There is no DVD copy of this flick, and who knows if Turner Classic Movies will ever play it again. But as long as you can deal with the poor quality YouTube uploads ‘Hot Rod Rumble‘ is available to watch free, and it is one of the best JD / Hot Rod movies of the 1950’s.
Credit to Richard Hartunian as protagonist ‘Big Arnie’ Crawford. In his one and only movie role, Hartunian is James Dean and Marlon Brando rolled together… but better. Tougher, meaner, manlier. There is no feminine side to this guy.
Big Arnie is disliked by the other members of the Road Devils hot rod gang. If he wasn’t their fastest driver, he would have been kicked out the gang already. Dude is a total barbarian. One Friday night, the members of the Road Devils are having a party at a juke joint. Everyone is dressed in snazzy suits, but in walks Big Arnie in his black leather jacket with Road Devils logo on the back. One gang members cracks a joke that if Arnie is interested in a girl, he doesn’t ask for a date… he goes on a raid. So uncouth.
Big Arnie presents as the typical ‘tough-guy’ greaser so when when he sees his ex-girlfriend Terri dancing with fellow Road Devils gang member Hank, one Big Arnie to put on brass knuckles and start a rumble, like the title suggests. But no… he’s an emotional mess. This delicate delinquent is heartbroken and just wants his girlfriend back. Despite his gruff outward appearance, Big Arnie is sweet and vulnerable when trying to convince Terri to give him another chance. Hank gets tired of Big Arnie cutting in on his date, and a scuffle breaks out. Big Arnie gets kicked out, but he’s already spoiled the party.
While driving Terri back to her home, Hank notices a speeding car behind them, and assumes it’s Big Arnie trying to cause trouble. The chasing car sideswipes Hank’s hot rod and causes a terrible crash. Hank is killed and Terri is injured. At the scene of the crime, a Road Devils ‘plate’ was ripped off the bumper of the killer car, but it doesn’t identify the driver.
Convinced that Big Arnie killed Hank in a fit of rage, all of his friends abandon him. When the cops come to question him, even Big Arnie’s parents turn on him. Big Arnie has always been a ‘troubled youth‘ but this is too much for mom and pop! Virtually everyone is certain that Arnie is guilty, so the Road Devils take matters into their own hands, cornering Big Arnie at the garage where he works and beating him severely, despite him pleading his innocence.
Bog Arnie wants to leave town, but he’s broke. His friends and family have turned against him, and his girl won’t even speak to him. This sets up the climactic ending, where Big Arnie is pitted against his former gang in the big race with a $1,500 grand prize. The hot rods compete in a 50 mile cross country event that starts at the local drag strip, winds through the mountains on two-lane roads then ends on the drag strip. Throughout the race, his former friends try to wreck Big Arnie and force him off the road. But he’s no push-over; Big Arnie is simply faster and beats the Road Devils at what they love most…. racing. Without giving away the crux of the movie, evidence is found in another Road Devil’s car at the big race which exonerates Big Arnie.
While ‘Hot Rod Rumble’ appears to be standard drive-in movie fluff, there’s a deeper subtext. Big Arnie is not the antagonist he appears to be in the opening scene. He is, in fact, the only sympathetic person in the entire movie. Hartunian does an incredible job of expressing Big Arnie’s anguish at being forsaken by friends and family, and his desperation to escape. The tough guy isn’t the culprit; he’s the victim.
It seems the filmmakers were trying to say something about America in that era. Big Arnie represent the actors, writers and directors accused of being communists, caught up in the ‘red scare’ in Hollywood. There seems to a parallel between Arnie and innocent people who had their lives destroyed by simply being accused of un-American behaviour.
Maybe this is just B-movie fluff, but it might also be cinema.
I always look forward to these reviews. I appreciate how you often see a deeper meaning in the films you review!
I figure if anyone wants a plot synopsis, go to IMDB. I’ll focus on the cars and communist conspiracies.
You come up with interesting old car movies. The Road Devils makes me think of when we had The Devil’s Highway, Route 666, in western New Mexico. It was the 6th spur off of old Route 66 when it was numbered in the 1930s. The road was renumbered in the 80s.
Last year when my family was on a trip to California (for a race… of course) we totally got into the Americana of old Route 66.
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As a Canadian, I was raised to always hate the Americans, but never say it to their faces, because they are likely armed. But most Canadians also have an inferiority complex and think everything here is inferior and very ‘provincial. So we grew up with a deep love of Americana too.
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Went to the original McDonald’s in San Bernardino, a Wigwam Motel, and a totally restored Richfield Gas Station in Rancho Cucamonga https://demaras.com/?s=route+66
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But I have never heard of the 6th spur on Route 66. The Devil’s Highway… so cool.
Do you remember Jan & Dean’s The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle? https://youtu.be/ILVxVGJgCZU?si=VAJErLU-jOU09IR4. That’s so cool you’ve been to Cucamonga. You’ve hit a lot of places on Old 66 out west. As you probably know, Jan & Dean did some great car songs. “Dead Man’s Curve” and “The Little Old Lady From Pasadina” being two of them.
Its funny how a rental car with unlimited mileage makes a place like California very small. I made sure to drag my wife & kids to as many original and synthetic Route 66 spots as we could. Even the Disney ones like Radiator Springs.
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Jan and Dean are totally cool. I’d never heard THAT song before, but I love the idea of car songs as a popular music trend.
When we rented a car in southern France, it had a mileage limit. The woman we were staying with told us about a canyon to visit, and being used to longer distances, we passed that canyon we were suppoed to go to for a larger canyon and ended up at the Italian border. We were right at the limit for the day’s mileage when we got home that night.
The car was a VW UP. We were trying to drivethe UP up to a peak that has been on the Tour de France. The UP did not have enough Oop, and could not make the grade it was so steep. I had to do a K-turn without rolling the car and drive the long way around the mountain.
Oh, the joys of under-powered European rental cars.