Hot Rods to Hell (1966) User Reviews

At Least It Moves Fairly Fast

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 18 November 2009]

Well, I didn't find this is a "so-bad-it's great-film" to the degree I was hoping, but it still was fast-moving enough to keep my interest and laugh out a few times.

Not one of the characters in here was anyone you could root for, mainly because they were just too stupid or a bit annoying.

The cast is headed by two fairly-famous actors from the 1940s: Dana Andrews ("Laura,") and Jeanne Crain ("State Fair"). Halfway through the movie, we are "treated" to a couple of songs by Mickey Rooney and His Combo, who obviously got the gig because of his famous dad.

Andrews was nearing 60 when he made the film. He had just finished serving three years as President of the Screen Actors Guild. He has a long resume, which includes film and television work, but not many memorable films outside of a few in his early days.

Both he and Crain were in 1945's "State Fair," a film that put her "on the map," so to speak. In the same year, she had a good role in "Leave Her To Heaven," but after those two movies here notable films were very few. However, she retained her gorgeous looks and a lady over 40, as she was in this movie, she still looked darned good. The problem was, she wasn't much of an actress. Andrews does a far better job in here than Crain, who overacts or - in her defense - was directed to act hysterically and stupidly in parts of the story. Whatever, it was still interesting to see two "name" actors in this "B" movie.

It also was a bit odd seeing "punks" who looked very clean-cut. Hey, I know by 1967, longer hair coming into style, thanks to the "British Invasion" (Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc.) but these guys all looked straight out of the '50s, short hair, straight clothes, etc.

In fact, all the major characters in this movie, looked extremely straight. The Philips family, the ones tormented by a couple of hot-rodders, was so straight they made "Ward and June Cleaver" look like pot-smoking hippies. Their daughter "Tina" (Laurie Mock) was hot; very sultry, but she wound up being all talk/no action and the little brother was an annoying "Larry Mondello" type (see "Leave It To Beaver").

They may not have been Bette Davis-like in acting talents but the three women in here: Crain, Mock and Mismey Farmer (one of the punks fickle girlfriends) - certainly had the looks and played people who got your attention....as did the film in general. Yes, the dialog is stupid, the characters even dumber and the storyline worse than the other two but, all in all, it's watchable. You don't get bored with it. That's about as kind as I can be about it.

Look Out, Dana!

[JLRMovieReviews · 6/10 · 14 July 2010]

Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain, who had been in "State Fair" and "Madison Avenue" together, reunite for this story about a family being terrorized by young punks who have nothing better to do but race down the desolate highway somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Arizona, I think, and run people off the road.

To be more specific, the father can't defend himself or his family due to his bad back and recovering from a previous car accident, where it was all just awful, "the rain, the bright headlights, the Jingle bells (on the radio), everything." In fact, what sounds like an awful film that should be forgotten makes for some good campy fun, due mainly to some hilarious dialogue spoken mainly by Dana, like: "I had to do something. I couldn't just sit here like a stick." It's funnier with Dana saying it. In fact his whole on-edge performance is practically the whole show.

I'm sorry to read here that Mr. Andrews was an alcoholic, but I've told family members about this film and said I've never seen anyone who could act so unhinged as Dana in this film, and also in "Zero Hour!". Another ingredient, alluded to in message boards, is Dana's speech and/or way of speaking words like "animals" and "police." So, it may be because of Dana's condition, or is it just his little acting tricks, that make for entertainment in this 60s camp classic. At least that's what it's called on a camp classic DVD set, which includes "Zero Hour."

Lastly, I will add that the actress who plays the daughter is quite good and we see her as more three-dimensional than any other character in the movie, And for that matter, the dialogue between the siblings and the way they treat each other make us feel they really are brother and sister.

So, if you want a hoot from the 1960s, get out the popcorn and pull into your own "drive-in" theater for some real hot rods and Dana unnerved.

Say, let's have some kicks!

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 20 December 2006]

This is an exceptional flick. Seldom have former stars like Dana Andrews and Jeanne Craine appeared in such slapdash schlock. Every five minutes brings a fresh laugh.

No sense going through the story except to say that the ultra-straight Andrews family, including his wife Craine, his nubile teenage daughter (Mock), and a less than usually loathsome young boy, head out West where Andrews has just bought a motel/café in the middle of an unpopulated desert. They are harassed along the way -- and at the motel -- by the most retrograde bunch of rich, clean, white juvenile delinquents imaginable.

This, mind you, is 1967. The Andrews family could still be found lying around in 1967. But the reckless adolescents? Expensive, customized "souped-up sardine cans," clean and pressed clothing, duck-tailed haircuts, without tattoos, drugless and abstinent? That, my friend, is from a 1955 screenplay.

