Hot Rods to Hell (1967)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

As holiday songs play for both Dana Andrews and his waiting family, tragedy occurs as he drives home for a festive Christmas. He's left a shell of himself, a weakened businessman who needs to vegetate before he can return to his career. As his family heads to their new destination, a group of speeding teens begin surrounding them, bringing fear to the seemingly cookie cutter family. Dad Andrews and mom Jeanne Crain have two children, but unfortunately, their teenaged daughter Laurie Mock looks more like a much older "B" girl with her "groovy" frizzy black hairdo than the actual "B" girl accompanying the collegiate looking thugs.What essentially seems like an hour long episode of some mid 1960's trashy T.V. show has been lengthened by extended car chases, extremely bad dancing and a genuinely tacky atmosphere. Poor Andrews and Crain seem truly embarrassed by being in this movie which ain't no "State Fair". It's obvious that there's more to the harassment by these animalistic jerks than what's on the surface, and that revelation is pretty lame. Also really ridiculous is the conclusion where Andrews plays a wonderfully dirty trick on his harassers then basically wraps things up by playing the martyr. I don't think anybody in this situation would do society the favor by turning the other cheek. That would be dangerous in 1967 and certainly deadly today in 2014.This reminded me of another "normal citizen in danger" movie, "Lady in a Cage", the 1964 movie where Olivia de Havilland dealt with thugs who broke into her house and robbed her while she watched them from her elevator. Both films contain subject matter that is very disturbing to see, but in the case of "Lady in a Cage", the film was more successful because of the way the narrative played out and the fact that there really was nothing she could do. In "Hot Rods to Hell", Andrews pretty much does nothing. Most men his age would simply buy a gun and retaliate when their entire family is put in jeopardy. So therefore, the three part tragedies are his accident which leaves him weakened, the family's harassment and the script which pretty much destroys any sense of reality by letting these thugs get away with what their doing rather than allowing the hero to do what any red-blooded American father would do. I say blow these animals off the road and off the planet, 'cause it's obvious that they would continue to be a menace to society no matter how Andrews resolves the situation.

Wow, this movie is bad - but it's bad in a way that makes it fun to watch. Here we have a family where the husband / father is in a car accident and for his comfort and health he's told he and his family should move to a warm dry climate. His teenage daughter is LOATHE to leave Boston for the Southwest, with no more snow or gray skies? I don't buy it.What is really funny in this movie is how the family is driving along and they encounter the bad teenage kids in the Corvette. They are all screaming and making faces and after their car lurches to a stop they are all looking 'distraught' over what just happened. It has to be the biggest piece of ham acting, by multiple actors at one time, that I have ever seen! Absolutely hilarious.This movie is worth watching only because it's soooooo bad.

Hot Rods To Hell revolves around a middle-aged man, who decides to purchase a hotel located in the southwestern US. He's from Boston. And he realizes that the change in locale will be difficult for himself, his wife, and their kids. Still, he decides to give it a shot, and so he and his family pack-up and head out west. But some reckless teenagers driving fast hot rods, harass them along the way. The man finally decides to stand-up to the delinquent teens, who keep menacing him and his family, during their journey. This film was typical of most mid-60s movies, which highlighted the consequences of the notorious generation gap. It emphasized how wild and uncontrollable young people were becoming in the 60s, in the opinion of their bewildered elders. Most 60s teens were no where near as dangerous, as the older generation believed them to be. And this film did a spectacular job, of exaggerating how malignant young people appeared to be, to older folks during the 60s. Overall, this film managed to milk the suspense element, for all it was worth. There were many hair-raising scenes, that made this movie quite an adrenaline rush. For those that crave a film with plenty of nail-biting moments, Hot Rods To Hell will certainly do. It's a 60s B movie, with a heavy jolt of electrifying thrills.

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.