Terreur au Km.

''Hot Rods To Hell is really a good look at late sixties culture. The acting by onetime stars Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain, is fine. They are well supported by Mimsy Farmer and Laurie Mock, both of whom would soon be seen in ''Riot On Sunset Strip'' that same year. The Sam Katzman production may be low budget, but it still looks decent. the Fred Karger score is suitably dramatic. The songs are...(oh well, you can't have everything) undoubtedly an oldster's idea of ''rock and roll'' though the authors also wrote material for Elvis! It moves pretty fast, both in the theatrical version which ran 90 minutes, and the 100 minute version first seen on ABC.TCM has the latter print, and shows it occasionally from time to time. Strangely enough, TNT used to run the theatrical one. One critic, in his review stated ''Jeanne Crain is still lovely to look at.'' She was, indeed. An enjoyable film.

This film was released the year I graduated from High School. Shot in 1966 it debuted in theaters in January 1967. Maybe if I had been still 12 or 13yrs I would have thought this movie was cool but by the time your 17 or 18yrs you know it was pretty cornball.

One of my favorite Scenes is where the Highway Patrolman is saying "Putting these cars in the hands of these teenagers is like giving them sticks of Dynamite(or something close to that) I remember laughing at that the 1st time I saw the movie.

Hot Rods to Hell is one of those Films you make fun of but when you see it coming up at the end of the week on a Cable TV Channel; you make sure you watch it again one more time.I'm sure Dana Andrew's isn't going to put it among "The Best Years of our Lives" and "State Fair" as one of his favorite Roles...s.m.

Hot Rods To Hell is one of those movies me and my buddies rode our Schwinn stingrays to the theatre to see on a saturday afternoon... Of course we all got thrown out before the film was over for getting too loud or dumping popcorn from the balcony! However over the years I,ve seen it several times on television and I have to appreciate the really campy style in which it portrays the "wild youth" of the latter 60,s....If you,re lookin for good acting and plot "forget this movie" But if you want to see a movie for sheer brainless fun...this is it!!! I absolutly love this movie.....

This movie continues to amuse me although I've seen it countless times. The straitlaced family plunged into a world of "hot rodding" teenagers "looking for kicks"...it can't get much better than this. Particularly fun are the overly dramatic performances of Dana Andrews (Tom) and Jeannie Crain (Peg) as the family sedan is chased by a carload of teenagers (one girl managing to sit up on the back and hang on the whole while). After the family arrives at the hotel that the father has just bought, they are horrified to realize that it's a roadhouse that caters to these same bored teenagers and others like them. Much to her parents' dismay, the daughter becomes infatuated with Duke, one of the hot rodders who earlier that day ran them off the road. The scenes inside the roadhouse are backgrounded with music by "Mickey Rooney Jr. and His Combo" which adds to the cheese factor. Still, you can't help loving it.

Well, I didn't find this is a "so-bad-it's great-film" to the degree I was hoping, but it still was fast-moving enough to keep my interest and laugh out a few times.

Not one of the characters in here was anyone you could root for, mainly because they were just too stupid or a bit annoying.

The cast is headed by two fairly-famous actors from the 1940s: Dana Andrews ("Laura,") and Jeanne Crain ("State Fair"). Halfway through the movie, we are "treated" to a couple of songs by Mickey Rooney and His Combo, who obviously got the gig because of his famous dad.

Andrews was nearing 60 when he made the film. He had just finished serving three years as President of the Screen Actors Guild. He has a long resume, which includes film and television work, but not many memorable films outside of a few in his early days.

Both he and Crain were in 1945's "State Fair," a film that put her "on the map," so to speak. In the same year, she had a good role in "Leave Her To Heaven," but after those two movies here notable films were very few. However, she retained her gorgeous looks and a lady over 40, as she was in this movie, she still looked darned good. The problem was, she wasn't much of an actress. Andrews does a far better job in here than Crain, who overacts or - in her defense - was directed to act hysterically and stupidly in parts of the story. Whatever, it was still interesting to see two "name" actors in this "B" movie.

It also was a bit odd seeing "punks" who looked very clean-cut. Hey, I know by 1967, longer hair coming into style, thanks to the "British Invasion" (Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc.) but these guys all looked straight out of the '50s, short hair, straight clothes, etc.

In fact, all the major characters in this movie, looked extremely straight. The Philips family, the ones tormented by a couple of hot-rodders, was so straight they made "Ward and June Cleaver" look like pot-smoking hippies. Their daughter "Tina" (Laurie Mock) was hot; very sultry, but she wound up being all talk/no action and the little brother was an annoying "Larry Mondello" type (see "Leave It To Beaver").

They may not have been Bette Davis-like in acting talents but the three women in here: Crain, Mock and Mismey Farmer (one of the punks fickle girlfriends) - certainly had the looks and played people who got your attention....as did the film in general. Yes, the dialog is stupid, the characters even dumber and the storyline worse than the other two but, all in all, it's watchable. You don't get bored with it. That's about as kind as I can be about it.