No one ever accused Don Prudhomme of being carefree. His intensity that bordered on ruthlessness, his single-mindedness, his quest to be the best drag-racer ever fit right in with his nickname “The Snake.”
 
Likewise, no one ever accused Tom McEwen of being a win-at-all-costs, cutthroat kind of drag racer. But his fun-loving, easygoing demeanor belied his marketing-manic mind, the one that christened him “The Mongoose” and triggered one of toy giant Mattel’s most successful product lines.
 
By themselves Prudhomme and McEwen might not have achieved the popularity that carved their names into National Hot Rod Association history for on-track performance and an off-track business move that revolutionized the sport.
 
Together, though, they had that glamour, that panache, that yin-yang dynamic. Maybe at times it was more like a Ralph Kramden-Ed Norton relationship or even a traveling Laurel and Hardy act.
 
Their slightly grudging mutual need is the foundation for the “Snake & Mongoose” movie from Entertainment Universe / Rhino Films that will hit theatres nationwide Sept. 6.
 
The film will be available in Atlanta; Bristol, Tenn.; Charlotte; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Daytona, Fla.; Denver; Detroit; Englishtown, N.J.; Gainesville, Fla.; Houston; Indianapolis; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Pomona, Calif.; Seattle; and Tampa/St. Petersburg.
 
The PG-rated film is about 90 minutes of quick-paced drama laced with archival footage from the NHRA that’s an especially remarkable production from Robin Broidy. She was immersed in developing a television series about ballet when Rhino Films’ Stephen Nemeth presented her this script from Alan Paradise and Wayne Holloway, who doubles as director.
 
“I read the whole thing,” Broidy said, “and I was really surprised by the end of that script how moved I was by it.”
 
The audience will be, too. Whether the film strikes a sentimental chord with viewers because of the Hot Wheels connection or drag-racing memories, it’s captivating — even though most people know how and where the plot goes.
 
Painstaking research that just might make Broidy the Ken Burns of drag racing allowed her to meet goal for a movie from her tall-order requirement: a script that needed “to have heart and soul and humor and be entertaining all at the same time.” It was a perfect fit for the 25-year independent filmmaking veteran who had specialized in the legal and business side of the industry at such firms as International Home Video and 20th Century Fox.
 
At her daughter Rachel’s suggestion, Broidy and executive producer husband Elliott Broidy hired Jesse Williams (“Grey’s Anatomy”) as the brooding, mechanically minded, and winning-consumed Prudhomme and Richard Blake as the boyishly charming, persuasive McEwen.

 
Ashley Hinshaw stars as Lynn Prudhomme and Kim Shaw as Judy McEwen. Casting gets an A-plus for selecting also Noah Wyle (of “ER” fame) as iconic Mattel exec Arthur Spear and Maxwell Perry Cotton (Jamie McEwen), Mason Vale Cotton (Tommy McEwen), and Fred Dryer (Ed Donovan).

Broidy and Co. included some special cameos for educated drag-racing fans. Watching the film will become a game to see if the audience can spot the real Snake and Mongoose, Roland Leong, Dave McClelland, Alexis DeJoria, and — if one has an especially keen eye — Ron Capps.
 
“Snake said to me at that very first meeting, ‘You know I have a SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card. I want a part in this movie. I want to say something where I go, Park that crap over there!  I want to be a pit boss,’ ” Broidy said. He kept reminding her of his wish to appear in the film. She kept her promise to do that. McEwen ended up in the film, too, although he was as reluctant to do that as Prudhomme was to switch to a Funny Car back in the late 1960s and early ’70s.
 
But Williams and Blake are top-drawer in their portrayals of the main characters. Williams, his icy-blue eyes able to flash that laser-quick temper or sparkle with mischief like Prudhomme’s, made a seamless transition to The Snake. Blake exuded that McEwen lovability and approachability — and that lost-boy look when trapped between his family life and his racing aspirations.
 
Neither actor delivered that by accident.

Photo by Darren Michaels

Before the film’s shooting began, Williams and Prudhomme spent a couple of days getting acquainted at The Snake’s Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., home.
 
Brody said Prudhomme was on the set “about 75 percent of the time we were shooting. So they spent a lot of time during breaks, talking. And Snake would teach him all kinds of things. He got a sense of the guy: how he behaves, how he would react in certain situations, so that he and Richard were able to ad-lib all the time during movie-making. So they really understood their characters.

