Traffic with the Devil (1946) User Reviews

How America was changed with the automobile

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 16 August 2012]

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.

Stress

[boblipton · 6/10 · 12 October 2019]

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.

bland start turns into real-life bloodbath

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 17 July 2021]

The narrator is LAPD Sgt. Charles Reineke who patrols the highways around L. A. on his motorcycle. These are his stories. This short film is part of the Theatre of Life series.

This is trying to be a warning against reckless driving. It's rather pedestrian for the first ten minutes and then it explodes with a montage of real life accident aftermaths. There is plenty of blood. The carnage is real. This short would be more effective if it concentrates on those footages. It needs to shock and awe this subject matter.

historic and all too relevant today

[skiddoo · 9 August 2011]

A new generation freed of the limitations of time and place. A nation on the move. 50 years ago there were no automobiles. Now there are 1.25 million pleasure cars in Los Angeles. Are we driving the car or is it driving us? We have more automobiles than anywhere and with them we have more traffic tangles and more jangled nerves, but it's progress, you know. Didn't we get what was good for us?

All the signs were there in the 1940s for the mess we have today. Dated? Hardly! Realistic and gruesome. Real dead bodies--a child, adults. Real bleeding accident victims. As the narrator says, personal deaths not statistics.

It's also historic. California was inundated with war workers. They lived in every sort of nook and cranny they could find including staying far out of the city, getting to the job as best they could, trying to find a way to make it to the grocery store and deal with childcare, all of it extremely difficult due to the lack of preparation and facilities and the tremendous amount of overtime. They got all sorts into the city and state--the destitute of the Great Depression who were still terribly poor into the Forties, as well as wives of service men wanting to be near them or wanting to do something to help, and people who saw a chance for advancement. Most people came by car. The city was suddenly packed with every kind of driver imaginable. Some of them probably got a license from sending in a form with the money, no test of any kind required. There was very little national uniformity in laws and regulations so what was okay in Arkansas or New York might not have been true in California. Unfortunately for the future of the nation, the solution to the congestion seemed to be build more and larger roads. But they immediately filled up with cars, too. This short shows that we got where we are today along a very straight highway in a very short span of time.

This past week a former Governor of SD with a lead foot got another speeding ticket. He's had many. He never learns. Not even after going to jail for killing a man when he was speeding. Just as in this short. Dated? NO.

Something of a historical curiousity now, interesting but dated.

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 7 November 2001]

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.

Not Half Bad

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 11 September 2023]

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.

Great snap shot of life in L.A. in 1946.

[mcbride500 · 9/10 · 27 December 2006]

I caught this on AMC and loved it! It is a documentary about traffic safety from the eyes of a motorcycle cop. I love how it shows fashions, autos and scenery of the real L.A. right after the war. This post-war, pre-Elvis time period is one that I find interesting and this film sheds some light on life in America then.

It was filmed about the same time as "It's a Wonderful Life." Life depicted in this film is very different from life portrayed in Bedford Falls.

I understand that it won an Oscar but I cannot find a copy of the film for purchase. If you find a source, let us know!

Traffic and safety in 1940s America

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 April 2016]

"Traffic with the Devil" is a 70-year-old black-and-white sound documentary from the United States. This one was nominated for an Oscar, but War was still on people's minds, so it lost to a film talking about the consequences of World War II. But back to this one here. The director was actually a prolific filmmaker and the writer managed several Oscar nominations in the years after this. This documentary runs for 19 minutes and includes some comedy, some drama (towards the end) and lots of information. It was all about educating the American people on the dangers of reckless driving, yet emphasizing how important automobiles have become. I personally think it may have been a decent film for its time, but by today's standards, it has not aged very well. That's why overall, I would only recommend it to film historians. I liked, however, that they used a regular guy (a police sergeant) to narrate the entire thing and not a Hollywood superstar.

Every bit as relevant today.

[jstaberpressenter · 10/10 · 12 October 2019]

As a modern day traffic officer I can tell you that the numbers have gotten exponentially larger and cars have gotten faster but the driver behavior hasn't changed. I'd like to see the LAPD do a modern remake.

Slow down, think, and be careful....OR DIE!!!!!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 17 July 2021]

"Traffic with the Devil" is a well meaning documentary that sometimes manages to make its message about as dry and uninteresting as possible.

