Watch Hot Rod Gang For Free

hyped garbage

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

For the final day of the 1958 best movie poll on ICM,I decided to look for one last title to view on YouTube. Looking down the YT page,I found a flick with a short & sweet run time,that led to me starting the hot rod up.The plot:Entering a street race, John Abernathy III runs into a puddle that splashes all over a man. Coming from the upper-class,Abernathy tries to hide as the police treat the puddle as a crime scene. As the police investigate the youth hang outs,Abernathy attempts to keep his driving and Rockabilly-singing identity secret. View on the film:Speeding by at 72 minutes, director Lew Landers & cinematographer Floyd Crosby give the flick an energetic slickness, with regular early Rock numbers being played with "happening" teen parties and limited Hot Rod racing. Kicking off all the trouble by John Abernathy III driving into a puddle (!) the screenplay by Lou Rusoff now has a sweet, sincere 50's innocence, due to the overreaction from the adults on Abernathy and the gang hanging out,now playing with a lightly comedic tone that sets the hot wheels off.

The main reason I decided to watch this movie was because since I've been recently reviewing movies featuring '50s Rock stars, I had to check this one out after finding out Gene Vincent was in it. Unlike previously in The Girl Can't Help It in which he only sang, here he also has some speaking lines as he's a friend of the leading lady, Jody Fair. John Ashley is the leading man and he sings quite a bit of songs as well. Maureen Arthur is the only other singer here though she only has one number. While there are plenty of hot rod races, there's also an eccentric group of supporting characters related to Ashley's character that provide many laughs. To tell the truth, I couldn't keep up with the plot since so much was going on! Still, I very much liked Hot Rod Gang. P.S. Another reason I decided to watch this was because this was the only other movie in which Kay Wheeler did a dance, her other one was Rock Baby - Rock It.

"John Abernathy III" (John Ashley) is about to inherit a large sum of money from the two aunts he lives with but all he wants to do is to race cars. He also likes rock and roll music and sings every now and then in the club house he and some friends have rented when they're not working on their hot rods. Unfortunately, the rent is due and even more money is needed to build a car that his friends have been working on for some time. Not only that but his two aunts have set him up with a new girl in town named "Lois Cavendish" (Jody Fair) whose father is more than happy for the arraignment as well. Surprisingly, they both hit it off rather well which doesn't quite please his current girlfriend "Marley" (Maureen Arthur) but he has other things to worry about. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that for an old, grade-B movie filmed in the 50's this particular picture wasn't too bad. It had some good humor and a decent enough plot to make things enjoyable. Overall then, I rate it as about average.

No, it's no classic, but it has one of the greatest lines ever (heard in narration, it pretty much sums up the film): "This story is true--only the facts have been changed." Honest!