HI-JACKED (1950)

Unlike last month's Highway 13, this project has a greater element of authenticity thanks to the Lippert team director, Sam Newfield, and cinematography by Philip Tannura. No sped-up film gimmicks nor does it have a 1930s look and feel. Sigmund Neufeld Productions produced this sixty-six-minute little gem, one of the better Lippert suspense-filled crime dramas. Expect superb performances by low-budget actors and location filming of interstate trucking. This time around it is not sabotage, but hi-jacking. Iris Adrian (below right) adds her usual spark as the diner waitress.

Jim Davis drives for a company experiencing more than their fare share of truck hi-jacks. He is also trying to shake the stigma of his incarceration for embezzlement. Now on the up and up, he becomes the unwitting pawn to ship millions in stolen furs. Davis still has a chip on his shoulder, believing his employment future is bleak as an ex-con. His pessimistic, smart-aleck attitude toward a highway patrolman during a trailer inspection is not going to help. The patrolman says as much.

The film has a strong opening sequence in a driving rain. Davis stops to help a motorist but it is simply part of a gang of hi-jackers, who leaves him in a ditch. Lots of film is used to show Davis in a late Forties GMC ACR 723 tractor during deliveries. An eyeful from bygone days. The mob's goons slip a sleeping sedative in his coffee thermos while distracted at the diner, resulting in another hi-jacking. He later takes a beating at home and they hide a fur coat in the room. Davis tells his wife, Marcia Jones, that someone must be working from inside the trucking firm. He logically narrows the culprit down to the shipping manager. After a pretty exciting climax of fist-o-cuffs and gunplay, the police arrive to arrest the mob, the finger man, and the fence.

Note: Lippert regulars, House Peters, Jr. and Sid Melton, take their usual spot in this film. “Killer” Melton is the comedic relief as an awkward goon who dreams of having his own gun and someday being a mob kingpin. He is hopelessly in the wrong line of work. Speaking of levity, one cannot ignore Iris Adrian as the quintessential diner waitress. Do not blink and miss Myron Healy as a police dispatcher.

Check out my series on seven other Lippert films that ran from February to July 2022, starting here.