Speed to Spare

In the 1930s and 40s, Richard Arlen was a star for tiny Pine-Thomas Productions. I am sure that his being a major stockholder in the company had nothing to do with it...or, perhaps, just a bit! Regardless, I've seen many of these films and they all were quickly made B-movies. None of them have been bad...though none really are very good either. "Speed to Spare" is a B with many of the usual cliches and a story that is very familiar.

Cliff (Arlen) is a race car driver when the show begins. But he has attitude and ends up getting fired...and goes to work for a friend at a trucking company. He's good at his job but he's also incredibly cocky and manages to make some enemies along the way. The worst is a driver who nearly ran him over. Cliff socks him and the guy spends much of the movie sabotaging Cliff's rigs...trying to get him killed. Can Cliff learn to be a team player AND survive in this film?

In so many ways, this film plays like a William Haines film of the 20s to early 30s. In other words, he plays a very talented guy who is also a fathead AND he tries to woo the girls. And, like in a Haines film, you expect Arlen's character to take his lumps and show himself to be a standup guy by the end of the picture. No surprises here, as I've seen it quite a few times before in other films.

An ex-race car driver becomes a trucker (Richard Arlen, going from "Wings" to wheels). The plot dishes up enough action to keep things interesting. Roscoe Karns steals every scene he's in, as usual, but lovely Jean Rogers isn't given enough to do. This is a good example of the taut programmer that often held your attention as much or more than the main feature. I actually saw it in its first release on the second half of a double bill at the Hollywood Theatre in Kenosha. ("Speed to Spare" also had some great posters, and I found a few posted on the Internet.) As you can see, this picture was memorable and interesting enough for me to comment on it a half-century later, and I found a VHS copy of it last year. (No, I don't recall the main feature that night.)

Richard Arlen is making about nothing as a stunt driver for a traveling show. So he quits to go to work for the trucking firm run by old friend Richard Travis, who has married Arlen's old flame, Jean Rogers. But there are always more girls, like Nanette Parks, even though she is going with fellow trucker, Pat Phelan. Arlen talks about settling down, but the money slips through his fingers faster than ever, and Ian MacDonald holds a grudge when he is taken out of the better-paying trucks and stuck in the garage. He resents Arlen for his success.

It's another B movie form the Dollar Bills, Williams Pine and Travis, using well worn plots and performers not collecting top dollar any more. The script has enough trucking terms to lend some verisimilitude, and Roscoe Karns and Paul Harvey are on hand for small but key roles.