Well, its been quite a while since I’ve dropped a Theatre of the Less Obvious post! In our last installment, I profiled the made-for-TV classic Speedtrap from 1977, and reiterated that while I was focusing on car related movies that I feel are obscure or forgotten, there was also going to be some nostalgia mixed in with my choices, and that a few of the films I wanted to profile were not theatrical releases, but rather made-for-TV movies. There were quite a lot of these in the era of my young boyhood! Despite the government’s attempts to ruin everything, the car culture that blew up in the 1950s and ‘60s remained a strong cultural phenomenon in the ‘70s, and there were quite a few excellent “car movies” made for television in this era. Included in this genre are classics like The California Kid (1974) and Corvette Summer (1978), both thoroughly enjoyable films that I deemed a bit too well-known to be profiled here, as well as some obscurities like the goofily named The Death Car On The Freeway (1979), which I pondered on for a while and ultimately decided not to profile, though it is worth a view as well.
I saw all of these movies either as first-runs or re-runs in my youth, but today’s feature, the blandly-named Hot Rod from 1979, is one that really plucks the strings of nostalgia for me; I have very vivid memories of watching this movie from start to finish when it first aired on May 25, 1979 on the ABC affiliate in Arcadia CA (Channel 7) when I was a lad of 8. I was enthralled with every moment of it, watching it with my dad, who was less interested in it than I was (dad wasn’t much of a car guy) but he enjoyed the boomer-inspired nostalgia of it, as elements of the film point strongly back to the late ‘50s and ‘60s. Boomer-driven nostalgia for that era was strong in the ‘70s and ‘80s, just as you would expect it to be (this was the decade of American Grafitti and Happy Days, after all), but what makes Hot Rod so cool is that, in both word and deed, the movie pays homage to the ‘50s and ‘60s while embracing the coming future of the ‘80s, making it a quintessential “gearhead” movie for vintage car-obssessed Gen-X’ers like yours truly! The performances, especially from Gregg Henry as the determined hero and Robert Culp as the authoritarian villain, add depth to what could otherwise be a straightforward action film. It is a far better movie that its title suggests!
That’s not to say “Hot Rod” is any kind of “great cinema.” Its canned plot is cut from the familiar bolt of “I Fought The Law” cloth so common to the ‘70s that gave us everything from the “rebel trucker” genre of Convoy to the “Good ol’ boys never meanin’ no harm” of The Dukes of Hazzard. We follow Brian Edison (Gregg Henry), a young drag racer with determination to win, who just finished a rebuild of a very hot Hemi-powered ‘65 Plymouth Belvedere while working as a mechanic in a small garage. He decides to take his freshly repainted ride to the track to see what it can do, so he makes a road trip to a small town in northern California, where he befriends a DJ he picks up hitchiking (Royce D. Applegate) and shortly thereafter finds himself embroiled in a rivalry with one of the town’s Burgomeisters, a Boss-Hogg type named T.L. Munn (Robert Culp), the baron of a local root beer empire, and his spoiled son creatively named “Sonny” (Grant Goodeve).
“Sonny” drives a hot ‘69 Olds 4-4-2 (with a paint job so ‘70s you have to see it to believe it!) and has talked his dear old dad into sponsoring a local drag race competition which he knows he’ll always win, thanks to the protection of dad’s “attack dog,” the corrupt local sheriff Marsden (Pernell Roberts) running any other driver who could realistically beat Sonny on the track out of town through continuous harassment and intimidation. Within hours of arriving in town, Brian has a run-in with Sonny that leads to a dangerous street race that ends with Brian crashing and utterly destroying his newly rebuilt Plymouth before it has a chance to strut its stuff. That awakes the dog inside him and now, out for revenge, he goes looking for a new chassis to install his built Hemi drivetrain in, and settles on-what else but-a primer gray ‘41 Willys, a former drag car from the golden era that he pulls out of a junkyard. Brian, with the help of his mechanically savvy crew of new friends and old rebels, faces off against the odds, building and rebuliding his Willys after every attempt made by the bad guys to stop him, and fighting the cops and the Munn empire. It culminates in a high-stakes drag race where Brian must not only prove his skills, but also beat the oppressive forces of authority in the town. And course there’s time for romance, as well!
So, yeah: nothing you haven’t seen a million times before. That’s not the point: the point is that watching this movie is a good time! The slow and downbeat solo sax opening theme does not set the tone, as the rest of the movie is scored with classic ‘50s and ‘60s rock by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Jan & Dean, in addition to many others. In fact, one of my most poignant memories of this film is hearing “Rave On” for the first time in my life during one of the street racing sequences! And yes, that classic track by The Bobby Fuller Four is included, too! The film is populated with colorful characters-gearheads, racers and car-nuts who range in age from their early 20s to their late 50s, remembering their pasts fondly while looking forward to the future of the 1980s. It recalls a time when life was far more free and more affordable than it is today, when young men and women were free to pursue their passion for cars with the money they made working ordinary jobs; a time when there was no end in sight to that kind of freedom. The movie shines in its dedication to showcasing the technical aspects of car racing and its authenticity in depicting the car-obsessed subculture. Sure, the plot is predictable and some of the dialogue feels clichéd, but the terrific soundtrack and the energy and excitement of the racing scenes more than compensate for its shortcomings.
The movie was filmed in Calistoga (Nor Cal wine country), and the racing sequences were taped at Fremont drag way, another piece of automotive history lost to population increase and rapacious real-estate barons in 1988. Just watching the street scenes is enough to turn on any classic car lover-its truly amazing how many 1950’s and ’60s cars were still on the road as “daily drivers” as the 1980’s were about to pop (in California, at least!)
Director George Armitage may have perceived that the film’s title was just too generic to be of interest in the aftermarket, so when it was released on VHS a few years later it was retitled Rebel of the Road, but as far as I am aware, the title was the only thing that changed. Hot Rod is a product of a more innocent age: it contains no gratuitous sex or violence, no one is killed or maimed on (or off)-screen, and the villians, while certainly corrupt, are not so vile that you wish for their deaths; their come-uppance at the end is entirely proportional to their crimes. It is a movie that captures the spirit of late 1970s car culture; its themes of rebellion and individuality resonate with the Rockabillies of the past and the Punks of its present, while the thrilling drag racing sequences and the (mostly) acurate takes on the mechanical aspects of muscle car performance make it a treat for car enthusiasts. Good times all around! If you haven’t seen this one, you should!
SO…Where can you see it?
Well, just about anywhere! The copyright on this one is long-expired, and it has been uploaded in its entirety multiple times to YouTube and numerous other online hosting services! In addition to that, it was also released on DVD! This movie is readily available for you to enjoy any time you like, so grab some popcorn and a crate of your Matchboxes and Hot Wheels and do so! There are million worse ways you could spent 95 minutes of your life!
Another great review, thanks Bud! I know since everything has been written, I’m ok with an unoriginal plot sometimes if you have some good acting, dialog or visuals and most importantly, just enjoy the experiences. With the B Horror movies that I love, you can have two of basically the same film but one is great and the other is almost unwatchable. I had come across that death car on the freeway and started watching it but didn’t seem to get into it. It is fun coming across and seeing some of these flix again, or even for the first time! I definitely agree on loving the feel of these made for TV movies from the 70’s.