Hot Rod Gang

John Ashley is wanted by the law for driving recklessly through a puddle (no kidding). He is later framed for stealing hub-caps (no kidding). Incognito, he becomes a rock n' roll star with some help from 50's rockabilly legend Gene Vincent. In between, he meets a hip chick and gets into fistfights with some cool cats. Dig it, Daddy-o.

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.

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.

John Abernathy III is a street racer with his hot rod. He hides his rock-n-roll hot rod lifestyle from his rich conservative family.

This is a nothing movie but the cars are darn nice. I love the old hot rods. I wish that the movie would be in color to show off the cars more. The music is fine early rock and rockabilly although I don't recognize any of the songs. This is almost a time capsule. As a movie, it's of limited value and the comedic attempts are really annoying. It's more fascinating as an artifact of a certain time.

Hot Rod Gang (1958)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fun teen stuff from AIP has John Ashley playing John Abernathy III, a cool teen who drives a fast car and even manages to get the pretty new girl (Jody Fair) in town. However, trouble happens when his gang of friends are about to be thrown out of the place they hang out so they decide to use their band to make some money and they also get some help from Gene Vincent. If you're looking for a film that will change your life or change your views on certain topics then HOT ROD GANG certainly isn't for you. If you're just wanting some cheap fun from the 1950s drive-in craze then this film offers up a pretty good time. I thought the story was actually one good enough to where you could get wrapped up in what was going on. Yes, it's pretty far-fetched and you could argue that it was silly but in a teenage guys life is there anything more important than a girl, a car and a place to hang out? I thought director Lew Landers (THE RAVEN) did a very good job at keeping the film running at a nice pace and he also added in some nice touches with the supporting characters. I really liked how eccentric, weird and rather silly all of the adults were. This is something that happened in most of these films but here it's done in a way that was pretty funny to watch and especially the two aunts. The performances really weren't all that bad with Ashley once again playing the type he's best remembered for and he even gets to sing a couple songs. Fair made for a good love interest even though she wasn't all that energetic. Future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gene Vincent gets to do a few tunes including his final hit Dance to the Bop. Again, HOT ROD GANG isn't going to change your life but it's fast and fun entertainment.