Hi-Jacked

Jim Davis later patriarch of the Ewing family of Dallas stars as a paroled ex-convict who is working as a truck driver. He gets himself hi-jacked a couple of times and his job and the authorities start suspecting him of being an inside man. The guy who's really doing the tipping decides with the fence for the stolen merchandise to sweeten the suspicious pot by planting evidence to incriminate him. Though carrying a weapon is an automatic trip back to the joint, as Davis points out, he has to stay free to clear himself. Especially after the evidence implicates his completely innocent wife Marcia Mae Jones and she's arrested when the police miss him.

The film reminds of a much superior noir classic Kansas City Confidential where John Payne finds himself in a similar jackpot. Not that this is a bad film, but its from the poverty row Lippert Pictures studio and has the shallow production values of its origins.

Davis does well as a guy looking to take care of business and the crooks who have done him wrong. The gang is headed by fence Paul Cavanaugh who advises and doesn't control. The muscle is done by David Bruce and he has a rough bunch with him including a wannabe in Sid Melton. Melton was in a whole lot of Lippert productions providing much needed comedy relief. And Iris Adrian as a wisecracking waitress is also in the cast and every film that she graces is that much better for her presence.

Hi-Jacked is a good product, very good considering the cheapness of its origins.

"Joe" (Jim Davis) is a trucker who falls foul of hijackers for a second time, arousing the suspicions of the police who discover that he has a record. Things only get more complicated when he is discovered transporting contraband. "Joe" quickly realises that he is being set up, but can he find out by whom before the cops conclude that he belongs back behind bars? It's quite a well paced little action thriller, this, that is just sadly let down by some really mediocre acting and loads too much dialogue. The usually reliable Paul Cavanagh isn't given enough to do and the really unremarkable Marcia Mae Jones ("Jean") way too much as we head to a predictable, but quite exciting, conclusion. Sam Newfield does a competent job directing this tale of roadway piracy that has a message for all potential customers about the extent of this real crime on America's roads in the 1940s!

Beware of the placing of B-movies on a pedestal. I'm used to the lionizing by lovers of cheap junk from recent decades (a la Troma fandom in the spurious "so bad it's good" POV reflected in thousands of IMDb reviews) but in the case of "Hi-Jacked" we have an authentic, vintage B movie that also impresses the fans.

Actual movie has little to offer. Very weak comic relief from the usual source, Sid Melton, a flat performance by Jim Davis who went on to much bigger things in Hollywood and a tired "inside job" sort of story about a criminal gang preying on truckers. It's not interesting on any level and offers zero suspense or thrills.

Only surprise here, for a 1950 movie, is a sequence showing a tv magazine-format presentation depicting a fur coat fashion show to help set up a story line about stolen furs. It ends with a supposedly "cute" mention of its next episode having a visit inside a prison -lame comical foreshadowing. To feature television in a movie so uncritically at this time seems counterintuitive, given the threatening competition of the new medium to movies in real life.

An ex-con trucker works to clear himself from involvement with a gang of hi-jackers.

Can't expect much from a cheapo Lippert production, but this little programmer manages some interest. Davis does well as an ex-con truck driver. His skinny, towering frame and bushy hair have a different look from the usual Hollywood lead. The movie also benefits from highway filming along a major route into LA. Then too, I expect there's some insight into hi-jacking operations of the time since that angle appears pretty realistic.

But why-oh-why does Lippert insist on putting pint-sized Sid Melton in so many of their productions. Here, his silly phony tough guy does nothing but detract from what's otherwise a sober crime drama. Not so, the one-and-only Iris Adrian as a hash house waitress. Too bad Lippert didn't realize she furnishes enough expert comedy relief without the clumsy Melton. Also, look for Paul Cavanaugh (Hagen) whose polished bad guys graced many superior productions of the 30's and 40's.

Nothing special here. Just one of those minor programmers that would soon get absorbed into half-hour TV, in this case, into Highway Patrol (1955-1959).

In France you had Gilles Grangier's GAS OIL, where a truck driver was involved with gangsters. So this one offers nothing new, everything is predictable but fun, agreeable with a Jim Davis in rather good shape and convincing in this role. Sam Newfield shows his medium quality stuff; he made better but also worse. Plus, the scheme of a man accused of a crime or offense which he did not commit and then tries to prove his innocence, this scheme is so boring to me, because the result is always the same in the end. So, I watched this one like a cow watching a train go by. It is short so I had no excuse not to try it.