For someone who never had any technical training as an actress, it never ceases to amaze me how natural Annette Funicello is on screen. She's completely at ease in front of the camera, whether being feisty telling off her dad (Jan Murray), trading barbs with a surly blonde (Diane McBain), getting her face muddy, getting ripped on booze, or being funny and sexy with her leading guy (Fabian), Annette is never stiff or embarrassing. In fact, doing a little warm-up song number with a party band in her living room, she's a very sensual woman. The plot of this B-flick is strictly by-the-numbers, but the stock car racing scenes are better than the ones for Elvis Presley's "Speedway", released a year later. Credit future "Stunt Man" director Richard Rush with the tight pacing. The party-orgy looks like an outtake from a "Beach Party" flick gone awry, but it's a transition picture for the A.I.P. studios--and not a bad one. **1/2 from ****

Sure, the story is trite and Warren Berlinger is embarrassingly bad, but "Thunder Alley" manages to be a fairly decent flick. Credit Richard Rush ("The Stunt Man") for getting pretty good performances from Annette Funicello and Fabian. Diane McBain is always good, as is Jan Murray. Maureen Arthur gives the movie a poignant edge as the bubbleheaded "Babe," who can't really grasp the tragedy which has just taken place around her. The stock racing scenes are pretty good, but never really integrate into the story, due to AIP's unwillingness to match the color and resolution. Annette does a surprisingly good version of "What's a Girl to Do." Couldn't believe she could really sing. Annette also demonstrate some comedic skills which, sadly, neither AIP or Disney ever really put to full use. This is one of AIP's better efforts. I saw it on FLIX, which, apparently has the extended version which includes Annette's song.

Terminally blah 50's pop singer teen scream Fabian gives a thoroughly bland and stiff performance as Tommy Callahan, a proud, earnest, virtuous ace stock car driver whose unfortunate tendency to black out whenever he gets boxed in causes a massive lethal pile-up that leaves two drivers dead. Tommy gets suspended indefinitely from the pro racing circuit by hard-nosed NASCAR bigwig Stanley Adams. Tommy, disgraced and desperate for work, humbly accepts a degrading gig as a stunt daredevil driver in a two-bit thrill circus outfit owned by shameless skinflint opportunistic con man hustler Pete (a hearty turn by stand-up comic Jan Murray). Naturally, Tommy shows cocky eager beaver protégé Eddie (amiable Warren Berlinger) the ropes and falls in love with Pete's feisty, hot-tempered daughter (a surprisingly lively and hence more tolerable than usual Annnette Funicello). Of course, this latter development doesn't go over well with Tommy's current main squeeze, the extremely jealous and possessive racetrack groupie hottie Annie (the always enticing, attractively slender blonde spitfire Diane McBain, who heats up the screen with her customary fiery aplomb). Director Richard Rush, whose other 60's exploitation feature credits include the terrific hippie dope acidhead treat "Psych-Out" and the killer biker pictures "Hell's Angels on Wheels" and "The Savage Seven," jazzes up the standard-issue story by keeping the pace galloping along at a brisk clip and offering up a lot of snazzy visual flourishes. Monroe Askins' funky cinematography pulls out the wondrously garish psychedelic 60's stylistic stops: solarization, super-impositions, wipes, shaky hand-held camera-work, and dizzying segueways all shot in gloriously bright and vibrant Pathecolor. Kudos also to the groovy score, which has sinewy drums laying down a primordial pounding beat while fuzzed-out guitars rip-riff up a crackling sonic storm. Sy Salkowitz's predictable, but compact and serviceable script scrupulously covers all the necessary audience pleasing bases: bang-up peel out and crash'em demolition derby-style racetrack action (the authentically grainy racetrack newsreel footage especially smokes), fiercely going at each other's throats bitter rivalries, good-lookin' well-endowed girls in tight sweaters, crazy swingin' kids frenetically frugging away at regular intervals, a rowdy barroom brawl, and, in the movie's roll-over-wacky hedonistic highlight, a wild, delightfully raucous and unruly let it all hang out somethin' nutty sex'n'booze'n'dancing'n'stripping all-night rockin' party sequence. Only Fabian's underwhelming stale whitebread square presence and Annette briefly belting out this hideously saccharine slushy mush love ballad detract a little from the otherwise solid and on the money fun.