Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

morrison-dylan-fan For the final day of the 1958 best movie poll on ICM,I decided to look for one last title to view on YouTube. Looking down the YT page,I found a flick with a short & sweet run time,that led to me starting the hot rod up.The plot:Entering a street race, John Abernathy III runs into a puddle that splashes all over a man. Coming from the upper-class,Abernathy tries to hide as the police treat the puddle as a crime scene. As the police investigate the youth hang outs,Abernathy attempts to keep his driving and Rockabilly-singing identity secret. View on the film:Speeding by at 72 minutes, director Lew Landers & cinematographer Floyd Crosby give the flick an energetic slickness, with regular early Rock numbers being played with "happening" teen parties and limited Hot Rod racing. Kicking off all the trouble by John Abernathy III driving into a puddle (!) the screenplay by Lou Rusoff now has a sweet, sincere 50's innocence, due to the overreaction from the adults on Abernathy and the gang hanging out,now playing with a lightly comedic tone that sets the hot wheels off.

tavm The main reason I decided to watch this movie was because since I've been recently reviewing movies featuring '50s Rock stars, I had to check this one out after finding out Gene Vincent was in it. Unlike previously in The Girl Can't Help It in which he only sang, here he also has some speaking lines as he's a friend of the leading lady, Jody Fair. John Ashley is the leading man and he sings quite a bit of songs as well. Maureen Arthur is the only other singer here though she only has one number. While there are plenty of hot rod races, there's also an eccentric group of supporting characters related to Ashley's character that provide many laughs. To tell the truth, I couldn't keep up with the plot since so much was going on! Still, I very much liked Hot Rod Gang. P.S. Another reason I decided to watch this was because this was the only other movie in which Kay Wheeler did a dance, her other one was Rock Baby - Rock It.

bkoganbing Followers of the late Gene Vincent, one of the pioneers of the Rock and Roll music genre will have lots of reason to watch Hot Rod Gang. For the rest I can say there's hot rods, but only a couple of bad apples among the teens, hardly enough to call it gang.Actually the teens led by John Ashley just want to maintain their clubhouse where they dance, listen to rock and roll, and work on their hot rods. Ashley does all three but he has to keep it on the sly lest his maiden aunts who are straight out of Arsenic And Old Lace find out as they hold the key to his millions. They don't poison people, they're just plain dotty.Can't touch those millions, but Ashley can cut a record or two as a new rock and roll sensation with the help of Gene Vincent to save the club from Dub Taylor the landlord. In the meantime the club is getting a bad reputation from those teens who are into stealing and stripping cars.Some songs by Ashley and Vincent are the only reason to see this drive- in special from the Fifties.

mcdamsten Lucky enough to catch and record this off of AMC a few years ago. The only thing about this movie that makes me want to view it again is to see what Gene Vincent was like at near the height of his fame. Gene, of course, does 'Be Bop A Lula' in color in 'The Girl Can't Help It' but he has some dialog in this one and does TWO songs with the Blue Caps in this one: 'Dance In The Street' and 'Baby Blue'. You get a good look at Gene's 2nd lead guitarist (after Cliff Gallup); Johnny Meeks and his greasy hair-do and dancer Tommy Facenda doing a frenzied shimmy. Also some Gene stage moves. Apparently his staring up into space and singing was something of a trademark. Anyhow, missing the 50's, this'll have to do for catching Gene. Oh yeah, the rest of the movie. Always nice to see the AIP logo and nice opening credits race scene down some street in the LA are in the 50's. A couple of fights, dances and less hot rod action that I expected. John Ashley apes Elvis the best he can and sings more songs than Gene (boo). ** out of *****. *** if you're a Gene fan.