Hot Rod

This was required watching in the early 50's when we were building rods & customs. Poor acting, second rate plot, but Oh Those Cars!!! Anyone building a retro-rod today should be able to see this. Too bad we can't get it on tape or DVD

This is a really poor film. It features two alleged teenagers, reference is made to going to school, and they're way way past their sell-by date to be teens. Jimmy Lydon, who was really good in the Henry Aldrich movies, was playing a teenager NINE YEARS earlier than this movie was made, and even then he was almost past his teens. Gil Stratton as his sidekick 'Swifty' is even older. Neither of them really could pass for a teenager or high school student. In fact it's kinda laughable. Lydon plays it low key; he's pretty skinny and still does have a bit of baby-face to him but Stratton is absolutely not believable in his role.

There are so many old hot rod movies out there and this is one which disappointed me. How about getting character roles played by people who are believable in them?

Before watching "Hot Rod", I also watched "The Devil on Wheels". Both films are low budgeted exploitation films from so-called 'Poverty Row Studios'....small outfits who filmed by renting out space at major studios...often at night. In general, these films were very quickly made, cheap and less than stellar. "The Devil on Wheels" is worse, as it was made by tiny PRC....whereas "Hot Rod" was really not terrible and that's a bit of a surprise because it's from Monogram.



Judge Langham has two sons, David and Joe. Joe is a respectable policeman and David is a teenager who is fascinated with hot rods. The judge hates hot rods and they show him in court lecturing teens about the dangers of hot rodding. Because of his hatred of these fast cars, he only lets David have a car if it's not souped up and isn't a speedster. However, the young man is soon accused of driving recklessly and causing an accident. What's next? See the film.

While few would consider "Hot Rod" a great film, it's not nearly the bad film I'd expected. Much of it is that while it isn't subtle, it isn't nearly as preachy as other cheap hot rodding films of the era and teenage driving isn't a black & white issue in the picture. The judge's son isn't a terrible kid and the problem isn't as simplistic as it was in "The Devil on Wheels" and other roadster films of the day. The acting isn't bad considering everything and the film is a decent time-passer--not some cheap exploitation pic.

By the way, look for the character 'Jack'. He was played by Tommy Bond...a guy who in his childhood years appeared in dozens of Little Rascals films. He usually played Butch the bully.

Those darn teenagers are at it again, with their fast movin' horseless carriages! Dave and Swifty are trying to get an off- road race track set up so that their friends don't have to race in the streets, but of course Dave's father is the local judge, and is set dead against it. Jimmy Lydon and Gil Stratton co-star in this teen angst shortie from Monogram, ( which is now Allied Artists). After trials and tribulations, ups and downs, mistaken identities and hold-ups, the boys hope their father will approve the track area, which would be a safer solution, and get those darn kids off the streets. The plot line is pretty inane, but worth seeing for some great oldie, jazzed up jalopies, as well as some old scenery of 1950s Los Angeles. A great chase scene right at the end, and it would be fun to see what some of those locales look like today. This shows now and then on TCM, but only 60 votes so far. Pretty tame stuff. The rebellious kids are all dressed so neatly, and speak so well... i wonder if they really were like that, or was this just Hollywood's image at the time. and you can feel the anger when the teenager's father doesn't believe when he's telling the truth, a common feeling we all had at one point. Directed by Lew Collins.... had worked on a couple shows with John Wayne.

The writing and acting are deeply cheesy (but in an endearing way- It's actually pretty funny, at times) but the historic cars in the opening 4 minutes alone are worth the price of admission- The McGee Roadster, the Bill Burke Belly-tank, rare footage of the early, Lake Muroc SCTA trials.

The cars in the main storyline aren't show-rods; Really, the modifications are pretty basic- '32 flathead-powered roadsters with fenders removed, dropped front axle, a hot camshaft, a 2x2bbl, or maybe 3x2bbl manifold, and finned aluminium heads- chromed on the fancier cars. But they're realistic for what a teenager with limited skills and limited budget could do in 1950 California- Back when you could pay for a hot rod build, with the earning from a before-school paper-route... before you needed to OWN the newspaper, to afford an A-V8, or Deuce Roadster.

(This movie is so early in the hot rod era, that there isn't even a Deuce Coupe in the whole film- Why would a kid bother with a big, heavy, undesirable 3-window coupe, when you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a 32 roadster, selling for under $100?)