Wheels of Tragedy (1963) User Reviews

Wow

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 19 March 2024]

Before reality TV, we watched movies like this in school, in which the officers of The Ohio Highway Patrol prepare for accidents and share the re-enactments of how these ones happened, as well as the gruesome and gory aftermath of the real vehicular mayhem that ensued.

Directed by Richard Wayman, who also made Signal 30 and Mechanized Death, and written by Bill Bradley and Charles C. McCue, who also appear in the film as the highway patrol. That's not typecasting, as they were actual cops.

If you think this is funny with the badly acted lead-ups, get ready to be shocked into silence. There are accidents with people stuck face first in windshields and no one asked for a release to ask them if they wanted filmed. Neither did the girl who drowned when two boys listened to rock and roll and drove into a ditch and then the water.

They showed these movies to get us to drive better. I never wanted to drive at all after seeing them,

Interesting Tidbit

[Paul-308 · 4/10 · 26 January 2003]

Wheels of Tragedy was Highway Safety Films first use of actors in recreating the "before" scenes of an accident.It is said that local coffee club "talent" was used (read:amateurs).An interesting note is that in Wheels when a 57 Fairlane 500 crashes into the back of a Consolidated Freightways semi,the passenger of the car was a rather animated (read:nervous and uneasy) character that managed to wake up and scream right before the fatal impact.....well,this same "actor" shows up again in "The Third Killer",a later HSF production with a "Prince of Darkness" kind of lead that tries to get other people killed to increase his "business".This guy happens across the short,pudgy "actor" walking across a street.The guy's acting was even worse than his first appearance (in Wheels).Why they would reuse an actor that supposibly was terminated upon impact is beyond me.Sorta takes some of the "edge" off the messages they were sending.

More Lessons from the Highway Safety Foundation

[Paul-308 · 4/10 · 14 December 2002]

This is one of the few "scare" films to offer reenactments of actual crashes.The police are called to the scene after the hokey reenactments,attempting to portray a normal days duties as a patrol officer (and his newly issued junior member who rides along looking sick at the accident scenes).The after-crash segments are real and bloody,but the beforehand moments are contrived and forced.Overall,not as memorable and informative as Signal 30,Mechanized Death,or Highways of Agony...but if you are a "fan" of the genre,this is one not to miss.