Sure, I like those movies from the 50's showing teenagers and hot rods and soda shops with jukeboxes and kids dancing and all that. This movie has those things. Unfortunately the story itself is not as interesting as a lot of the peripheral stuff.
First, and this happens in a lot of these old movies, the 'teenager' hasn't seen his teen years in a lo-o-n-g time. The "kid" who plays the lead was already 26 or 27 when this movie came out. He may have crash-dieted his way down to teenager-skinny but there's no hiding that the face and voice just aren't in high-schooler territory. For that matter the other 'kid' - the antagonist - also seems to have left his teen years behind too.
I would like very much to get my hands on a hot-rod the likes of which the main character stole to race in, while allegedly taking it for a test drive. Something like $600 for a built up 50's hot rod? I'll take five. Put 'em on my VISA card, thanks.
The 'kid's' father seemed very hard to please. The kid wants to get a job and earn the money to buy his own car and that idea is met with complete rejection by ol' pops. How many people wish their kids were willing to work and earn the things they want to have? What I thought was the most blatantly funny part happens when the main character and his arch enemy 'the other kid' go up against each other at a drag strip. For one thing, the other kid is swerving all over the track at our 'hero', a move guaranteed to get you disqualified if not arrested at any drag strip anyplace. But the real laugh comes in with the fact that it takes these two speed demons in hot rods approximately 50 seconds to run the quarter mile. I could do that myself without a car! Even back then, a car could do a 1/4 mile in 16 or 17 seconds, and that hasn't been lightning fast for many years now. A 50 second quarter mile works out to about 18 miles per hour, an hilariously long time. You'd think they were driving to Cleveland, the race goes on so long.
Well it's an interesting period piece. Must have been lots of fun making these movies and making a living off them back in the 50's. However they aren't much to brag on. If you can see this one for free, go for it, but it you're thinking of buying it, do your best to buy it cheap.
