Hot Cars

In HOT CARS, used car salesman, Nick Dunn (John Bromfield), gets mixed up with the "wrong crowd" after being fired from his job. Nick winds up working for a rival car lot run by a criminal mastermind.

When Nick's son becomes ill, he finds himself deeply involved in the car theft underworld.

Violence and murder soon follow.

This is an entertaining crime drama / morality tale, packed with 1950's ambiance and culminating in a wonderful finale, featuring the "fight-to-the-death on a rollercoaster" sequence!

Co-stars the beautiful Joi Lansing as the seductive Karen Winter!...

Despite this being a B movie, I actually think it's a good film. A story about a man who works in a hot-car racket to save his son's life, only to find himself becoming the fall guy when a detective investigating said racket is murdered, it is a story full of many twists and turns. Despite its lack of star power and its short length (a little over one hour), the story is very powerful and dramatic. Plus, the actors do a good job here, despite not being big names in the movie industry. This is one classic crime film I recommend giving a try.

From the title and release date I was expecting jalopy races and juvenile delinquents. Instead the brief 60-minutes amounts to a tight little crime thriller. Poor family man Bromfield. He's seduced into a criminal hot car operation because of typical family problems like money and a sick kid. The crooks run a slick network of stolen cars almost like a regular business. With a needy wife and child, Bromfield adjusts his conscience, getting the kind of security his family's has long desired. I like the way his ethics are compromised in realistic fashion that we can well understand and maybe sympathize with.

For a handsome Hollywood hunk, actor Bromfield brings off his difficult role in surprisingly nuanced fashion. Then there's the busty blonde Lansing parading her measurements in good Marilyn Monroe fashion. Note too the not-so subtle innuendo between her and a straying Bromfield that no doubt pushed the bounds of the fading Hollywood Production Code. However, I couldn't figure out her relationship with the gang, whether it's just me or a flaw in the narrative.

The exteriors are all filmed on LA locations, the car lot, the city streets, that lend an air of urban reality. But most of all there's that white-knuckle climax aboard the rollercoaster at Santa Monica pier. It's a real grabber, made more so by what must have been a hand-held camera that puts us right there inside an upsy-downsy car-- thanks guys, my head is still swimming. Credit producer Howard Koch for the general quality of the results. Over a lengthy career he helped guide such classics as The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Odd Couple (1968).

Anyway, it's a neatly packaged little crime drama that almost qualifies for what many old movie buffs treasure most -- a sleeper.

John Bromfield is an honest young man with a pretty wife and a new baby. He's also a used car salesman, who gets fired for not pushing junk to a customer. That customer turns out to be the owner of a chain of used car lots, looking for someone like Bromfield to sell stolen cars.

HOT CARS, like many a Schenck-Koch production in this period, has an interesting story, people who look good on the screen and fine visuals. Not only is it shot in the "Southwest Noir" style, but there's a fine noir ending on a roller coaster. What it lacks is good performances. The line readings all seem a bit droning, like a bad episode of DRAGNET. It even results in calling attention to the actors. Joi Lansing, in particular, seems to hit her mark and pose before reciting her lines.

Still, the careful visuals and bravura ending add to the story to keep things interesting all the way through.

This is the same story as GONE IN 60 SECONDS, 1980 and later version. Stolen cars made to look like other vehicles and buried in red tape. Hot car market was alive and well before the 60 Second writers made their movies.