Speed (1936 Film) - Production

Production

Principal photography took place at the MGM studio, its Culver City, California backlot, and on location from March 20 to April 7, 1936. MGM had wanted to develop a film with a speed-racing theme to capitalize on worldwide headlines about Malcolm Campbell breaking the world's speed record for an automobile in his "Blue Bird", on September 3, 1935 at the Bonneville Salt Flats.For the sake of convenience and with a limited budget, Speed instead used the nearby Muroc, California area to recreate the film's record-breaking runs.

Scenes of the actual Indianapolis 500 were used from an earlier era when riding mechanics had to be incorporated in the race cars. The Emery "Falcon" world speed record race car transposed to the similar testing area, the Muroc dry lake bed, resembles the Tatra V570 streamliner series, but was a specially built movie model. The realistic sequences of an automobile factory that begin the film were shot in advance at Chrysler. The production company was able to film at the Chrysler factory in Detroit, show latest model Chrysler Airflow cars produced in the assembly line and the use of the testing grounds.

For Stewart, in his first starring role, he later recalled, "The only way to learn to act is to act ... For instance, I would have a tiny part in a big picture with stars like Clark Gable and Jean Harlow and others, and then I would have a big part in a tiny picture and so on." During a hectic period, from 1935 to 1939, Stewart appeared in 29 motion pictures. The roles spanned a wide gamut of quintessential everyman characters, from a mechanic/speed driver as he portrayed in Speed to that of a detective, doctor, executive, farmer, football star, lawyer, newspaperman, rustic "hayseed", soldier/sailor, skater, teacher, and even a murderer. Stewart considered Speed a good training ground, "I did a picture called 'Speed' which gave me my first leading role ... although it was a low-budget picture ... and Ted Healy, who played my best friend, told me, 'Think of the audience as partners ... as collaborators ... not just watchers. You have to involve them'."