Schnelle Jungs und kesse Mädchen

Lucky enough to catch and record this off of AMC a few years ago. The only thing about this movie that makes me want to view it again is to see what Gene Vincent was like at near the height of his fame. Gene, of course, does 'Be Bop A Lula' in color in 'The Girl Can't Help It' but he has some dialog in this one and does TWO songs with the Blue Caps in this one: 'Dance In The Street' and 'Baby Blue'. You get a good look at Gene's 2nd lead guitarist (after Cliff Gallup); Johnny Meeks and his greasy hair-do and dancer Tommy Facenda doing a frenzied shimmy. Also some Gene stage moves. Apparently his staring up into space and singing was something of a trademark. Anyhow, missing the 50's, this'll have to do for catching Gene. Oh yeah, the rest of the movie. Always nice to see the AIP logo and nice opening credits race scene down some street in the LA are in the 50's. A couple of fights, dances and less hot rod action that I expected. John Ashley apes Elvis the best he can and sings more songs than Gene (boo). ** out of *****. *** if you're a Gene fan.

Hard to rate a movie like this. It really belongs with the popular teenage genre of the 1950's. But judged on that restricted basis, it's a goodie-- roaring hotrods, tight sweaters, poodle skirts, and a nice dash of Gene Vincent r&r. Even multi-talented actor Ashley does his own numbers without dubbing. Forget the plot, something about raising rent money for the clubhouse, and John (Ashley) acing out rival Mark (Drexel). Then too catch the many snappy lines from a better than usual script that plays up the laughs. Even the old gals are a hoot, and I still can't believe the elderly maid did her own acrobatic tricks. See what you think. Note too, how many of the street scenes were apparently filmed alongside the slab-like walls of the movie studio. Still, I'm glad there's some cop catch-up for the wild street racing that may be fun but really is dangerous. So how did I miss this little gem back in '58; I'm sure I would remember it if for nothing more than the bullet-busted Marilyn Monroe look-a-like. But I'm glad to have finally caught it thanks to IMDB. Hard to believe the surviving kids from the flick are as old now as we drive-in freaks. But it was fun while it lasted. And it will be for you too if you still like a can of soda pop now and then.

John Abernathy III is a street racer with his hot rod. He hides his rock-n-roll hot rod lifestyle from his rich conservative family.

This is a nothing movie but the cars are darn nice. I love the old hot rods. I wish that the movie would be in color to show off the cars more. The music is fine early rock and rockabilly although I don't recognize any of the songs. This is almost a time capsule. As a movie, it's of limited value and the comedic attempts are really annoying. It's more fascinating as an artifact of a certain time.

Followers of the late Gene Vincent, one of the pioneers of the Rock and Roll music genre will have lots of reason to watch Hot Rod Gang. For the rest I can say there's hot rods, but only a couple of bad apples among the teens, hardly enough to call it gang.

Actually the teens led by John Ashley just want to maintain their clubhouse where they dance, listen to rock and roll, and work on their hot rods. Ashley does all three but he has to keep it on the sly lest his maiden aunts who are straight out of Arsenic And Old Lace find out as they hold the key to his millions. They don't poison people, they're just plain dotty.

Can't touch those millions, but Ashley can cut a record or two as a new rock and roll sensation with the help of Gene Vincent to save the club from Dub Taylor the landlord. In the meantime the club is getting a bad reputation from those teens who are into stealing and stripping cars.

Some songs by Ashley and Vincent are the only reason to see this drive- in special from the Fifties.

The main reason I decided to watch this movie was because since I've been recently reviewing movies featuring '50s Rock stars, I had to check this one out after finding out Gene Vincent was in it. Unlike previously in The Girl Can't Help It in which he only sang, here he also has some speaking lines as he's a friend of the leading lady, Jody Fair. John Ashley is the leading man and he sings quite a bit of songs as well. Maureen Arthur is the only other singer here though she only has one number. While there are plenty of hot rod races, there's also an eccentric group of supporting characters related to Ashley's character that provide many laughs. To tell the truth, I couldn't keep up with the plot since so much was going on! Still, I very much liked Hot Rod Gang. P.S. Another reason I decided to watch this was because this was the only other movie in which Kay Wheeler did a dance, her other one was Rock Baby - Rock It.