Newman plays Frank Capua, a seasoned racecar driver who meets and woos Elora, a divorced single mother (Woodward) working in a car rental agency. The two fall in love and marry, and Capua adopts Elora's teenaged son. But when his fortunes on the track take a downward turn, Capua decides to absorb himself totally in the sport, to the detriment of his marriage. His neglected wife begins an affair with his chief racing rival, and his sponsor turns over to that same rival the car that Capua has been longing to drive. When his adopted son hitchhikes across country to support him (and reunite him with Elora), Capua gains the confidence to make his greatest mark yet in the Big Race.
What might have been a routine formula picture was elevated by the presence of Newman and Woodward, the screen's most respected couple at that time, and by Newman's intense fascination for fast driving. In fact, the project was originally intended as an NBC TV movie, but when Newman showed interest in it - for its racing theme rather than its script (which the actor felt was weak) - it was expanded into a big-budget theatrical feature. With Winning, Newman launched his long-time production partnership with John Foreman with a bang; the film grossed $7 million in the U.S. alone on its initial release and did even better in Europe, where racing was then a more popular sport. The authentic excitement of the Indy 500 was bolstered by the inclusion of footage of a 17-car pile up that was shot at the actual race the year before.
Newman's involvement in racing up to this point was strictly from the spectator end. He often rearranged his shooting schedule to attend the Indy 500 (the centerpiece contest in this film) and other races. With this project, he saw his chance to finally get behind the wheel. He and co-star Robert Wagner, who plays his rival, went to the famous Robert Bondurant Racing School, where James Garner and Yves Montand had trained for the earlier racing picture Grand Prix (1966). Newman and Wagner had far less time to learn than their predecessors, but within a week, Newman had amazed his teacher by advancing to driving solo. He began shooting Winning with only two weeks of high-performance driving experience, refusing a stunt double for many of the race sequences, a move that forced the worried studio to insure him for $3 million.
Woodward was equally frightened of her husband's newfound enthusiasm for the sport, especially after going out with him for a high-speed run around the track that left her fingernail marks in his arm. She even tried to get a sense of the appeal racing held for him by taking a turn around the Indy track herself during production - at 40 miles an hour. But she remained unconvinced. "She thinks competitive driving is the silliest thing in the world," Newman said. "It is also very scary for her, and she doesn't much care for it." But that didn't stop him from entering a number of races well into his 70s, even after some potentially serious crashes at 100+ miles per hour.
Besides the two married stars, the performance that got the most attention was that of young Richard Thomas, making his film debut as Woodward's young son. Variety predicted Thomas's "winning" work would get him future roles. He went on to appear in dozens of films, television series and made-for-TV movies, winning an Emmy for his role as John Boy in the long-running show The Waltons. Also in the cast were a number of real-life racecar drivers playing themselves, including Bobby Unser and Dan Gurney.
Director: James Goldstone
Producer: John Foreman
Screenplay: Howard Rodman
Cinematography: Richard Moore
Editing: Edward A. Biery, Richard C. Meyer
Art Direction: Alexander Golitzen, John J. Lloyd, Joe Alves
Original Music: Dave Grusin
Cast: Paul Newman (Frank), Joanne Woodward (Elora), Robert Wagner (Luther), Richard Thomas (Charley), David Sheiner (Crawford), Clu Gulager (Larry).
C-123m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
by Rob Nixon
