Rubber Racketeers

This is an oddball wartime curio dealing with scumballs who replace rubber tires with cheap imitation crap.

Our story opens in a defense factory, where our hero, Bill Barry (Bill Henry) uses a machine gun to mow down caricatures of Mussolini, Hitler, and Tojo.

Bill has a girlfriend named Mary. (That's right; if they get married, she'll be Mary Barry.) While driving home from work, they are cut off by a car carrying Ricardo Cortez, who has just been released from the can after having spent three years in stir. Cortez stiffs Barry for the repairs, then gets the idea of entering the rubber racket.

After Mary's brother is killed by a tire blowout, Bill decides to find the culprits. As usual, the police are nowhere to be found in movies of this type.

Cortez' girlfriend (the lovely Rochelle Hudson) tries to convince Cortez to give up the racket in the name of patriotism. Nice try. In the climactic donnybrook, Bill's defense pals beat the crap out of Cortez and his gang.

Cortez is his usual suave d-bag. John Abbott plays a moron killer named Dumbo who doesn't speak and plays with rubber rings, which is obviously where Captain Queeg came up with the idea of playing with his steel balls. Alan Hale Jr. Shows up as a muscle-bound pal of Bill, and Milburn Stone plays a crook.

The movie manages not to be tiresome. However, the filmmakers spared every expense, threatening to fire Stone, and jacking up the price of admission.

When defense worker William Henry works out that someone who did this caused the death of his brother, he goes looking.

Ricardo Cortez decides that wartime rubber shortages offers him an opportunity, so he starts hijacking rubber and selling badly-made "used" tires. When defense worker William Henry works out that someone who did this caused the death of his brother, he goes looking.

It is a real bottom-of-the-barrel second feature for Monogram, with the propaganda bits laid on with a trowel. Rochelle Hudson, as Cortez' girlfriend, demonstrates her prowess with a Thompson submachine gun by taking an aim at a cartoon of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo and stenciling a V on it with bullets; earlier, she and Kam Tong get clumsily written "we're all in this together" speeches.

It an early production of the King Brothers, and they were still learning their way, getting subpar scripts and projects...and then handing them over to ambitious directors and skilled cameramen. As a whole film, this one wasn't one to put on anyone's resume, but at least it was a paycheck, and everyone gave honest value for their wages.... except possibly screenwriter Henry Blankfort; still, he never turned in a particularly good script, so we'll give him a pass on this.

Which is what you might wish to do with this movie.

Anticipating Arthur Miller's postwar 'All My Sons' by five years, this slick wartime propaganda quickie made early in the war when Pearl Harbor was just a girl's name goes to pains to remind us of the consequences to the war effort of cutting corners when supplying essential parts.

Former bootlegger Ricardo Cortez was exaggerating how many people had cars even in America when he says "Everybody didn't drink, but everybody drives". (Nearly eighty years later I still know far more people who drink than own cars.) But even pedestrians have to use public transport; and if there's money in it, racketeers like Cortez will move in.

A young, stylishly suited Rochelle Hudson plays gangster Cortez's moll, while a boyish-looking Alan Hale Jr. really was junior in those days.

During WWII, lots of items were rationed--mostly because they were needed for the war effort. In some cases, such as rubber, it was even harder to get because many of the nations that provided rubber to the US and its allies had been conquered by the Japanese. So, although it's really odd, a few films like "Rubber Racketeers" (as well as "The Last Ride") were made to warn the public about organized crime and tires sold to the unsuspecting public. "The Last Ride" was a pretty good film--"Rubber Racketeers" was less so.

"Rubber Racketeers" begins badly, as you hear a young couple having a ridiculously improbably conversation about patriotism, the war effort and the need to all work together for victory. Again, it sounded nothing like a real conversation a man would have with his girlfriend, that's for sure! While "The Last Ride" had a bit of this, here in "Rubber Racketeers" they really lay it on strong--and it continues throughout the film. In fact, in several places it's obvious the characters are making speeches AT the audience and it seriously impairs the film's watchability. Even back in the ultra-patriotic 1940s, folks must have groaned at this speechifying.

As for the plot, after a gangster gets out of prison (Ricardo Cortez), his driver manages to cause an accident with his reckless driving. Because of this little incident, he eventually comes up with the idea of selling defective or stolen tires. As for the defective ones, his men are able to make them appear brand-new--but the rubber is crap. Soon, a guy has an accident due to these 'new' tires. So, his friends all band together to get down to the bottom of this--to find these evil un-Americans and bring them to justice. And, in an odd message, the film seems to endorse vigilante justice! So, is there anything I like about the film? Well, Cortez is good (as usual) but most of the rest of the acting is pretty bad. You do, however, get to see a young Alan Hale Jr. in one of his earliest roles--which is mildly interesting. And, the film is a nice window into the past--even if it is a crappy quality movie. The bottom line is that the low-budget really shows in this one, as the film just seems very cheap and jingoistic--even by WWII propaganda standards. It's mildly entertaining provided you have very low expectations! My advice--see the other film instead.

With films like this to his credit, I can understand why Ricardo Cortez soon decided to retire from pictures. He was a good actor but the quality of his films kept getting worse and worse. And, incidentally, retiring turned out to be great, as he actually was able to make a very nice living working on Wall Street according to IMDb.

Homefront movies: I was rooting for Ricardo Cortez character throughout the movie! The movie does have its sterotypes but it is the time period we have a shooting range of hitler Tojo and Mussolini being shot out by the main Protagonist. I can see the appeal with Rochelle Hudson and I knew Barbara read looked familiar she was in the 1936 film three smart girls starring Deana Durbin. There is something about Ricardo Cortez while his acting was flat at time his appearance reminded me so much of Robert Di Niro if only they could have added the new alta knight scenes with scenes from this movie. I like the backdrops as well as learning something new about the tire industry during the second world war.