Hot Car Girl (1958)

Smalltime teenage hoods Duke (Richard Bakalyan) and Freddy (John Brinkley) steal parts from cars and sell them to a junk dealer to make money.

Duke’s girl, Peg (June Kenney) tries to dissuade him from a life of crime as they are driving along the highway. Angered, Duke taunts her with another girl, Janice (Jana Lund), who has driven up alongside him, and they have a chicken race.

A motorcycle policeman chasing them is accidentally killed when he crashes into Janice’s car, and she is arrested.

Having escaped from the scene, Duke paints his black car light blue to escape detection – but knowing that Janice knows his license number, Duke kills her to cover up his involvement.

Duke then leaves town, convincing Peg to join him, and commits a number of holdups along the way.

Realising that his luck will not hold out, but unwilling to surrender, Duke eventually sends Peg back home and remains alone in an abandoned roadside fruit stand, awaiting his fate.

Such stuff was standard fare for 1950s delinquent dramas, but Dick Bakalyan’s virtuoso acting job as the baddie really keeps things pumping in this Allied Artists production.

Walter ‘Duke’ Willis
Richard Bakalyan
Margaret ‘Peg’ Dale
June Kenney
Det. Lt. Ryan
Robert Knapp
Freddy
John Brinkley
Micki
Sheila McKay
Joe Doobie
Bruno VeSota
Janice Wheeler
Jana Lund
Mrs Dale
Grace Albertson
Lou
Hal Smith
Mr James Wheeler
Tyler McVey
Police headquarters sergeant
Howard Culver

Director
Bernard L. Kowalski