, withdrawing from public life. Years later his agent discovered he lived in near-poverty in a council flat in Middlesex! He had Anthony admitted to an actors home in West London where he spent the last few years of his life. It's clear Anthonys arrogance and egotism got the better of him. Amusingly Michael Powell cast Anthony for his film, Honeymoon, whom he called "the archetypal British shit."
Checkpoint (1956) After killing a few Italian cops during a burglary, a thief hired by a British car racing company must flee to Switzerland disguised as a race car driver during a rally. - imdb 5.6
did you not know that the ........employers ....of ......god knows ...........GRT Grand Trunk Express having ???? vacation ???? grand trunk express vacation ? for GRT???
Made me smile , when Stanley Baker and Anthony Steel are in the sports car . Speeding along....in the studio , no wind ruffling their dress collars. Out in the real air , driving along , collars dancing around like there's no tomorrow 😊 The abrupt ending was tacky , to say the least.😮 This might make a good movie , if it was updated....⁉️
fans of this may enjoy The Helldrivers which Stanley Baker is also in, where a crew of roughnecks have to make deliveries at reckless breakneck speeds, its more gritty and rough than this also its in black and white film, both are highly enjoyable
Crime Drama - Stanley Baker's character is sent to steal the plans from another company of their racing car designs, to ensure his employers win the competition.
@@None-zc5vg The car was an Aston Martin. A shot of the underside showed no driveshaft, so chances are it was just a mock up and not a real car entirely. Look at it @1:17:58 it has HUB CAPS. The real one has wire wheels haha!
Not Bakers Best Film bye any stretch of the imagination but some good racing scenes and did capture the Italian Landscape beautifully. A little Boring and the end was inevitable. Thanks for the upload.
Wow!! in Colour, such fantastic picture quality, my oh my James Robertson Justice, he brought so much joy in peoples hearts, sad that his only son drowned in a stream as a toddler, he is a pleasure to watch.
-Look at it this way, 60+ years from today, people will look at quite a few movies from now, & say that those movies made back in 2017 are old & slow don't bother watching it. The same way quite a few of the old movies were put down for.
..that give you space to think for yourself in the middle of them, as was considered good entertainment, not manipulating people into trance and imbibing them with often very nasty messages, as has been the fashion for somey years..so, justement, they can't think on their own..
-They make movies like this now, where people are talking thru 85-90% of the film. This even out-does a couple of modern,& dramatic or romantic movies.