Jeanne Craine looks snazzy, but the particular charm she brought to her early movies -- "Leave Her to Heaven" and "State Fair" -- is lacking. It isn't that she seems defeated by the stereotypical role of the hysterical and helpless Mom. It's that she doesn't know how to play it believably. Well, maybe she was more concerned with her real family than this fictional one.

Dana Andrews is equally unsubtle as the uptight and moralistic pater familias. He looks were evidently coarsened by years of boozing but that's okay. The family head doesn't need to be a glamor boy. But the problem is that HE seems to be phoning in his part too -- snarling and scowling and muttering about these damned kids today. I can't stop laughing as I think about the movie, though the last time I saw it must have been ten years ago.

Laurie Mock as the daughter who falls for one of the hell-bent gang, presents her symptoms thus: a great big bouffant hair do and phony eyelashes the size of window awnings. They must flap in the breeze, though her hair never does, frozen into place as it must be by an entire can of Fixative. She's really slinky though. The hoodlum may have no taste in cars or Renaissance band music but he knows a babe when he sees one. Good grief -- she bounces so gracefully when she walks.

The music is to the ears what the visuals are to the eye. If you have never been rapidly and repeatedly hit over the head with kettle drum mallets, this must be what it feels like. Boom boom boom boom -- agitato, so to speak.

Worth catching for its laugh-inducing quotient.

"The lights, the horns, Jingle Bells....the whole thing."

[Poseidon-3 · 19 July 2005]

Ah, the woeful late career roles of formerly popular stars... Andrews and Crain, who were paired up in several films prior to this one (most memorably in 1945's "State Fair") play a married couple with two children who have to make a move out west. Andrews, on his way home to celebrate Christmas, was nearly demolished in an auto accident and his brother devises a way for him to eke out a living despite the resultant back problems. So he, Crain and their two children pack up the car and start for a motel they've purchased, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, they manage to draw the attention of a trio of no-good, thrill-seeking teenagers who proceed to terrorize them during the last leg of their journey. Then when they finally reach their destination, the trouble doesn't cease! Andrews is forced to choose between giving up what could be his last chance for financial security or endangering his family and himself by staying and taking on the hoodlums. Andrews is forced to play a pretty dour and depressed character, one who is also very uptight and persnickety. This does make for a few unintentional chuckles along the way as he is outraged by the behavior of these kids. Crain looks smashing in her snug white skirt and sleeveless top. It's a shame that someone this put-together (she's in better shape than the daughter!) is slogging through such a tacky film. As lovely as she is, she overacts horribly many times in the film. The slightest event causes her to affect a torturous expression and/or moan or scream. Then she has the nerve to tell her daughter not to be too dramatic! Mock, as the daughter, does an okay job of conveying her burgeoning sexuality, but she sure has a lot of big hair and makeup for a 16 year-old (an age the actress clearly is NOT!) Bryon plays the marginally appealing son pretty well, not becoming too obnoxious as most cinematic children are. Bertoya (a sort of very poor man's John Derek) has a lot of intensity as the primary rabble-rouser. Kirkwood plays his slightly less nasty sidekick. Farmer is Bertoya's easy, but possessive, girlfriend. Hilariously, she rides on the top of the seats in their car, her hair plastered back from the wind, and when it pulls off the road, she suddenly has a huge, thick bouffant hairdo! Already a rather illogical film (kids that Andrews meets on the road just happen to hang out at a motel he bought 50 miles away? People drive these expansive, remote roads as if everything is close together like a neighborhood!) is made all the more ludicrous because of the lack of restraint during the action scenes. Members of the family cling to Andrews while he's driving as if they are about to drive off a mountain top. Anytime Crain is behind the wheel, it's a safe bet that she'll soon be hurtling herself all over the seat and dramatically grimacing and shaking her hair. What may have been troublesome then looks a bit like child's play now since the teen ruffians have neatly combed hair and trot around in pressed shirts and pants, clean t-shirts and so on! Most of the rotten apples look like church-going honor students compared to today! That's not to say that their actions aren't still pretty reprehensible. They just lack the really sickening menace that one might find out there nowadays. Originally intended for TV, this film does have an attractive look to it. It's clearly low budget, but looks a lot better than the TV films of the 70's. Many actors from this film wound up in the even more horrid "Riot on Sunset Strip". The live music in the film is provided by none other than Mickey Rooney's son! Andrews and Crain would not team up in another film, but, ironically, they would continue their career synergy by proceeding to appear in similar all-star projects. She was a white-knuckled airplane passenger in 1972's "Skyjacked" while he flew his private plane into a jumbo jet in "Airport 1975"!

