Film Review

“ENDURANCE,” featuring Jean Lodge, Michael Medwin and Guy Middleton. A Cecil Mask Production.

Endurance is sub-titled a Fantasy of Le Mans and was filmed for the Dunlop Rubber Co., Ltd. All followers of motor-racing will want to see it, for it captures the atmosphere of Le Mans and contains some interesting “shots” of the 1950 race, both by day and at night. “Dunlop Mae” and Norman Freeman star in the film. Fantasy has certainly been woven with fact and the former isn’t altogether convincing from the motor-racing aspect. Girl drivers do not lower their tyre pressures before the Le Mans race simply because they dislike the bumps, nor do they partake of midnight swims with the boy-friend, at least, we hope they don’t, on the night before the race—particularly if that boy-friend has talked nothing but vulcanising and hot-presses and rubber technique all through dinner. Jean Lodge keeps wonderfully clean, too, after driving an XK 120 Jaguar in the race, although Guy Middleton gets quite dirty, especially when replacing the lead to the coil after an involuntary stop of which we doubt if Lucas will approve! However, it is billed as a phantasy, and it’s jolly good fun. You will love Jean as a girl-dicer and she and Guy are a jolly keen pair—they even contrive to have the Jaguar washed-down somewhere during the 24-hour race! The actual shots are worth seeing, especially the gyrations of the two-seater Cadillac. But somehow, good entertainment that it is, this film doesn’t create a lasting impression, perhaps because fantasy and fact are bad mixers. Maybe the moral is don’t try to mix them. There is sufficient romance in motor-racing not to need the addition of a love interest where advertising films are concerned—the Shell Film Unit proved that last year.—W. B.