The
opening score beneath the title credits and Los Angeles highway
footage sounds like music for a 1940s Lon Chaney Jr. horror
film—ironically a supporting
player in this film. The rest of the music would fit an
old action serial. Few films are more aptly titled, as
about one-third of the movie is
a climactic chase sequence that flits from car to rowboat to
motorboat to helicopter, and to dress shoes.
Such as it is, the plot concerns a police officer, his expectant wife, and criminals out to steal a payroll truck. Starring again for Lippert Pictures are actors past their career peaks, Glenn Langan, Adele Jergens, and Jim Davis. The opening amateurish dialogue between the police lieutenant, Douglas “B-movie” Kennedy, and reporter Joe Flynn (in a thankless role) is a weak spot, yet the other unknown supporting actors think their own dialogue is not only important but terrific. As recalled by Kennedy to Flynn, it sets up a backstory about Langan and Jergens (in a role against type) back to his graduation from the police academy and the following months on the force. Kennedy is very supportive of the expectant couple and, as a point of encouragement, visits them periodically. Their dialogue is also clichéd. By the way, Kennedy and Flynn wrap up the film in a hokey style.
Aside
from some good location filming on land and sea, there are some cheap
high school drama sets during the early prison scenes. A potential
riot stirs up the acting extras as they pound their tin cups on a
table in front of a blank, "cardboard" wall. Making it laughable are extras
casually “photo-bombing” in front of the main actors in slow
motion in the prison yard. Jim Davis plays a hardened criminal
planning a big breakout. This is the last we hear about that (plot
hole number one). Instead, he is released from prison and is looking to
reconnect with his wife and a couple of prison pals
for a payroll robbery. As the chase begins, the trailing
police attempt to shoot someone or something in the convertible getaway
car while on the freeway. Davis’s wife is assumed to be shot dead, and he takes the wheel to steer the car. Somehow, he manages to bring
the car to a stop. In a surprisingly despicable act, more in tune
with movies twenty years into the future, the guys push her from the
car and over a cliff. Catch you later, babe!
Then sit back for an
“editing festival” as scenes jump from one location or automobile
in a matter of seconds. The railroad yard sequence appears to wrap up
the chase after Chaney is shot multiple times, and the music fades. I
was wrong. The two remaining criminals are now on foot to an awaiting
rowboat to Mexico. Amazingly, they trade their rowboat for a motorboat abandoned in open water. In an impressive supporting
performance, a Nash Ambassador patrol car comes in hot, skidding at
an angle toward the camera next to a waiting police helicopter.
Langan misses his child's birth as the chase continues—in
Florsheims.
Note: In contrast to this movie's lead, Robert L. Lippert Senior was probably present at his son's birth. It appears Junior picked up some of his father's traits. Number six of seven in his producing career, this film is by no means horrible. The film was directed by Arthur Hilton, and taking full responsibility for the mundane dialogue is the writing team of Fred Freiberger and the uncredited (by request?) Orville Hampton. The 3-D footage will have no relevance today, but it was thrust upon the viewer willy-nilly during the big chase. The producer edited that footage into this film from his film short, Bandit Island (1953). The twenty-five-minute short had no dialogue. Probably a wise choice. The above poster appears to promote Bandit Island with an overlaying poster.