On a camp basis, you'll enjoy this one!

[davek-12 · 2/10 · 14 July 2006]

Dana Andrews must have been behind in the rent to make this B flick. This is the same actor that gave us a great performance in the 1946 film, "Best years of our lives". Twenty years later, he is now traveling to the south west to buy a motel/bar with his young son and teasing teenage daughter.While mom and pop are sleeping in the 1 star motel with the neighborhood band blairing away, the girl gets out of her jammies, puts on a dress, sneaks out the window with a gleem in her eye to party with the locals, and then won't even give up a kiss to one of the guys that's been chasing them for miles across the open road! Great 50s stuff, made in the late 60s. Nice ending when dad finally gets tough with the bad guys. Pure corn, pre woodstock, no one has hair over there ears. Lots of great hot rods. Like the last gasp of the 50s.

Time to get some kicks.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 28 December 2015]

Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain play Tom and Peg Phillips, an ultra straight (some might say square) couple with a teen aged daughter, Tina (Laurie Mock), and young son Jamie (Jeffrey Byron). After Tom gets into a road accident, he develops a bad back, and his brother Bill (Harry Hickox) arranges for Tom a change of pace: running a motel in small town California. Unfortunately, when the family gets to the desert, they run afoul of the local hot rodders / troublemakers.

Just as much of a generation gap drama as it is an action movie,"Hot Rods to Hell" is enjoyable exploitation fare. The protagonists are a little much at times, but Gene Kirkwood and Paul Bertoya are malevolently entertaining as the obnoxious road hogging punks. The movie marks an interesting effort for Director John Brahm, who'd done well crafting Victorian era melodramas in the 1940s and 1950s; it was his final feature film. The action sequences ARE well done, and the cars are of course very cool. The rock score is most groovy, as performed by Mickey Rooney's son and his combo.

The performances are all watchable. It's easy to believe the frustration of Andrews' character. Mimsy Farmer is likewise convincing as Gloria, the trampy, sexy blonde associate of Kirkwood and Bertoya. George Ives has the interesting role of Lank Dailey, the motel owner who has no problem taking money from his teenage customers but distrusts them just as much as any other adult.

In general, the movie seems to be making a statement about the poor driving habits of Americans: it isn't just the young punks who drive recklessly, but the previous generation as well.

It would be hard to knock any movie in which a highway patrolman is made to utter the immortal line: "These kids have nowhere to go,but they want to get there at 150 miles per hour."

Seven out of 10.

Speed Freaks

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 22 April 2007]

When you're a middle aged film star past your prime years, Hot Rods to Hell is an example of what you get when you're anxious for work and just want a pay check.

Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain star in this film about a middle-aged married couple who are starting life in a new town where Andrews has just bought a motel. Their daughter Laurie Mock isn't really crazy about the move.

On the road the family gets involved with some punks in some souped up hot rods. But their troubles really multiply when the punks discover Andrews is buying a motel which is a local hangout for them, it contains a bar where owner George Ives isn't too scrupulous about selling liquor to minors and then renting rooms for short stays.

If you're a fan of drive-in cinema I think I've given you enough information about where this film is going. I think that Dana Andrews might have been attracted to the project because he had a well known struggle with alcoholism and around this time did become a spokesperson for Alcoholics Anonymous.

I think Andrews's good intentions clouded his judgment and also because probably this was the best of film offers he was getting then. But for those who remember his performances in classics like Laura and The Best Years of Our Lives, Hot Rods to Hell is one painful experience.

Heaven for Bad Movie Lovers!

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 2 July 2010]

After phoning to tell his family he will be home for Christmas, an jolly well inebriated Dana Andrews (as Tom Phillips) crashes his car. He yells, "That stupid drunken fool!" and survives with a bad back. Shapely raven-haired wife Jeanne Crain (as Peg) arranges for Mr. Andrews to enjoy rest and relaxation as the owner of a sleepy desert motel in California. Bored, horny daughter Laurie Mock (as Tina) and preteen son Tim Stafford (Jamie) are along for the ride. Driving to their new home, the family is terrorized by "Hot Rods to Hell"! dragsters full of sex-crazed, thrill-seeking teenagers. Unfasten your seat belts!

Swinging sixties punks Paul Bertoya (as Duke), Mimsy Farmer (as Gloria), and Gene Kirkwood (as Ernie) are awfully nice!

