View A French Kiss With Death
“A French Kiss With Death: Steve McQueen and the Making of ‘Le Mans’”
Michael Keyser with Jonathan Williams
Review by Gregg Leary
Category:Auto Racing -> ALMS Le Mans
In a review of “Speed Addicts,” we attributed the lines, “Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting,” to Steve McQueen, as racing driver Michael Delaney in the film “Le Mans.” Author Mark Hughes indicated that it was said years earlier by Formula One driver Jean Behra. Now, in “A French Kiss with Death,” we find that it was also uttered by Karl Wallenda of the famous “Flying Wallendas” high wire act. Karl said, “Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting.” Perhaps the high wire analogy is appropriate to Steve McQueen and the making of “Le Mans.” Steve had to balance his acting gift and passion for driving to create a believable film that did justice to one of the world’s greatest racing extravaganzas…largely without a script. It was like walking the high wire without a net.
Michael Keyser writes, “When ‘Le Mans’ was released in 1971, it was not treated kindly by many critics. Too much racing, and not enough story to appeal to a general audience, they said. Steve (McQueen) the racer, made ‘Le Mans’ for racers like himself, not for critics.” In this critic’s mind, there can never be “too much racing” in a film. I saw “Le Mans” at a drive-in during my senior year in high school. It was so good, I actually watched the movie. I vividly remember McQueen’s hands twitching involuntarily as he “came to” after being knocked out in his accident. Now THAT was acting. Four years later when I was in college in England, I thumbed across the Channel to experience the 1975 version of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in person. McQueen’s film had done its job. I was hooked on racing. Thirty five years after watching the movie at an Ohio drive-in, I’m reviewing a book about the film.
“A French Kiss with Death” begins with “Wheels and Reels,” a chapter about racing films. It starts with Barney Oldfield’s “A Race for Life” (1913) and speeds through “Grand Prix” (1966), “Winning” (1968) and “Le Mans.”(1971.)
Chapter Two, “The Man and the Machines,” gives a brief bio of Terrance Steven McQueen. Steve was born March 24, 1930 in a suburb of America’s “Racing Mecca,” Indianapolis. His dad was a stunt pilot in a barnstorming flying circus. When Steve was six months old, his dad literally “flew the coop” and Steve never saw him again. Steve would later run away with a “circus” just like his dad. Steve bounced around with relatives in Indiana, Missouri and Los Angeles. McQueen spent time in reform school, jumped ship while in the Merchant Marines… worked in a brothel…joined the Marines…went AWOL, then somehow managed to be in the honor guard that protected President Truman’s yacht. Steve’s love for motor vehicles surfaced in the Marines where he drove a tank
After an honorable discharge, Steve ended up in New York City and took up acting, “as a way to meet girls.” McQueen raced and repaired motorcycles. He worked on James Dean’s motorcycle. (The coincidences of McQueen’s and Dean’s Hoosier background…absentee fathers… and being raised by relatives is uncanny.) McQueen’s first film was “Somebody Up There Likes Me” starring Paul Newman. Newman got the role after Dean was killed in his Porsche Spyder on the way to a race in Salinas. Newman would star in the 1968 racing film “Winning”…three years before McQueen’s “Le Mans” hit the screen. McQueen, Newman and Dean took their racing very seriously.
Steve not only raced cars and motorcycles, he collected them. At the time of his death he had 55 cars and 210 motorcycles. Jay Leno is one of the few who has a comparable collection. When his movie schedule and director’s rules allowed it, Steve ran motorcycle and car club races in the United States and Europe. He formed a friendship with Stirling Moss. In “The Great Escape,” Steve had the motorcycle chase written into the script for him. Fellow racing aficionado James Garner starred in the film…and would later star in what many consider the greatest racing film of all time…”Grand Prix.” Steve and “Grand Prix” director, John Frankenheimer had originally planned to work together on a racing film based on Robert Daley’s book, “The Cruel Sport,” but Steve split from the project. It would be four years later that, “Le Mans” would be created.
The final obstacle in McQueen’s mind before embarking on the movie project was to establish credibility with “real race drivers” who would participate in the filming of “Le Mans.” He did that beyond all expectations when he and co-driver Peter Revson finished second in the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring. McQueen excelled despite wearing a “Frankenstein boot” that protected his broken foot…injured in a motorcycle crash.
“A French Kiss with Death” traces the history of Le Mans as well as the cars and drivers that have run there. Excellent photographs accompany the very readable text. Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lola, Matra and Porsche get their own chapters. “The Making of ‘Le Mans’” gets the star treatment…nearly 200 pages of the 460 page work is devoted to the making of the movie and includes informative text and informational captions to the many photographs…crash sequences from the film…story boards…posters…script notes.
The critics were not kind to “Le Mans.” One said, “In comparison to John Frankenheimer’s ‘Grand Prix,’ ‘Le Mans’ is ‘Petit Prix.’” Steve would probably give that critic the famous British two-fingered salute…a gesture he used in the film. This critic gives “A French Kiss with Death” four lug nuts out of five. It is “formidable” on many levels.