The film is about traffic fatalities and how they are a product of more drivers AND thoughtlessness, stupidity, and a desire for speed. It shows a variety of staged vignettes, followed by lots of footage of injured and dead people*.

Overall, an odd curio and a film with a strong message...but delivered poorly at times. It certainly AIN'T a fun film to watch!

*Whether these were actual corpses is unknown. Several truly looked like dead folks, a few (such as the little girl) looked staged. Who knows?

Traffic problems as seen by a California state trooper.

[roglabrie · 9/10 · 29 March 2006]

I disagree with the comments that the movie was dated... The issues brought out in the movie are just as current today as it was in 1946. The traffic problems then are no different today and should be used as clear examples for today's young driver students. This movie could be used to attract young drivers to this very important topic.. It is sort of nice seeing that the problems of the 1940's are still pertinent to today's problems. The fact that the movie is dated gives it the charm and provides a unique emphasis on the problems of highway traffic. I think that this movie should be offered as a training aid to high school students... The message it puts out is just as true now as it was then.

Thanks

I'll drive safer!

[bubbarian · 8/10 · 13 December 2002]

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.

Unfortunately, still holds true today in 2020, as it did in 1946: Same thing, different year .

[tonglo-95-45841 · 10/10 · 19 August 2020]

To make this easier to swallow, there had to be some humor in this Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Short; otherwise, it would have been to hard to watch. Why? Because it still all too true in today's world. While I enjoyed watching the automobile life of an era gone by in 1946; I was heartbroken to see the poor lifeless eyes of the dead little children-which WAS two too many! Unfortunately, these had to be shown to give the full impact of the consequences of the reckless drivers, which unfortunately, as I previously stated, still holds true today.

"Fast-moving" cautionary short about reckless driving...

[wlgme · 30 April 2017]

...with a curiously ambiguous parting shot.

For better or worse, the other IMDb reviewers of this short have covered most of its salient points, so I'll content myself firstly with praising its epigrammatic narration, and secondly (and much more importantly) with expressing my surprise at its closing line, which is spoken by real-life LAPD traffic cop Charles Reineke to an outraged motorist complaining of a close encounter with a reckless driver:

"Anyway," says Reineke, "stopping cars won't stop reckless driving. That's up to the driver."

By "stopping cars," Reineke means "giving tickets to drivers," and it could be argued in his defense that he's alluding to the fact that his outraged motorist was himself a reckless driver only a little while earlier, and ticketed by Reineke to no effect, before that recklessness led to a crash which left the motorist with his neck in a brace, and a harsh lesson to ponder from the school of hard knocks.

But Reineke's remark is nonetheless troubling. It seems to point to a time when reckless driving was considered an offense worthy only of ticketing and not loss of license and, in egregious cases, imprisonment. Until the 1980s, a similar laissez faire attitude was prevalent toward the carnage caused by drunk driving - many of us are old enough to remember "lovable" drunk driver Foster Brooks on THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW.

Thank goodness for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)! We need them as much as ever, and as much as we need something along the same lines to combat the latest scourge of America's bloody highways - thoughtless texting.

As anyone who's ever driven around L.A. well knows . . .

[pixrox1 · 8/10 · 2 March 2019]

. . . there are just too many cars out there. TRAFFIC WITH THE DEVIL attests to this pernicious fact. The narrator states that three-quarters of this Planet's automobiles are currently tooling around U.S. Highways, with the Blue Whale's share winding up on the West Coast (especially in the Los Angeles area). When a lot of people get mad, they start driving West. Then the REALLY irate, ticked-off, irritable folks reach the Pacific and have to stop, usually in or around L.A. TRAFFIC WITH THE DEVIL shows that there's almost nowhere for all of these seething newcomers to park (as many die of Old Age before finding a spot). Out of frustration, those stymied ticking time bombs who survive their initial few years of endless circling in Highway Hell eventually ram their cars into trees, pedestrians, or other vehicles. Despite this city's name, most of these angry motorists are bound in the OTHER direction. As TRAFFIC WITH THE DEVIL concludes, many Real Life corpses are pictured being carted off to the local crematoria (aka, their Final Roasting Place). Obviously, California MUST ban ALL motorized road hogs ASAP. The narrator notes that not long ago these "Forty-Niners" were content to enjoy a top speed of 26 miles per DAY, and it's high time to force Angelinos Back to the Future! Once California rids itself of all its Demonic motorists, it will have far less TRAFFIC WITH THE DEVIL!