And, Andrews' daughter is ready for action! She may not know it, but is told, "Some girls like to be sneaked up on." Later, Ms. Crain adds, "There isn't a woman alive who doesn't want a man!" Yeah, right... Now, if Andrews and family survive the trip, they are in for a horrific surprise. The motel they bought turns out to be a boozy, smoke-filled dive populated with the same young hoodlums they met on the road. There, house band leader Mickey Rooney Jr. and his combo help keep tight, sweaty bodies in motion. The departing owner can barely keep it from getting raided before Andrews takes over... Lurid fun!

****** Hot Rods to Hell (1/27/67) John Brahm ~ Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, Mimsy Farmer, Mickey Rooney Jr.

It's cool to watch Dana Andrews

[frankaziza1 · 5/10 · 26 December 2021]

I'm just writing this review because someone reviewed this movie and wrote that Dana Andrews was pretty good in old horror movies...what the hell is thinking? Horror movies???? Dana Andrews was in one the greatest films of all time, The Best Years of Our Lives and he was also in one of the greatest film noirs of all time, Laura. I know he was in Curse/Night of the Demon , which is a gem. It just bothered me that someone can know so little about Dana Andrews.

Hell-Bent

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 16 July 2005]

(Slight Spoilers)Recovering from a Christmas eve smash-up salesman Tom Phillips, Dana Andrews,is laid up in traction for some two months. Released from the hospital Tom not only lost his life-savings, by paying off his medical bills, but his job as a traveling salesman as well.

Tom's brother Bill, Harry Hickox, later get's Tom to buy this out of the way motel, Dailey's, out in the Califonia desert. As soon as he's well enough Tom and his wife Peg, Jeanne Crain, and his two children Tina & Jamie, Lourie Mock & Jeffery Byron, travel out west to start a new and better life for himself and the family, or so Tom thought.

1960's youth movie with 1940's stars in the lead roles makes the film "Hot Rods to Hell" a real curiosity piece as well as interesting movie to watch. Tom and his family are constantly harassed by these three juvenile delinquents Goria Duke & Ernie, Mimsy Farmer Paul Bertoya & Gene Kirkwood,in a red hot rod with their crazy and unstable friends joining in every now and then. This almost drives Tom to have a nervous breakdown or even worse.

These three dangerous nincompoops have it in for Tom for daring to buy the Daily Motel. It seems that the previous owner Lank Dailey, George Ives, let them and their hoodlum friends get away with a lot of illegal stuff that the straight as a arrow Tom Philips wouldn't tolerate from them. Hounding the poor man and his family to the point where he just gives up and decides to leave. Tom & family are later chased through the desert highway by Duke & Ernie, for some reason Gloria disappeared from the film, in a deadly game of chicken where the loser not only loses the game but his life as well. Broken and nothing like the person that he was before his accident Tom finally gets his nerve back and for once stands up to these two border-line psychos and in the end it's them, not Tom, that chickens out.

The movie with a outlandish title like "Hot Rods to Hell" is not as bad as you would think. The serious and skillful acting by Dana Andrews lifts it way above the usual troubled youth films that were cranked out of Hollywood back then in the late 1950's and all throughout the 60's.

The one thing that I found a bit uneven with the film was the reason the three hot rod jockeys, as well as their friends, were so determined in keeping Tom from taking over the Dailey Motel? Just what could Tom do, that Lank Dailey didn't, to disrupt their fun and actions there? About the only thing that I could see that they were doing wrong, if at all, was making out with the young women there which is about as normal as you could expect from teenage boys like themselves.

Even the drinks served to the teenagers there were non-alcoholic as we saw the local highway patrol officer, Paul Genge, going from table to table in the bar nightclub of he Dailey sampling every drink to see that there was no booze in them.

Beware of those rowdy kids on the road.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 15 July 2006]

A full color B movie from M-G-M and the 'King of the Quickies' producer Sam Katzman. Dana Andrews is a man disabled from a car accident that tries to start a new life by moving his family to the desert, where he will take ownership of a motel. His dowdy wife(Jeanne Crain)is sympathetic enough and still believes in her man. Their teenage daughter(Laurie Mock)is fascinated by the rough boys in hot rods tormenting the family along the highway.

This flick is a hoot and a half to watch now looking back at what terrorized the hard working family man in those days when innocence was busting loose. Andrews is pathetic and is definitely as 'un-hip' a guy you could find for the part. Crain still has wholesome appeal in the mid '60s and is pretty much a waste of talent. Also in the cast: Paul Bertoya, Gene Kirkwood, George Ives and Paul Genge. Music is provided by a combo fronted by Mickey Rooney Jr.

''Call Them Punks... Call Them Animals...'

