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....
Review of Hot Rods to Hell
