Hot Rod 1950

Your motion picture of the day is the B movie classic “Hot Rod”, from 1950… It’s not terrible thing to watch as far as this genre of movie goes. Luckily, there is plenty of screen time for the ’32 Highboy Roadsters, and few other good cars as well. You’ll notice a few things about this film; First that it completely steals the street racing sequence from 1947’s “The Devil on Wheels”, the original post-war hot rod film I’ve talked about before. You’ll also notice it has a similar story theme of the hot rod kids being street menaces, causing problems and needing some sort of guidance and organization. This is probably one of the last movies of this kind that didn’t feature sanctioned drag racing as a competition outlet for hot rodding. Thanks to Wally Parks and the early efforts of the NHRA, the local drag strip replaced the need for hot rodders to drive to El Mirage or Bonneville just to work out a little speed. By the time we get to movies like 1956’s ‘Hot Rod Girl’, the drags were completely part of hot rod culture.