[phillindholm · 8/10 · 13 July 2005]

''Hot Rods To Hell is really a good look at late sixties culture. The acting by onetime stars Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain, is fine. They are well supported by Mimsy Farmer and Laurie Mock, both of whom would soon be seen in ''Riot On Sunset Strip'' that same year. The Sam Katzman production may be low budget, but it still looks decent. the Fred Karger score is suitably dramatic. The songs are...(oh well, you can't have everything) undoubtedly an oldster's idea of ''rock and roll'' though the authors also wrote material for Elvis! It moves pretty fast, both in the theatrical version which ran 90 minutes, and the 100 minute version first seen on ABC.TCM has the latter print, and shows it occasionally from time to time. Strangely enough, TNT used to run the theatrical one. One critic, in his review stated ''Jeanne Crain is still lovely to look at.'' She was, indeed. An enjoyable film.

Summer of the Corvette

[krorie · 6/10 · 17 July 2006]

Any movie from 1967 that has its own website can't be all bad. Not exactly a cult classic as many contend, "Hot Rods to Hell," is still worth a peek for those among us who enjoy guilty pleasures. Fans of 1945's "State Fair" may find their dream couple, Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews, a bit weather worn but still fine Thespians, now playing a couple in mid-life crisis, with two children, one a daughter with a slight case of teenage angst.

Tom and Peg Phillips (Andrews and Crain), with Tom disabled as a result of a car wreck, are on their way to operate a desert hotel they have just purchased. It's a family move so their kids, Tina and Jamie (Laurie Mock and Jeffrey Byron, aka Tim Stafford), are in the backseat. Unfortunately, a trio of teens, Gloria, Duke, and Ernie (Mimsy Farmer, Paul Bertoya, and Gene Kirkwood respectively) decide they don't like the new proprietor because he is too square. The trio with Duke at the wheel of his 1958 Vette decide to terrorize the family which basically is the plot for the rest of the film.

Producer Jungle Jim (Sam Katzman) could crank out B action flicks with the best of them. His forte was to cash in on a passing fad before it vaporized by immortalizing it on celluloid, for example, "Let's Twist Again," and "Don't Knock the Rock." His major claim to fame, which may be apocryphal, was having coined the term "Beatnik" to describe the social dropouts of the 1950's.

Though not as innovative or original as Samuel Fuller, Katzman could get some clever camera angles from his cinematographer and memorable setups from his directors. In "Hot Rods to Hell," the shots of Duke piloting the Vette, Ernie riding shotgun, and Gloria on a pedestal between the two, her hair blowing in the wind, is as creative as the Bonnell brothers riding in the wagon at the beginning of Fuller's "Forty Guns," which appeared ten years earlier. These images stick in the mind of the viewer after all else has faded.

"Hot Rods to Hell" was released during the Summer of Love but smacks of teen hot rod films of the 1950's. The "animals," Duke, Gloria, and Ernie (what all-American names!) look sanitized and clean cut for 1967. Where are the long-haired hippies, the flower children, the yippees, the acid trippers? This trio looks about as rebellious and threatening as a Sunday school choir.

"Hot Rods to Hell" also caters to the "kids going to hell" stance held by those of the older generation since prehistoric times. Tom Phillips' speechifying, especially toward the end, typifies the preachy outlook of middle America that stressed tradition and so-called family values over the mores of the contemporary counter-culture movement. This is very much an establishment flick with more than a small dose of propaganda and indoctrination, a holdover from the Eisenhower decade. "Hot Rods to Hell" belongs to an earlier era. "Easy Rider" belongs to the 1960's.

If the viewer overlooks the terrible Hollywood music that sounds like a cross between Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass and Lawrence Welk attempting to play rock on his accordion then the music of Mickey Rooney, Jr. and his rock combo is indeed a treat. The band sounds somewhat like The Box Tops and The Monkees and it really rocks.

A sad sequel to "Best Years of Our Lives"

[jeffclinthill · 3/10 · 11 June 2011]

To me, "Hot Rods to Hell" is a pathetic sequel to the character that Dana Andrews played in "Best Years of Our Lives" who tells Peggy (played by Teresa Wright) that all he wants is a good job and a house and a family: in short, the American Dream. By the end of that film, we know that he will marry Peggy and do whatever he has to in order to earn that American dream. "Hot Rods to Hell" takes place twenty one years later, Dana Andrews is married to "Peg" and he has a rebellious teenage daughter and a standard, cookie cutter, gingerbread boy son of about 13. The nightmare scene that he does in "Hot Rods" so much resembles the nightmare scene that he did in "Best Years" that I expected him to again call out, "Bail out! Gredofusky! Bail out!" I wonder how many people in 1967 bailed out of the movie theaters or drive-in movies after that scene appeared - or later wished they had if they stayed to the bitter end.

