Customer Reviews

Hell on Wheels

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Remember those classic movies with a singing cowboy? Well, this isn't one of them. This is a laughable attempt to create the singing race car driver!

I suspect Marty Robbins, crooner of classic country numbers like "Cool Water", "El Paso", and "Big Iron" got conned into this out of his love of racing. Maybe they thought Marty could pull off an Elvis-type role or something.

The production values are non-existant, the villians are lame, the acting is worse than a junior high school play, and the hot race car driving is not really hot, but ranges between luke-warm to tepid.

Marty (race car dirver and singer) wins race after race, and his little brother Steve (played by Robert Dornan, who was obviously so ashamed of this flick he went into politics), feels left out. To make matters worse, his girl is hot for Marty! So Steve decides to get his own car and beat Marty at the Big Race! To earn the dough for his new wheels, Steve takes up with moonshiners! Meanwhile, Marty's other brother Del works for the Feds, and is out to bust the boozers!

Wow. I can hardly contain myself.

The moonshine runners are looking for great mechanics and daring drivers, a' la Robert Mitchum's classic film "Thunder Road". In fact, this whole waste of space is a remake of "Thunder Road" without the class, more singing, and all the driving is done on the race track instead of the highways.

Meanwhile, poor old Ma and Uncle Jim wait at home, huddled around the radio and wonder... will Marty wreck at the race? Will Steve go straight or crooked? Will Del keep from being hurt by shine runners?

Gosh! The tension!

To be kind, you might like the time capsule look at racing (without seatbelts!), classic cars, and Marty Robbins crooning a tune or two at a nightclub. Connie Smith sings two songs as well, then flees the picture faster than Marty's race car can take the inside curve!

This one would certainly break the 'bots, Mike, and Joel, I have no doubt.

Sadly, this one is nothing more than a drive-in disaster. As for the racing action, that too is just like a drive-in. At a drive-in, all the cars are parked.

My absolute favorite scene in this movie is during the aftermath of one of the unspectacular wrecks on the track, where emergency personnel jump into the cabin of one of wrecked cars and immediately yank the helmet off the head of the unconscious, bleeding-from-the-mouth driver. This film could also function as a great drinking game, if everyone had to take a drink every time John Ashley, as Marty Robbins' younger, jealous brother looked disgustedly toward Marty and scoffed, shaking his head. Whether that would improve the film for those watching while drinking, I don't know, but it might not hurt.

Marty Robbins, looking more like a Pentecostal preacher on a Sunday morning before church than a race-car driver, plays himself as singer and racer, and John Ashley, as the younger brother Dell aching to get out of his shadow, gets mixed up with moonshiners in an attempt to level the playing field. Overall, the film is a slightly altered variation on the Roy Rogers/Gene Autry style of filmmaking, with action scenes interspersed with singing, and although it skips the comedy relief, there is a section that gravitates toward a public service film as the IRS agents describe the dangers of moonshine...and moonshiners. (How quaint stills seem in comparison to meth labs).

Even if the racing isn't as dramatic nowadays as it may have been in 1967, some viewers who appreciate watching these old classic cars may get a kick out these scenes, and anyone who enjoys clips from the Grand Ol' Opry or from Hee-Haw of the same time period will probably like the singing sets from Robbins, Connie Smith, and the Stoneman Family. Additionally, this film seems as adequate to me as any of the singing cowboy films from the 40's and 50's, so if that's your style, you probably won't be disappointed with 'Hell on Wheels'. One thing though - I'll eat my hat if this thing is rated 'R'. The most offensive thing I could find in it was the word 'Hell' in the title.

While I can't verify the quality of this disc as it is sold from this product page, interested viewers could receive this and 11 more Crown International Picture releases all in one package by purchasing Savage Cinema: 12 Movie Collection. In that venue, the picture and sound are certainly serviceable enough - at least enough to match the rest of the film's quality.

Favorite quote: From the racetrack announcer, after a bad wreck. He shakes his head sadly, mournfully - "The race gets rolling again, but unfortunately a heavy toll was taken by that last smash-up." Then, shrugging his shoulders, "But that's to be expected when men and machines meet in such grinding competition." Priceless.

Yes this was corny storyline but if you're a Marty Robbins fan I think you will enjoy it. I bought the movie because I'm a Marty Robbins fan and I wanted to see how well he did. I thought his acting was at least satisfactory. I didn't buy it because I thought it would be Academy Award material. LOL

The movie is not a total Bomb. There is some good music.
My favorite scene is at the very end:
( 1:33:03 - * 1:35:33 * - END )
God shuffled his feet!

I loved Marty Robbin's singing, songwriting, showmanship and charisma but he appeared in a couple of movies that were amateurishly trashy. This is one of them.