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.
Review of Hot Rods to Hell