B-movie road trip suffers from witless script...

[Doylenf · 17 June 2003]

Given a title like this, it's a cinch no one will take this road movie seriously except for a few of us who hate seeing a decent family being harrassed by some mindless hot rodders intent on making dangerous moves in speeding cars for no apparent reason. Later, though, the script gives them a reason and the mayhem continues throughout with the man, wife and children being subjected to dangerous maneuvers by the teen-age punks until he manages to turn the tables on them in an unexpected way.

It's a pity Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain couldn't have found themselves a better script and story. By today's standards, the dialogue is rather unrealistic and corny--and the preachy element that Andrews is forced to utter to the kids seems a bit theatrical and pointless. It's the kind of movie you might expect to find as a B&W cheapie at a drive-in--but here it's wrapped up in MGM technicolor although modestly produced.

Not a serious indictment of hot rodders nor more than a standard melodrama that seems somewhat dated in its attitudes. Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain do what they can with stereotyped roles but neither is seen at their best. Crain is flatteringly photographed and looks as lovely as ever while Andrews seems to have gone through some hard times in his personal life that give his tight-lipped demeanor a worn look.

Duel but with a Corvette

[tahoekid77 · 3/10 · 7 November 2014]

I saw this film as a teenager in the early 70's, and only recently saw it pop up on the grid on TCM. I did recall parts of it, but had to watch it again. Right from the get-go, the movie starts off with cheesy acting and scenes. The dad holding Christmas boxes just right as he talks on the phone. Who does that? It's the definition of "corny". The movie is watchable if you like watching bad acting. It reminds me of "Mystery Science Theater", in that they show a really bad movie, but you still have to watch it and see if it gets worse. I gave this a 3 star as, seriously, you can't give it anything higher. Dana Andrews at his best.

Motel Hell

[BaronBl00d · 6/10 · 21 December 2008]

Dana Andrews stars as Tom Phillips who undergoes some changes after having survived a bad car accident. He moves his family - wife, son, and daughter - from Boston to a desert location to run a motel. Little does he and his family know that soon they will be thrust into a sinister world of souped-up hot rods, loose teenage girls, and terror hitherto unseen in their "normal" and "average" lives. Okay, so Hot Rods to Hell(otherwise known as 52 Miles to Terror) sells itself a little strong, but despite the hokey script, the over-acting, and the kitchy music - I really found that I liked this film a lot more than I thought I would. Dana Andrews growls his way through the film with a bad back trying to regain normalcy after his accident. Jeanne Crain - who bears most of the over-acting in my opinion - plays his wife. As the family moves closer to Mayville, they are accosted on the road by two kids in a red hot rod who think they own the road and the world. Things travel quickly into Andrews and family pitted against these two degenerates. While the seriousness taken with the subject matter is very heavy-handed and surely can be taken as hyperbole, the film does - believe it or not - try and make a point about how the young of the sixties were looking for something other than what their lives provided. It tries to address the younger generation being understood to some degree as well. What it doesn't do is deteriorate into mindless exploitation which would have been so easy to do. The acting was good enough to make me care about Andrews and his family and dislike the two boys intensely. The cops were shown in a very positive light as well. George Ives gives a good performance as a swinger middle-aged man who is the previous owner of the motel. Mimsy Farmer(a beautiful blonde) and Laurie Mock(a sensational brunette) spice up the film's landscape. Much of the dialog is a real hoot as Andrews barks out his frustration with the younger generation either specifically or in general. He looks like he has a body brace on through much of the film as he seems so tight. Director John Brahm is good at creating some tense scenes and much of the road scenes have a definite flair to them. Hot Rods to Hell is really nothing more than one of those 60's kids against the world films but is nonetheless enjoyable, suspenseful, and amusing for intended and unintended reasons.

Mindless Stuff

[EW-3 · 1/10 · 2 July 2010]

Such an idiotic movie. You can tell after just the first five minutes that it was destined as the second feature in the drive-in theater, to be appreciated only by patrons whose absolute last purpose for being there was to actually watch a movie. How a serious actor like Dana Andrews ever allowed himself to be part of this garbage is beyond me. I suppose the "So bad it's good" saying can apply here, although one usually reserves that characterization for science fiction and horror movies. Nevertheless, a lot of scenes and lines are so moronic, they will make you burst out laughing.

