Death Race 2000 (1975)

In the future, a beloved leader with fascist tendencies runs an annual race in which the drivers must hit and kill pedestrians for points. The racers are elevated to the status of national heroes, such as Machine Gun Joe (Sylvester Stallone) and Calamity Jane (Mary Woronov), but none have reached the stature of mysterious champion Frankenstein (David Carradine), with his black mask and (supposedly) hideously wounded face.

This year, various subversive forces scheme to upset the race and stop it for good, and the script deliberately keeps us on our toes as various characters reveal their true natures and begin to work together. Also an actor, Bartel had a perfect touch for black comedy, always getting close enough to the violence for the sake of humor, but never going too far.

Roger Corman, of course, produced, and the cinematography was by Tak Fujimoto, who would graduate to bigger "B" movies (The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense).

Disney re-released this film in a 2005 Special Edition with a commentary track by Corman and Woronov, a making-of featurette and a trailer. A Blu-Ray followed in 2010.