Traffic with the Devil

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

This "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Ang... Read allThis "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.This "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

293

YOUR RATING

20User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total

Photos4

Top cast6

Edit

Charles Reineke

Self - Narrator
(as Police Sgt. Charles Reineke)

Ben Hall

Out-of-Gas Motorist
(uncredited)

Ralph Montgomery

Motorist
(uncredited)

Eva Puig

Driver of Ford Deluxe Convertible
(uncredited)

Jason Robards Sr.

Irate Motorist
(uncredited)

Ray Spiker

Irate Motorist, Honking Horn
(uncredited)

Director
- Gunther von Fritsch
Writer
- Herbert Morgan
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews20

6.5293

Featured reviews

9mcbride500

Great snap shot of life in L.A. in 1946.

I caught this on AMC and loved it! It is a documentary about traffic safety from the eyes of a motorcycle cop. I love how it shows fashions, autos and scenery of the real L.A. right after the war. This post-war, pre-Elvis time period is one that I find interesting and this film sheds some light on life in America then.

It was filmed about the same time as "It's a Wonderful Life." Life depicted in this film is very different from life portrayed in Bedford Falls.

I understand that it won an Oscar but I cannot find a copy of the film for purchase. If you find a source, let us know!

7Hitchcoc

Not Half Bad

This is a nicely done short film about the Los Angeles traffic scene in 1946. It's post war and people are starting to return to the good life. That means more cars and more efforts to enjoy life. The problem is that, as the motorcycle cop says, the people in the cars don't realize the responsibilities they have. Most of these rather pedantic features are a bit much. This one has some nice production quality. The cop narrating it lives in the real world. He is compassionate but also stunned by people's stupidity. It also give us a picture of a place where the automobile has gone beyond the places that service it. Nicely done. Some great characterizations.

Michael_Elliott

Fair

Traffic with the Devil (1946)

** (out of 4)

This two-reeler is one of the films in MGM's Theatre of Life series, which took real life cases from the newspaper and tried to teach the public something. This film takes a look at LAPD Sgt. Charles Reineke who works on a motorcycle overlooking various traffic issues. I guess you could call this an early Highway Safety film as it pretty much shows us how bad drivers operate while the final five minutes of the film shows us what happens when you speed or don't pay attention while you're driving. Those final minutes show several dead people lying in the streets and also shows, in rather graphic detail, dead children thrown from cars. Overall the film is pretty boring due to the slow and bland narration, which really brings down the entertainment value. The film also goes on way too long for its subject as a lot of the same things get repeated throughout the film.

8bubbarian

I'll drive safer!

Every driver should see this! The world would be a safer place. The images of death and destruction are a blunt reality check. I wish they'd still shown this type of thing when I was in Driver's Ed. Somebody should remake this eye-opening short.

7bkoganbing

How America was changed with the automobile

This short subject narrated by LAPD motorcycle patrol sergeant Charles Reineke demonstrates how the automobile changed American life for better or worse post World War II.

I say that because in 1946 with the first of new cars rolling out of Detroit that year in four years because of the war, America really took to the highways. Let us also not forget all the driving restrictions of all those old cars still out there during the war. We as a nation were going to enjoy that new prosperity symbolized by the automobile and the vast quantities thereof.

Reineke got a bit personal here as he describes his job and how his profession is not one of the most beloved. That's the truth, but the other side of that story is the thousands of little hole in the wall towns known as speed traps and the revenue from ticketed drivers support the place.

Still traffic safety then as now is a problem, a bigger problem 66 years after this film was made. How many cars on the road now, I shudder to think.

Traffic With The Devil got an Oscar nomination for Documentary Short Subject. Kind of dated now to say the least, but the message is timeless.

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Charles Reineke, the officer on the motorcycle, was actually a sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department Traffic Unit when this short movie was made.

Goofs
After a deadly accident, the narrator says, "But now his epitaph is only a pin at the intersection of Washington and Vermont", as an officer places a pushpin in a map. However, the simultaneous closeup of the Los Angeles map shows the officer placing the pin somewhere west of Olympic and Normandie, about a mile and a half northwest of the stated intersection.

Quotes
Officer Charles Reineke: [voiceover] Of all the thankless jobs... You're supposed to be here to protect people, but they act like a cop was their natural enemy.
Officer Charles Reineke: [a couple looks at him with suspicion, with a child in the back seat sticking out his tongue; then a pretty woman driving a car smiles at him] Well... most people, that is. People who don't hate cops are scared of cops; they should be scared without 'em. You have to get off the highway occasionally, or you find yourself leading a parade.
Officer Charles Reineke: [pulls off road up to a vantage point overlooking the highway] That's what it is - a parade. Twenty-seven cars passing there every minute; average speed, 51 miles an hour. Forty years ago, it was eight cars a day; top speed, 26 miles an hour. Fifty years ago, there were wagons averaging 26 miles a day. Sixty years ago, that road was a cattle trail. People traveling a thousand miles like they once went 50. Speeding up their lives. People going a mile a minute to work, or play, out for the job, or getting away from it all. Going home, or looking for greener pastures. A new generation, freed from limitations of time and space. A nation on wheels - a nation going places. Give him a car, and every man's a king on the highway.