Customer Reviews

Hot Rod Girl

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The outstanding jazz-flavored score for HOT ROD GIRL is by Alexander Courage, best known as composer of the theme and incidental music for "classic" STAR TREK. His 17 piece band includes Bud Shank, Georgie Auld and Dave Pell on saxes, Maynard Ferguson's trumpet, guitarist Barney Kessel and Milt Holland on drums.

In a simple but effective story, Ben Martin (Connors) is a cop who convinces young road racers to exercise their lead feet and exorcise their speed demons at the San Fernando drag strip. Bronc Talbott (Andrews) is the black leather jacketed villain, a hot rodder with a long record of moving violations who gets his kicks goading naïve kids into street heats and "chicken" races.

Early on we see Jeff Northrup's brother Steve (Erickson) get into a street race with a joker who rams his front bumper a couple of times to anger him. Despite pleas from Jeff (Smith) to slow down, Steve wipes out and dies at the scene. Jeff is inconsolable; he works day and night at his mechanic's job for distraction.

After Bronc and his rod breeze into town his first target is class clown Flat Top (Gorshin); their 'chicken' run nearly ends in the joke being on Flat Top.

The still grieving Jeff declines Bronc's best efforts to engage him in a race, but that comes to an end on a sinuous hillside road outside of town. Their cars jockey for position. Just as Jeff crosses onto the wrong side of the street and rounds a curve he sees a boy on a bicycle who's coming right at him.

Despite a misleading title (Lori Nelson's role is a minor one), this interesting and underrated movie has good dialogue, fine music and is competently paced, directed and filmed.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.1) Hot Rod Girl (1954) - Lori Nelson/Chuck Connors/John Smith/Mark Andrews/Roxanne Arlen/Frank Gorshin/Fred Essler/Eddie Ryder/Carolyn Kearney/Del Erickson/Russell Thorson/Dabbs Greer

This 1986 GOODTIMES videotape is recorded at LP speed and only has a linear soundtrack (no HiFi). Picture quality's slightly degraded, the film itself is unrestored and tracking is adequate, typical of slower speed mass-produced tapes.


The outstanding jazz-flavored score for HOT ROD GIRL is by Alexander Courage, best known as composer of the theme and incidental music for "classic" STAR TREK. His 17 piece band includes Bud Shank, Georgie Auld and Dave Pell on saxes, Maynard Ferguson's trumpet, guitarist Barney Kessel and Milt Holland on drums.

In a simple but effective story, Ben Martin (Connors) is a cop who convinces young road racers to exercise their lead feet and exorcise their speed demons at the San Francisco drag strip. Bronc Talbott (Andrews) is the black leather jacketed villain, a hot rodder with a long record of moving violations who comes to town and goads naïve kids into street heats and "chicken" races.

His first victim is Jeff Northrup's brother, Steve (Erickson). Bronc rams Steve's front bumper a couple of times and succeeds in getting him to race, despite pleas from Jeff (Smith) to slow down. Steve wipes out and dies at the scene. Jeff is inconsolable; he works day and night at his mechanic's job for distraction.

Bronc's next target is class clown Flat Top (Gorshin); their 'chicken' run nearly ends in the joke being on Flat Top. Throughout all this, Jeff declines the bully's challenges and best efforts to engage him in a race, but that comes to an end on a sinuous hillside road outside of town. Their cars jockey for position. Just as Jeff crosses onto the wrong side of the street and rounds a curve he sees a boy on a bicycle who's coming right at him.

Despite a misleading title (Lori Nelson's role is a minor one), this interesting and underrated movie has good dialogue, fine music and is competently paced, directed and filmed.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.1) Hot Rod Girl (1954) - Lori Nelson/Chuck Connors/John Smith/Mark Andrews/Roxanne Arlen/Frank Gorshin/Fred Essler/Eddie Ryder/Carolyn Kearney/Del Erickson/Russell Thorson/Dabbs Greer

Luv this movie, even with all it's cracks & scratches on the film, I enjoyed watching the Hot Rods, cast, & the cheesy dialogue, I like the era it took place the 50's. I'm a 50's movie buff about Hot Rods & early Rock n Roll Rebels Rockabilly type. One of the young characters looks like the guy who later became known as the Riddler in the original 60's Batman series. It's a fun movie to watch.

Good cheap fun . Basic story about young people, romance, old cars, surviving bad decisions to learn valuable lessons in life. A few wild kids cause trouble for the group, someone dies young, and the rest grow up wiser and safer.A few nice old cars thrown into the mix to stir up old memories. Get some popcorn , relax and enjoy .

Very surprised by this one, it was great. The scripting moved quickly from one cheesy scene and line to the next. Some pretty funny characters and dialogue. One of the best [amt.] dvd deals.

Even wonderful B-Queen Lori Nelson (Day the World Ended, Revenge of the Creature) couldn't save this film. Even the price couldn't save it. Even an acquired nostalgia for a time I did not experience couldn't save it. Because there was nothing to save.

There is not enough offbeat campiness or histrionic overacting to make it mindless fun like some other juvenile delinquent pictures of the 50's. The kids aren't even delinquents; they just enjoy drag racing at 20 mph on suspiciously wide roads in an unnamed California town. When they really want to be antisocial they listen to a jukebox and sip malts. I don't want trash, but there's no real peril or conflict that seems like any big deal to me. It brings to mind Blackboard Jungle (overall a good film, BTW), but with even less menace. It's just too dated in that regard.

Anyway, a guy's brother is killed in one such race, and he swears off drag racing. Will he be able to resist the goading stranger clad in black leather? Will innocents be harmed by the wanton disregard of speed-crazed thrill kids? Will Chuck Connors relax his jaw muscles? No. Yes. No.

Need I continue? I will, all the same. The bad guy eventually gets caught and punished for a tragically reckless act and blatant cover-up. You can rest easy now.

Maybe this is what the 50's were really like. Pleasant enough, but nicey-nice to the point of comatose. If so, give me the souped-up brassy fictional Corman-ized view. Or Teenagers From Space. Or American Graffiti. Or Back To The Future. Heck, even Happy Days had the Fonz and a laff track.

Do yourself a favor and don't waste the few dollars it costs for this piece of crap. I am about as liberal as it comes to bad movies, as a matter of fact, I cherish bad movies as long as I'm not bored. Usually, the cheesier, the better. This one is boring, and doesn't have anything to do with any girl as far as I remember. It sucks, and the transfer is AWFUL!!!!!!!

If you enjoyed the 1950's syndicated "How To Marry A Millionaire" starring Barbara Eden,Merry Anders and Lori Nelson then you may enjoy this movie with Lori Nelson a year before the "How To Marry A Millionaire" show began.