JD MOVIE: Running Wild (1955)

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The availability of automobiles had a huge impact on North American society in the 1950s. God only knows what teenagers were doing at the local diner or drive-in, away from parents prying eyes. The temptations of booze, drugs, sex and crime, would tear the fabric of society. A reflection of those times were the low-budget, B-movies of the era. Morality tales disguised as car flicks commonly played at drive-in theatres. The genre is sometimes called Hot Rod / Juvenile Delinquent movies and they made being bad look so good!

The 1955 film ‘Running Wild’ follows a pattern in many Hot Rod / JD movies. Undercover cop Ralph Barton (played by William Campbell) rolls into town in a chopped-top Mercury convertible, pretending to be an LA tough guy with a sordid past. All the cool kids in this California town hang out at local juke-joint The Cove, drinking and dancing like there’s no tomorrow. Ralph wants in on the local scene so he can infiltrate and bust a car theft ring.

Once these teenagers get some drinks in them, things get wild. There’s a big musical number when Irma (a car thief’s girlfriend) dances to a Bill Haley & The Comets song. She’s played by 1950’s dream girl and platinum blonde starlet Mamie Van Doren. Between the music, dancing and gorgeous women, you halfway expect Ralph to just forget he’s a cop and join the kids for some kicks.

But this is a morality tale, so the gangsters don’t just steal cars; they kill people who get in their way. Which is really too bad, because The Cove looked like a really happening place.

The appeal of this movie to 1950’s teenagers was the cool cars. The star of the movie is undoubtedly the famous Hirohata Merc, a car built by famed customizer George Barris. Starting life as a 1951 Mercury Club Coupe, the door handles have been shaved off, the top was chopped (4″ in front, 7″ in back). The windshield was laid back, the B-pillar reshaped, and a whole new roof fabricated. The car was extremely influential on customizers of the 50s, and is still revered today, considering it sold for $2,145,000 at a Mecum car auction in 2022!

One of the cool things about these old hot rod flicks is that sometimes future movie stars appear. In ‘Running Wild’ then 19-year-old actor John Saxon (the white guy in Bruce Lee’s ‘Game of Death’) absolutely steals the movie in his first scene. He plays a car thief who’s grown a conscience, and wants out of the racket. He delivers a simple line “Don’t I know you from someplace?” to undercover cop protagonist, Ralph.

Saxon speaks so naturally and believably, it seems like a real person wandered onto a movie set. He’s like Marlon Brando on screen, making everyone else’s ‘stage-acting’ line delivery seem like a joke.

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