Fair

[Michael_Elliott · 26 April 2008]

Traffic with the Devil (1946)

** (out of 4)

This two-reeler is one of the films in MGM's Theatre of Life series, which took real life cases from the newspaper and tried to teach the public something. This film takes a look at LAPD Sgt. Charles Reineke who works on a motorcycle overlooking various traffic issues. I guess you could call this an early Highway Safety film as it pretty much shows us how bad drivers operate while the final five minutes of the film shows us what happens when you speed or don't pay attention while you're driving. Those final minutes show several dead people lying in the streets and also shows, in rather graphic detail, dead children thrown from cars. Overall the film is pretty boring due to the slow and bland narration, which really brings down the entertainment value. The film also goes on way too long for its subject as a lot of the same things get repeated throughout the film.

This brief film does far more to explain "Natural Selection" . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 8/10 · 17 July 2021]

. . . than any high school biology course ever did. TRAFFIC WITH THE DEVIL applies the Survival of the Fittest precept to the Real Life testing cauldron of L. A. traffic. It illustrates how people too backwards, too poor or too young to own cars are weeded out from Society in a massive Survival of the Fittest game. Even some of the citizens INSIDE vehicles, such as the distracted primping woman driver, are pictured here as displaying a fatal lack of situational awareness. When it comes to Life on the Big City Streets, it's the law of "every man for himself," TRAFFIC dictates, and THE DEVIL often takes the hindmost.

Snakes saying I'm innocent on the road

[mrdonleone · 8/10 · 14 April 2020]

Of all traffic violation movies and things on how to drive a note to drive into turn left right and where to stop and where to go around to give another person the chance to go or standalone the Halo on the filter with the weather in the rain or in the snow whatever you do definitely you if you watch this window and the movie definitely it is great realize that this movie has portrayed all kinds of situations and really has the right arguments to drive safe for this movie definitely is worth to be seen in the police schools in the driving schools in the schools closed episode of a school for the people to learn with an education to know how to behave on the highway and the road and the streets because the street life is a thug life is a hard life is the way you should be living with polite manners but unfortunately people nowadays with the increase of stupidity of the increase of drugs in the 1970s there is no more pain cat's behavior anymore on the road and of course this movie was that maybe even in the time when there were not many cars did not imagine so many years later almost a century later evening how many more iodine if you realize how many cars there are you cannot do anything else but realize that the behavior between together with the increase of the stupidity of the people has gone down behavior is no longer nice to witness not nice nice nice to see any more it is terrible and because of this and people are terrible and the people with people that are more terrible terrible out this more accidents are more increases the increase of cars that means implies the increase of accidents on the road with Alex and then of course you see that this movie definitely shows that cars and bad behavior does not go well together what are you do you have to watch a such as this car movie which is definitely right and good to see yes and that is all that can be said about that point verre how can I know where the treasures okay there it's too far for my hands my hand is dirty I don't want to do it this is not thrash no let's chill a DoTerra stress there don't use bad word to me this is my clown pain put them in the air beautiful yeah okay thank you so much don't yell at me I'm recording right now for the internet for the movie can you please behave honey I'm naive.

Awful ...ly funny!

[Cisero · 10 February 2015]

I gave it a 1 for awful ...ly funny! Unintentionally hilarious and clichéd. Perhaps the stereotypic buffoonery was meant to be amusing in 1946, but now views as over-the-top. I cannot imagine it wouldn't have insulted the sophistication of (even) a 1940's post-war audience. Sudden serious footage of dead accident victims at the conclusion are inconsistent with the pantomimed acting and cartoonish "WA WA WA" sound effects that precede it. It is like two different films spliced together. There are some very ethnic characterizations, like the "mobster" who speeds up to deliberately run over a dog, looking silly to a modern viewer. Later in the film, some would consider the "at fault" driver looking ethnic compared with numerous Anglo victims shown after him to be disproportionate editing - some may not. Social campaigns can be effective, e.g. 1970's Don't be a Litter Bug campaign, but this might be the "Reefer Madness" of Driver's Ed.