Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow

"Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" was one of the many '50s movies about hot-rodding teens encountering the supernatural. In this case, the teens can't pay the rent for their hangout and get evicted. With nowhere else to go, they decide on an apparently haunted house. As you may have guessed, once they arrive, some weird things start happening. And there's a twist at the end.

There's nothing in this movie that you haven't seen in other movies, but it's nice entertainment nonetheless. My favorite character was the foul-mouthed parrot. Well, let me rephrase that: he didn't talk like a character in a Quentin Tarantino movie, but he said things that we don't expect out of a bird. The movie's pure hokum, but harmless.

Yess, this is an accurate reflection of its time. At least, when I saw it in 1959, everything in the film seemed pretty straightforward. The characters seemed quite a bit like the people I knew. I must be one of the few people who saw this drive-in classic at an Indoor theatre---on a hot summer afternoon, as a weekday matinee, while I waited for a repair shop to fix my '52 Plymouth in Guntersville, Alabama. And it was not the worst film I had ever seen. Just a couple of months earlier, I saw (at a Birmingham drive-in) the classic double-feature of "Giant Gila Monster" and "Killer Shrew". Drag-strip Hollow was better!

This is one of THE perfect "drive-in movies"! It's really "neat-o" to see the 50's as they actually WERE, not as TV shows like "Happy Days" pretends they were like!

This film abounds with humorous (& unintentionally humorous!) scenes; I guess you could say "it's so bad, it's GOOD"....er, GREAT!

The film brings back the hot-rodders, malt shops, & the twangy guitar music of the 50's.

The slumber-party scene was a "gas"! The Old Man goes outside and finds a couple doing some heavy necking. They quickly break up, and the boy says, "we were just going out for some 'fresh air', sir!", to which the old man replies, 'where did you think you'd find it? Down her THROAT?!".

Other amusing moments are ridiculous appearances of the "ghost" (wearing a costume right out of "She Demon"), and the "spook party"!

One amusing thing is the newspaper reporter saying (to the old man) "everything is so fast-paced today; kids have to grow up in a hurry, 'cos there might not BE a Tomorrow!" (Referring to the A-bomb). Kinda funny, when you consider those "idyllic times"!

It's a VERY rare film: Go see it, Daddy-o!

This film is all about good music, good times and good fun. Nothing in it is to be taken too seriously man! At this time, Horror spook films seemed to be on the downward spin in terms of popularity but teen films about dancing, drag-racing and just being cool were just coming into fashion cat! But this one does feature a Monster(a Paul Blaisdell creation) and a ghost albeit all in the good spirits(ha!). Blaisdell actually has the funniest lines in the film. The Funest Man!

Released in 1959 and shot in B&W, "Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" chronicles the events of a group of hot rod drag racers who are forced to move into a deserted mansion as their new headquarters, which appears to be haunted. To celebrate their new home and make money, they throw a Halloween costume party. The festivities are interrupted by a monster who's hogging the dances with the best-looking gals!

This is an eminently entertaining 50's hot rod/non-horror movie highlighted by petite cutie Jody Fair as the main protagonist and, believe it or not, one of the top hot rodders; not to mention the stunning statuesque beauty, Sanita Pelkey, who appears to be around 6'2". Several of the girls have a slumber party at one point. As for the "horror" shenanigans, they're essentially the blueprint for the Scooby Doo, Where Are You! cartoon, which debuted a decade later.

The film runs 65 minutes and was shot in Southern California.

GRADE: B