For instance, in one scene, the terrorized family is being chased down a highway when they suddenly see a sign for a restaurant. Instantly, their terror turns to joy and relief. "People will be there!" they say, never bothering to think what exactly the restaurant's patrons would do for them in such a situation. But soon, their joy turns into disappointment when they find the restaurant to be out of business and long abandoned! But alas, the father (Dana Andrews) sees a glimmer of hope: a rusted- out public phone sign! "There may be a phone inside!" he yells to his wife, and desperately, he proceeds to break down the boarded up doorway, assuming, as I'm sure anyone would, that the phone company routinely maintains and collects money from phones left inside boarded-up, abandoned buildings. One of the stupidest scenes I've ever seen in any film at any time.

The moralizing Dragnet-style cop was also worth a few laughs, as well as the drunk to whom he gives both a ticket and a little lecture. And what the heck is it with that strange Tyrolian-like hat that one kid was wearing? Really weird film.

More Intense than Most Hot Rod Movies

[Uriah43 · 6/10 · 1 February 2016]

After being injured in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, "Tom Phillips" (Dana Andrews) is laid up in a hospital and faces a lengthy rehabilitation that results in his inability to perform his job successfully. Faced with these life-changing events he reluctantly accepts his brother's advice and buys a hotel in the middle of the California desert which he can manage in spite of his painful condition. Unfortunately, upon driving there he and his family encounter several rude and belligerent young men drag racing on the highway who recklessly endanger everyone they come across. And they take umbrage upon anyone who dares to voice displeasure or prevent them from doing whatever they want. So much so that two specific young men by the names of "Duke" (Paul Bertoya) and "Ernie" (Gene Kirkwood) demonstrate that they will stop at nothing to silence Tom from going to the police. Now rather than reveal any more and risk spoiling this film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this particular "Hot Rod movie" was more intense than the usual pictures of this sort produced a decade or so earlier. Whereas the earlier Hot Rod films typically revolved around teenagers simply having fun the specific antagonists in this movie were much more arrogant and ruthless. And this worked in the film's favor in my opinion. In any case, although it was clearly a grade-B production, I still found it to be entertaining and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I Won't Blame The Actors

[Scott_Mercer · 2/10 · 3 July 2010]

I believe I will go along with the conventional wisdom shared by many of the other reviewers here. The actors here were saddled with plenty of bad assumptions and corny techniques employed by the screenwriter, the director, and the producer, Sam Katzman the king of cinema Cheese. They do the best they can, but ultimately they are doomed, unwilling participants trapped in a corny melodrama with the form of a 1950's juvenile delinquent movie.

The release date on this film says 1966, but the whole ethos feels more like 1956, or maybe even 1946. Just change Dana Andrews from injured businessman to injured World War II veteran, and there you go. I'm not even sure when this screenplay was actually written. Maybe it was sitting on somebody's shelf for 10 or 20 years.

The most annoying gaffe to my mind is the appearance and affect of the so-called "delinquents" who "terrorize" uber-square Dana Andrews and his family, a bunch of non-realistic cardboard cutouts straight out of a 1950's television sitcom like "Leave it To Beaver" or "Father Knows Best." These well-scrubbed Hollywood actors, with clean well-pressed chinos and button-down shirts, and shiny straight white teeth, are supposed to be threatening? Give me a break! These kids are about as threatening as a Nerf ball. Hard to believe that the very same year, Roger Corman released "The Wild Angels," showing off a REAL group of reprobates who terrorize the innocent straights on the road. Now those bikers, THOSE were a bunch of creepy, unshaven low lifes. These kids are just a little bored. And who wouldn't be, stuck in some crappy desert town in the middle of Nowheresville, California.

To say the acting is overwrought is like saying BP made a little oopsie in the Gulf of Mexico. And then, the doofus elderly cop comes into the movie a few times for a little Joe Friday style moralizing. I'm with the idiot in the hat, who later killed himself after crashing his car: that cop was an asshat.

"Thank you, Daddy, for not telling that cop about...what happened." Huh? What DID happen? Nothing! You made out with one of the hot rod dudes, and did a little snogging against the side of the Corvette? Holy cats, did I miss something? That was enough to drive you folks out of town?

This movie is really terrible for a major studio release. An overdone melodrama with a little hot rodding thrown in, and some bad discotheque blues-rock by Mickey Rooney Jr.! (No Gary Lewis he, his "combo" certainly never tore up the charts, but I did enjoy his lyric, something like "Baby don't mess up my hair!")

