Highway 301

Moviecut—Highway 301

source: Highway 301

Highway 301

With Steve Cochran as the steely psychopath, his solidly loyal gang members (and Cochran loyal to them), and the carefree, hardboiled but feminine Virginia Grey, the film is well acted. The action on the streets and with large crowds is pleasingly complex and realistic. The finely staged light-and-shadow settings are consistently startling and eye-catching in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings. These elements, despite the governors unconvincingly reading their scripts and a narrative voice for documentary effect, could have made this film a solid 7 and perhaps an 8 out of 10. However, the predictable, tedious melodramatic "Perils of Pauline" escape attempts of the Lee Fontaine character are a ball-and-chain that (for this viewer) held this film back from being a runaway noir success.

This is a Public Service picture thinly disguised as a crime movie, and a very poor one too. You know you're in trouble when three, count 'em three governors get to pound the message home that Crime Does Not Pay. Except in politics, i guess.Man, those HUAC hearings must have really scared Jack Warner silly to produce such lame law and order tripe as this movie. It's clear from the get-go that these gangsters are basically two-bit crooks, cowards who hit women and on a one way trip to the death house. Movies like this are only of interest as a scary example of Fifties government propaganda. "Kids, these guys may look cool, but look how mean and stupid they are. I'm sure you'd all much rather be a stuffed shirt like the clever cops who are way smarter than those no-good goons. Now eat your greens and go do your homework!" I'm sure J. Edgar "What's the Mafia?" Hoover gave this his Seal of Approval. Forgettable and frightening Fifties fare.

Early in his career film maker Andrew Stone was bitten by the Delmer Daves bug (i.e. "I can write AND direct this sucker!") and the results, as with Daves, were less than fortuitous. In other words this is typical 50s crime stuff with the action scenes well handled and Steve Cochran doing his usual solid work of embodying scum but with a general flatness of dialogue and story that drags the whole thing down into a dull vat of standardization. If I'd been the producer instead of Bryan Foy I'd have fought for outsourcing the screenplay to Phil Yordan or Bill Bowers. And while I was at it I'd ask the cinematographer to do a better job of having downtown LA stand in for Richmond Va (as in losing the oil drums, arid foothills and palm trees). Give it a C plus. PS...Ever wonder where the genesis of Black Lives Matter and Defund The Police lies? Check out the broken windows/ "don't coddle young hoods" speech by the law enforcement geek at the film's conclusion.

This dull, mundane B noir is a predictable gangster flick except for a few camp moments. The killing is so gratuitous and casually carried out you don't take it seriously. I almost laughed at some. The one moll has such a thick overdone accent you end up laughing every line she utters. She sounds more like Elmer Fudd than a French person. With the palm trees and smog on the horizon, certain scenes are obviously Los Angeles, not Virginia.

After ten years directing musicals and comedies, Andrew Stone with 'Highway 301' turned to making the thrillers for which he remains most fondly remembered. The distinctive 'documentary' style of his later films like 'The Steel Trap' (1952) and 'The Last Voyage' (1960) - using natural sound and authentic locations - is hinted at in the opening robbery sequence, but much that follows resembles a conventional studio-shot gangster film. In their enormous, immaculate suits Steve Cochran and the rest of his gang at all times look as if they're about to go to a wedding in those big black cars they're driving. Described by Bosley Crowther at the time as "a straight exercise in low sadism", its a far more brutal film than Stone's later thrillers, which tend to take a more benign view of humanity and have more upbeat endings.

I saw this very exciting and fast paced gangster movie over 50 years ago and remember it fondly to this very day. I even remember the theater I saw it in on a Saturday matinée. It kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end and the action never lets up. It's a classic Steve Cochran performance. A real bad apple with no redeeming qualities. Andrew L. Stone directed which is really no surprise because he specialized in action and suspense films which don't allow the viewer to take a deep breath such as the Last Voyage, Cry Terror and Blueprint for Murder. This is the kind of cops and robbers film that they don't make any more.

The criminal exploits of a small group of gangsters working in the Maryland/Virginia/North Carolina area. The docudrama subgenre of noir tends to produce few masterpieces and a lot of mediocrities. This one is closer to mediocrity, but has a few worthwhile assets. The intro, with "crime does not pay" lectures by the governors of the three states, sets the self-righteous, judgemental tone for the film's narration and messages. The story follows a standard formula, with early successes by the gang followed by the net of the law gradually closing around them and forcing their hand. The characterizations are fun but one-note. Steve Cochran in the lead has an edgy brutality but not much else. However, the action sequences are well done, and there is one nail-biting, suspenseful scene as one of the gangster's gals tries to escape. The photography is quite nice as well, at least during the gloomy night scenes.