The Last Ride (1944)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

D. Ross Lederman

Writer:

Raymond L. Schrock (writer)

Release Date:

7 October 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman

Cast

Richard Travis	...	Detective Lt. Pat Harrigan
Charles Lang	...	Mike Harrigan
Eleanor Parker	...	Kitty Kelly
Jack La Rue	...	Joe Genna
Cy Kendall	...	Capt. Butler
Wade Boteler	...	Police Chief Delaney
Mary Gordon	...	Mrs. Mary Kelly
Harry Lewis	...	Harry Bronson
Tod Andrews	...	Fritz Hummel (as Michael Ames)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leah Baird	...	Mrs. Bronson

Runtime:

57 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #8942)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

When bad rubber meets the road...

This crime programmer from the end of the Second World War holds interest as a period piece, since it's based on the wartime scarcity of rubber and the consequent thriving of bootleg-tire rings. When a wealthy young man, all set for a night of boozing and dining at a roadhouse called The Plantation, finds his roadster stripped of his tires, his buddy hands him a card. Within minutes, a dealer shows up, but instead of Ecstasy or crystal meth, `brand-new' tires are the contraband. But when the drunken young daredevil takes a curve at 100 miles an hour, a blowout sends him and his date to kingdom come. He bought not only the plantation but lethal knockoffs - the equivalent of what a quarter-century later would be bad acid.

The bulk of the story revolves around police attempts to crack the ruthless ring, and it devolves into Irish-American stereotypes that might be offensive if they weren't so quaint. A couple of brothers named Harrigan (Richard Travis and Charles Lang) are at loggerheads; one's an honest cop, the other a hooligan mixed up in the phony-rubber ring. To make matters worse, one's named Pat and the other Mike (and to make them worse still, the girl they're both sweet on is named Kitty Kelly - Eleanor Parker, in a sliver of a role). Good cop Pat pretends to go bad to infiltrate the gang, but there's already a bad cop on the force, one who's head man in the racket. The Last Ride is all pretty routine, barely saved by its glimpse into a vanished style of petty crime.