Hit and Run

Cleo Moore was one of the sexiest blonde starlets of the 1950's but sadly this 1957 release was her swan song. She had starred in around ten films and was well known by the public but I guess there was just too many beautiful blondes around at the time. She's the best thing in this standard little film noir of the beautiful young wife, middle-aged husband, and the young hunk who comes between them. Looking fantastic as a platinum blonde, Cleo gives an excellent performance and her love scenes with hunky Vince Edwards are fairly torrid. Director-costar Haas seems a little too sympathetic to his own character for my liking, a boisterous auto repair shop owner who woos option-less showgirl Moore. Never a particularly good director (to say the least), Haas notably wastes the potential in one scene in the wrecked car "graveyard" beside his repair shop which manages an eerie touch nevertheless. The movie quite low budget but that proves to be an asset in capturing the angst of low-income 50's America.

Hugo Haas almost always played a role himself in the films he made and often he played the character of a more or less naive fool who is cheated on by his beautiful wife who wants to run away with the young guy, or his money .

Frank can't stand Gus's new wife at first (or so it seems) but secretly he is also crazy about Julie, when she finally seems to fall for him after a few advances he hatches a plan to get rid of Gus.

Hugo Haas dared to do something that many bigger film makers would rather avoid, and that is portraying the nastiness and evil of women, here that plot story is less extreme, especially the few twists in the plot towards the end that give this film that extra push that makes it just that little bit better than Hugo's other work.

The Hugo Haas Bio Deserves Attention from Anyone Interested in B-Movies, Especially of the Film-Noir Type,

that He Made His Specialty in the Last-Act of a Long and Rich Career in the Movies, that Ended where He Did Everything but Sweep the Floor.

In this one, He Follows the Film-Noir Mainstay that He Repeated Now and Then of an Older, Well-to-Do Man who Manages to Snare a Young, Pretty, Bad-Girl.

Only to be Set-Up for the Knock-Off by a Femme Fatale (Cleo Moore who made 7 Movies with her discoverer).

The Handsome-Hunk on the Side-Lines Willing and Able to Do the Deed is Vince Edwards (a smoldering, sexy, Body-Builder in real life), whose Claim-to-Fame was Playing "Ben Casey" on TV for 5 Years. (1961-66).

"Hit and Run" has a Number of Thrills (check out that lion tamer Dolores Reed), Twists, and Spills, and Like Always Hugo's Bang-for-the-Buck, Delivers.

This Would be Cleo Moore's Last Film After Giving Hollywood a Try in a Few Films with some Minor Success, but Never Hit the Big-Big-Time. Just Like Her Mentor Hugo.

Once Again Check Out His Bio. A Fascinating Immigrants Hollywood History if there ever was One.

He was one of the Most Hard Working Talents that was Chewed Up by the Movie-Industry that He Loved and was Dismissed as a "Bottom Feeder" and in Later Years was Given the Undeserved Nick-Name of the "Foreign Ed Wood".

He was Once Gregory Peck's , among others, Acting Coach for Heaven Sake.

Another highly original production by Hugo Haas with his one choice actress Cleo Moore, but this became her last film, but as usual her performance is memorable. It's the same old story again, an old fool gets enamoured with a young splendid blonde and marries her, while she after the marriage betrays him with another, and that other man is his closest associate, a fellow worker and mechanic at his garage, and it's actually he who insists on seducing her, while naturally her protests are not enough. There is a circus involved also, which appears towards the end, with a real bombshell for a female director, Dolores Reed, who brings some real titbits of sequences to the film. She even tries to seduce Cleo Moore's lover, which of course infuriates Cleo Moore who while drinking gives the whole plot away - there always seems to be a lot of drinking in Hugo Haas' films, which adds to their charm and comic touch, although Haas never reaches the height of the great jokes of Hitchcock. Still, Hugo Haas is brilliant in his own way, writing his own scripts and producing his own films and giving them a solid direction, and their plots are always ingenious. So don't miss any detail of this very carefully blended drink of a wondrous film thriller.

Writer-producer-director-star Hugo Haas offers his take on THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, with psychotic Vince Edwards driven mad with lust for Haas' new wife, Cleo Moore. Haas is no dummy, and he has his own twist in store for them. In many ways, his work reminds me of the sort of paperback original novels of the era, with people murdering each other for sex at least as much for money. Whether this was an outgrown of film noir or a source of the film genre is hard to say. Possibly each egged the other on.

If you're looking for high cinematic art, this is not a movie for you. Haas paid for his own productions and then sold the finished project to a distributor, so it came out pretty much as he wanted within the limits of what he could afford. Still he knew what his audience wanted, like turbo-charged lion tamer Dolores Reed, who suggests to Edwards that he join her act.