Photo by Darren Michaels

“In Richard’s case,” Broidy said, “he went down to Anaheim from L.A. once a week for six weeks and spent the whole day with Mongoose and his friends, having lunch or dinner or both. And Mongoose would take him each time to a place that was meaningful to him: where his ’57 Chevy Funny Car was stored, where he grew up, where he lives now.”
 
That extra effort all the way around makes for a film that gives the right blend of cool cars and hot drama. Still, the scenes aren’t predictable and mawkish. Mercifully, they tell a true story with little Hollywood-style affectations and no contrived off-the-course plot twists.
 
But Broidy said it presented its share of challenges, including Prudhomme and McEwen themselves — although they always amused her even when they introduced concerns. She said it’s incredibly difficult, and understandably so, making a movie about not only one but two living legends.
 
At one meeting, she said Prudhomme informed her, “We had quite a life on the road, so this movie’s going to have to be rated R at the very least.”

 
Broidy said McEwen excitedly, responded, saying, “What are you talking about?! This is about the Hot Wheels. Five-year-olds have to be able to go to this movie. This movie has to be a G.”
 
Said Broidy, “Great. How am I going to mesh these two stories and make an R-rated G movie?!” The film received a PG rating, for smoking and some language concerns, but the film handled touchy subjects subtlety and tastefully.

 Prudhomme said the entire Snake & Mongoose scheme “was Tom’s idea. He had kids. He was married — ahem . . . believe it or not. And he came to the shop one day and said, ‘Hey — My mom knows someone at Mattel. I’m going to go to Mattel and see about sponsorship with the Hot Wheels cars. I thought he was crazy.”
 
McEwen said, “I had an idea because of the animals, the Mongoose and the Snake. Hot Wheels started in 1965, and they were generic cars. I always thought with the kids that it’d be fun if they had cars with little animals on ’em. I thought they’d like that.”

Prudhomme put it in perspective: “You didn’t have to have a major sponsor back then. We really made our living barnstorming around the country. We’d run four or five times a week. So a sponsor was a good thing to have.”
 
McEwen said, “The first time we went on tour, 1968 or ‘9, it was just him and his wife and me by myself on the road and we just started going places. And we didn’t have a big crew. We would get guys at the local tracks to help us. And we would just kind of go from track to track. In those days, if you got $1,000 appearance money, that was big money in those days. You could build a car for $1,000.
 
Then, he said, “We got the Mattel thing and turned that around in ’69, and they started the big corporate stuff that has gone on to be the big thing now.”
 
Part of what helped Broidy capture that on film in “Snake & Mongoose” was something she noticed about the two protagonists right away.

 
“The reason they have been friends for 50 years is because they make each other laugh,” she said, declaring they’re among the few people she has known who can make each other laugh. “I think Snake kept Mongoose around because there are very few people in the world who could bring an actual laugh to his mouth. He just zings him and makes him laugh.”
 
Even the final scene includes an example of that — so viewers will want to watch through the credits.
 
Despite not having grown up with any connection to drag racing, Broidy also waxed a little nostalgic about the film, saying it can teach a variety of lessons while it entertains.
 
“We’re in a time right now when everybody thinks they’re right and they don’t have to listen to anybody. ‘Two heads are better than one’ is a very old American phrase, but we don’t hear it much now,” she said.
 
“My favorite thing of the whole movie is that Don thought, ‘All I need to do to succeed is win’ and Mongoose thought, ‘All you need to do to succeed is market yourself well.’ And when they finally listened to each other, each one used what the other one had to offer, and they both became successful,” Broidy said.

 She said she’ll consider it successful “if it’s a great hour and a half, hour and 40 minutes, for everyone and they feel like they’ve learned something new about the guys they didn’t know, had some fun, laughed, remembered all their fun times from the track, learned something about how sports marketing works, the entrepreneur end of it, that you can’t be afraid to get up and go and try your idea, no matter how scary and stupid it sounds.”

That worked for Tom McEwen and the reluctantly compliant Don Prudhomme.
 
And this movie works for all the Baby Boomers who used to sit on the floor and play for hours with their Hot Wheels toy cars . . . or all the longtime drag-racing fans who remember the match-racing days and the early days of the NHRA with only a couple of nationals events . . . and anyone who has a soft spot for the power of listening to and caring about one another.