Best movie of this year hands down!

Thanks for the memories!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A humane cop works at converting troublesome teens from street racing onto supervised dragstrips. But then a new guy, a street outlaw, comes to town and stirs the pot.The movie's title is something of a misnomer. Actually, our hot rod girl operates a clipboard rather than a road racer. But that's okay, since Lori Nelson is—surprise, surprise—very pretty, and even a good actress, to boot. Focus shifts about half-way through from the teens to cop Chuck Connors as he tries to shift street racing to the less dangerous drag strip. At 6'6", he's clearly an imposing presence that commands audience attention. There's also a good look at young Frank Gorshin (Flat-top), who comes through with some badly needed snap. He's also a very distinctive presence and clearly on his way up the show-biz ladder; he even does a couple brief Cagney bits. Too bad he wasn't cast as the outlaw where he could have shown his talents as a sneering villain (e.g. The Riddler).No doubt much of the theme is familiar to teens of the time when a guy's status could depend on how close he was to a fast car, preferably a 'hot rod'. The movie itself is fairly routine, longer than needed, and without much drag strip footage. Overall, the results lack needed drama, as when the two collisions are only implied and not shown. Maybe the staging was just too expensive for a budget outfit like Nacirema. Then too, actor Smith comes off as too bland to inject his nice boy Jeff with much personality. All in all, the movie's a drive-in programmer with a provocative title minus anything more.

Believing that a drag strip will keep kids from racing their hot rods on the street "Detective Ben Merrill" (Chuck Connors) takes an active interest and encourages them to drive responsibly. Unfortunately, when a certain group's leader by the name of "Jeff Northrup" (John Smith) has his younger brother killed in a racing accident he decides to avoid the drag strip altogether. This results in the rest of the group also losing interest in the drag strip and instead doing the exact thing that Detective Bill Merrill feared the most. Soon the residents of the city become extremely upset with the way the kids are driving recklessly through town and the police are forced to begin taking action against those who own hot rods. Matters become even worse when a troublemaker by the name of "Bronc Talbott" (Mark Andrews) arrives in town and decides to make a play for Jeff's girlfriend, "Lisa Vernon" (Lori Nelson). Now, rather than reveal any more of the film I will just say that this was an okay grade-B picture which managed to pass the time more or less. Although it's not a great film by any means I didn't think it was that bad either and so I have given it a rating of about average. If nothing else it manages to capture the 1950's time-period pretty well and that might be of interest to some viewers.

It's the mid-1950s in the San Fernando Valley and all the kids are into hot rods of one sort or another. It's generally peaceable. The community has built a drag strip where the kids may race in relative safety after their cars have been inspected to make certain there isn't a loose pfoofnik pin somewhere. (You don't really learn anything about hot rods or their engines; you just see them zoom around.) All of this friendly competition takes place under the avuncular guidance of the gentle policeman, Chuck Connors.John Smith, the young auto mechanic, is the titular hero on parole for an accident that wasn't his fault. He's blandly handsome (I guess) and is, overall, a dull goody-goody. His girl friend is cute and innocent Lori Nelson, also dull, but who once had the decency to parade around in her underwear for a few seconds in "Revenge of the Creature," the second Gill Man movie. Frank Gorshin is "Flat Top," who is there mainly to provide laughs, though his wisecracks are no longer funny, if they ever were.The bad guy, Mark Andrews, rolls into town in his modified Olds and exudes contempt for everyone he meets, as a brightly colored tree frog in the Amazon rain forest exudes poison. I suppose he's darkly handsome too, and he has the smoothest line for the girls. "Hey, Baby, you're some high-powered chick. Whaddaya say we step on the gas tonight." I don't think I'll bother with the plot. It's not worth it. A couple of other reviewers seemed to truly enjoy this, which makes me feel more marginalized than Big Top Pee Wee. I thought it was immeasurably bad. It plumbed depths of imagination and skill that I never knew existed. I needed a bathyscaphe while searching for the least evidence of any redeeming quality but the benthic deep was sterile.It's hard to imagine that even someone who grew up in that milieu could enjoy this. However, these days, there is simply no telling.

HOT ROD GIRL is one of the many American-International teen oriented films that flickered at the drive-in and equally was part of those Saturday triple features in the ice cold theaters during the duck-tail days. A decent flick that has Chuck Connors playing a concerned cop that helps organize a drag strip to keep illegal drag racing to a minimum making the city streets safer. John Smith is a former champ who has quit racing and is happy to keep his friend's rods tuned. But he is forced to race again in order to avenge his little brother's death and win his sweetheart(Lori Nelson)back. The cast also includes: Frank Gorshin, Mark Andrews, Roxanne Arlen and Dabbs Greer.