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Traffic with the Devil

  • 1946
  • Approved
  • 19m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
298
YOUR RATING
Traffic with the Devil (1946)
DramaShort

This "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Ang... Read allThis "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.This "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

  • Director
    • Gunther von Fritsch
  • Writer
    • Herbert Morgan
  • Stars
    • Charles Reineke
    • Ben Hall
    • Ralph Montgomery
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    298
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Gunther von Fritsch
    • Writer
      • Herbert Morgan
    • Stars
      • Charles Reineke
      • Ben Hall
      • Ralph Montgomery
    • 20User reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 1 nomination total

    Photos4

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    Top cast6

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    Charles Reineke
    • Self - Narrator
    • (as Police Sgt. Charles Reineke)
    Ben Hall
    • Out-of-Gas Motorist
    • (uncredited)
    Ralph Montgomery
    Ralph Montgomery
    • Motorist
    • (uncredited)
    Eva Puig
    • Driver of Ford Deluxe Convertible
    • (uncredited)
    Jason Robards Sr.
    Jason Robards Sr.
    • Irate Motorist
    • (uncredited)
    Ray Spiker
    Ray Spiker
    • Irate Motorist, Honking Horn
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Gunther von Fritsch
    • Writer
      • Herbert Morgan
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews20

    6.5298
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    Featured reviews

    7Hitchcoc

    Not Half Bad

    This is a nicely done short film about the Los Angeles traffic scene in 1946. It's post war and people are starting to return to the good life. That means more cars and more efforts to enjoy life. The problem is that, as the motorcycle cop says, the people in the cars don't realize the responsibilities they have. Most of these rather pedantic features are a bit much. This one has some nice production quality. The cop narrating it lives in the real world. He is compassionate but also stunned by people's stupidity. It also give us a picture of a place where the automobile has gone beyond the places that service it. Nicely done. Some great characterizations.
    7bkoganbing

    How America was changed with the automobile

    This short subject narrated by LAPD motorcycle patrol sergeant Charles Reineke demonstrates how the automobile changed American life for better or worse post World War II.

    I say that because in 1946 with the first of new cars rolling out of Detroit that year in four years because of the war, America really took to the highways. Let us also not forget all the driving restrictions of all those old cars still out there during the war. We as a nation were going to enjoy that new prosperity symbolized by the automobile and the vast quantities thereof.

    Reineke got a bit personal here as he describes his job and how his profession is not one of the most beloved. That's the truth, but the other side of that story is the thousands of little hole in the wall towns known as speed traps and the revenue from ticketed drivers support the place.

    Still traffic safety then as now is a problem, a bigger problem 66 years after this film was made. How many cars on the road now, I shudder to think.

    Traffic With The Devil got an Oscar nomination for Documentary Short Subject. Kind of dated now to say the least, but the message is timeless.
    7llltdesq

    Something of a historical curiousity now, interesting but dated.

    This documentary, nominated for an Academy Award, is a look back in time at the traffic problems in and around Los Angeles circa 1946. Interesting but qute dated, it does show that Los Angeles had problems with traffic flows even 55 years ago. Turner Classic Movies runs this occasionally and invariably runs it in March as part of its "31 Days of Oscar" programming. Worth watching.
    6boblipton

    Stress

    Ah, the automobile in 1946! How American! How wonderful! How can we ever live without them! How can we deal with the consarned things, with the crowded roads, the traffic cops, no place to park and no time to get to where we want to?

    Director Gunther Von Fritsch was not known for his comedy work, but with this short, musing on the problems and joys of automobiles, he produces a movie that veers from comic to tragic -- corpses lying on the road show us the latter.

    It's an early version of the movies they showed us in driving class back when I was a teenager: BLOOD ON THE ROAD, and so forth. Those, however, started off horrifically and got worse. This one lures you in and then hits you with the deadly facts.
    8bubbarian

    I'll drive safer!

    Every driver should see this! The world would be a safer place. The images of death and destruction are a blunt reality check. I wish they'd still shown this type of thing when I was in Driver's Ed. Somebody should remake this eye-opening short.

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    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
    Short

    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Charles Reineke, the officer on the motorcycle, was actually a sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department Traffic Unit when this short movie was made.
    • Goofs
      After a deadly accident, the narrator says, "But now his epitaph is only a pin at the intersection of Washington and Vermont", as an officer places a pushpin in a map. However, the simultaneous closeup of the Los Angeles map shows the officer placing the pin somewhere west of Olympic and Normandie, about a mile and a half northwest of the stated intersection.
    • Quotes

      Officer Charles Reineke: [voiceover] Of all the thankless jobs... You're supposed to be here to protect people, but they act like a cop was their natural enemy.

      Officer Charles Reineke: [a couple looks at him with suspicion, with a child in the back seat sticking out his tongue; then a pretty woman driving a car smiles at him] Well... most people, that is. People who don't hate cops are scared of cops; they should be scared without 'em. You have to get off the highway occasionally, or you find yourself leading a parade.

      Officer Charles Reineke: [pulls off road up to a vantage point overlooking the highway] That's what it is - a parade. Twenty-seven cars passing there every minute; average speed, 51 miles an hour. Forty years ago, it was eight cars a day; top speed, 26 miles an hour. Fifty years ago, there were wagons averaging 26 miles a day. Sixty years ago, that road was a cattle trail. People traveling a thousand miles like they once went 50. Speeding up their lives. People going a mile a minute to work, or play, out for the job, or getting away from it all. Going home, or looking for greener pastures. A new generation, freed from limitations of time and space. A nation on wheels - a nation going places. Give him a car, and every man's a king on the highway.

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 31, 1946 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Theatre of Life: Fact-Films from Real Life - Traffic with the Devil
    • Filming locations
      • 5820 South Alameda Street, Los Angeles, California, USA(traffic in front of McCullough Tool Co.)
    • Production companies
      • Loew's
      • Associated Press
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 19m
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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