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.
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.