In the end, I can only recommend this movie for the snogalicious charms of Miss Mimsy Farmer. Rowrrr. Such an adorable kitten, overbite and all. Love those giant hair-dos that were all the rage in that era (the era of my birth!) And as many others have commented, Jeanne Crain was also holding it together pretty dang well at age 42, rocking a tasteful blouse and tight skirt. But, overall, these reasons to watch the movie are few and far between, so, I would recommend this film only to the most masochistic of drive-in movie buffs. Fair warning.

Jeanne's Physiognomy Still Problematic

[ferbs54 · 6/10 · 2 August 2009]

The main problem that I have had while watching Jeanne Crain movies of the 1940s and '50s is that I get so engrossed in marveling at her incredibly beautiful face that many times I will "zone out" on her lines completely. (My fellow men who have been on dates with really hot-looking women may perhaps sympathize with me here!) But who would have guessed that I would suffer a similar problem with a Crain film from 1967, when the actress was 42? In "Hot Rods to Hell," Jeanne plays Peg Phillips, who, with her recently injured husband (Dana Andrews; yes, Crain's beau from 1945's "State Fair") and two kids, drives cross-country to begin a new life at the California desert motel/restaurant they've just purchased. En route, they run afoul of a gang of hot-rodding juvenile delinquents, putting Dana's recently compromised manhood to the test.... Originally filmed as a TV movie, and looking it, this is a moderately suspenseful film that is basically good clean fun. Mimsy Farmer almost steals the show here as one of the jd's who will try anything for kicks; she is one sexy hoot. Some pretty cool music is provided at the Phillips' motel bar by Mickey Rooney, Jr. and His Combo (!), and some mildly gripping, fast-speed highway sequences help liven things up. I did, however, have some problems with the film. The punks that Dana goes up against are waaaay too easily dealt with, and Dana's character himself is a hopeless square, even for 1967. At the film's end, he vows that he will close down the Arena, where Rooney's band was playing, even though all that was going on there was some rock 'n' roll music, kids drinking root beer, some dancing and making out. What the heck is so bad about that?!?! The film surely could have benefited by some tougher bad guys and a more sympathetic leading character to root for. Still, there IS Jeanne Crain's face, surely one of the Seven Wonders of the Silver Screen....

Something's a little weird about this movie...

[L_Miller · 4/10 · 17 July 2005]

It was released in '67 so let's say it was shot in 66. The sets and the tone of the movie seem to be from the 1950s, from the tight living room and hospital sets to the cops who look like they walked straight of 1956.

I don't know if they just relegated this production to a back lot or what but it seems to have been made in a different era. This might be a fun comparison with Faster Pussycat! some night if you've got the time for comparative film viewing.

It's not stupid or even especially bad, just corny, and it seems out of place for '67.

Great B Movie

[Jreesing · 10/10 · 3 August 2001]

If you like the low class, B films (and I do) then this is a must see film. It's not a "bad" film like Plan 9 from Outer Space, but it is a corny late 50's style film that is great. I like to watch this film and "Panic in the Year Zero" which is another one of my favorite of this era. If you see it on the TV schedule, do yourself a favor and watch it, it isn't out on video.

Would have passed Hayes code with flying colors!

[Fasman · 7/10 · 14 July 2006]

This movie was my first "car date" when released. Where would you expect to see this first run? Try the Rebel Twin Drive-In in Carrollton, Texas! Everything you'd want in a camp movie. Stiff performances by Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain and even "stiffer" performances by Paul Bertoya and Mimsy Farmer. See this and you'll have no doubt as to why we didn't see more from these two. Duke's car had to have been the ugliest Vette I've ever seen although at 16 years old at the time, I'd have given my left....well, you know. Part of a double feature, the opening show was the first release of For a Few Dollars More. Remember, like Dr. No, they first released A Fistfull of Dollars which died like Dr. No, but then came For a Few Dollars More (like From Russia With Love) and the rest was history! Easily understood why this became a cult classic.

Republican Family Harassed by Republican Punks

[worldsofdarkblue · 3/10 · 10 June 2011]

Clearly, everyone in this is a Republican. Republicans aren't cool. They're even less cool when they think they're cool. The dangerous youths of this beauty are clearly that. Lots of money for souped up wheels and Today's Teen clothing.

I was an 18 year old usher when I was forced to watch this every night for a week at work. I'd just turn my head and look incredulously at my co-workers night after night. What the hell is this? I'd say. We're supposed to be afraid of these kids? In the past year we'd run 'The Wild Angels', 'The Devil's Angels' and 'The Incident'.

Stupid, stupid presentation of menace. A Republican presentation. Should have starred Ozzie and Harriet - now that would have given the movie something to really enjoy. I loved those Nelsons.