Hot Rod Gang (1958)

When the rent comes due on their clubhouse, never fear, because Johnny Abernathy, the leader of our titular hot rod gang, has a plan to get the scratch to get the landlord off their backs before he boots them all out.

Now, this plan entails him winning the next big drag race. Of course, to do that, Johnny (Ashley) must first raise some cash to finish fine-tuning his jalopy first. (In fact, I don't think the thing is even built yet. Anyhoo...)

Luckily for him, his new girl, Lois (Fair), has a back-up plan to raise the cash and fix the car so they can win the race to make the rent and save their clubhouse. Seems she knows Gene Vincent, and the girl is convinced she can sway the rockabilly "Be-Bop-a-Lula" wild-man to put on a show so they can raise the cash and fix the car to win the race and make the rent to save their clubhouse. 

Alas, Vincent is booked solid, but the singer is acutely aware of Johnny's own singing prowess and convinces him that he should be the one to put on a show so they can raise the cash and fix the car to win the race and make the rent to save their clubhouse.

But! Johnny refuses, citing that if his kooky old aunts, Abigail and Anastasia Abernathy (Spring, Neumann), will disown him if they ever found out about their nephew's double-life as a Grease-Ball Hot-Roddin' Rock 'n' Roller. And since they're his sole meal ticket, well, no dice there either.

Ah! But Vincent and Jody brainstorm a way around that and cook-up a bop'n beatnik disguise for Johnny. Thus, our bearded and pompadour'd heartthrob can jive and wail, like, incognito, man, so he can put on the show to raise the cash and fix the car to win the race and make the rent to save their clubhouse...

The Los Angeles Times, August 20, 1958.

Wow. Yeah. Hot Rod Gang (1958) is just another heapin’-helpin’ of crock-n-bull provided by veteran American International stock screenwriter Lou Rusoff, with director Lew Landers just walking everyone through it as fast as he possibly can. And did I mention that Johnny was also being framed for a series of car thefts by his rival racers?

No? Well, then let's just forget I even brought this moral clause up. I'm having a hard enough time dealing with those Spinster Aunts and their wild attempts to be hip to the hep. Yeesh. But if you would like to know more about the production history of Hot Rod Gang, I highly recommend you give our exhaustive look at its co-feature, High School Hellcats (1958), a read through, which chronicles its production and the absolute sphincter-clinching and panty-wadded shit-storm the two features stirred up with public upon their release, which, given the tenor of this write up, was completely unwarranted.

Okay, I didn't think it was possible, but John Ashley is actually worse at the onscreen Rock 'n' Roll thing than Arch Hall Jr. -- The Choppers (1961), Wild Guitar (1962). All of his performances are canned and dubbed in, and I wouldn't know for sure if that's really him singing or not. But I’m thinking it was.

Now, I've always liked Ashley as a supporting beachnik for Frankie and Annette -- Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and I loved his later producing work in the Philippines -- The Woman Hunt (1972) Black Mama, White Mama (1973), not to mention co-creating The A-Team (1983-1987), but his early starring vehicles for AIP were pretty odious and this thing does little to blow that particular cinematic Bell Curve.

Luckily, we do have Gene Vincent anchoring the movie, and along with the Blue Caps, he performs "Dance in the Street," "Dance to the Bop," "Lovely Loretta" and "Baby Blue." I know Eddie Cochran's back-up band shows up, too, but why Cochran himself doesn't make an appearance is anyone's guess.

And one can only laugh at Ashley's beatnik as, once more, the brass at AIP understood the beat culture about as well as they did the hippie and biker scene, losing almost everything in their translation.

I swear, I normally have a high tolerance for this kind of venture and all-out buffoonery, but even I have my limits. Add it all up and this whole can of stoopidity known as Hot Rod Gang is, more or less, just plain stupid.

Originally posted on July 7, 2011, at Micro-Brewed Reviews.

Hot Rod Gang (1958) Indio Productions :: American International Pictures / EP: Charles Rogers / P: Lou Rusoff / AP: Lou Kimzey / D: Lew Landers / W: Lou Rusoff / C: Floyd Crosby / E: Robert S. Eisen / M: Ronald Stein / S: John Ashley, Jody Fair, Steve Drexel, Doodles Weaver, Dub Taylor, Dorothy Neumann, Helen Spring, Gene Vincent