It's a film of suspense, a film with Frills. A film with an ''amazing'' plot twist. And the story that's needlessly convoluted. How convoluted is the story? Well there's an entire scene dedicated to just explaining why the delivery truck had to show up at the Dam at that time and why it's unique cargo was needed at all.
Needless to say it was not the best thought-out script. The main story of two truck drivers having to deliver Dynamite to a Dam becomes almost secondary to the character interactions between the two truck drivers and the random woman they pick up.
Doris Weston is supposed to play the naïve girl who becomes involved in a situation over her head. Only to discover later on that she was actually part of the plot the entire time. The only issue I have with this entire story is that we see her earlier interacting with the truck drivers before any of the plot takes place. And it just seems a little coincidental that they should meet up again. It's not impossible, they're all driving around the same area and everyone is heading to the same direction inevitably. But the whole thing does seem slightly contrived.
But there's no real reason to be concerned about any of this. This is not a movie you watch for the complex story or even for any proper character development. It's just one of those films you see to fill an afternoon. Or at least a part of an afternoon as you have to put this film back to back with something else just to make a decent running time.
I like the first 20 minutes of the movie. Where it's just the two truck drivers driving their basic cargo and then getting pulled over by ''Watchers'' in the road for speeding. I was kind of hoping the rest of the movie would have just been these two guys trying to make ends meat and picking up Oddball jobs wherever they could find it.
Or even just continuing on with their basic job but having to manipulate the situation so nobody calls them out for their questionable work ethics.
But instead we got a much more complicated story involving dynamite and what I thought originally were a bunch of mobsters or possibly even a traders dispute problem with a bunch of guys who were going to try to blow up a town with dynamite. But it actually just turns out to be a small town getting screwed over by a local politician who's working with this other guy who screwing him over so he can sell his land for five times its own value.
All of this story is supposed to happen in an hour-long film in where 10 minutes of the runtime is taken up by singing and another 10 minutes is taken up by a Mexican Siesta that's happening at the evening.
It's kind of pointless to say if it's a good or bad movie. It's an obscure a little flick from the late thirties that feels like a B movie from the 50s. That I can almost guarantee nobody is going to want to watch. On the bright side if you do want to watch this movie for some reason you can find it on YouTube. I don't know if it's in the public domain, to be honest I'm not even sure anybody cares.
It's kind of like the first Die Hard film. There's all this setup and meticulous planning for what you think is going to be a really complex and sophisticated crime. only to discover that the criminals just want to steal Bank bonds.
Maybe just maybe Ward Bond can get some sleep. Probably not, that's all he wants in this entire movie. Doesn't even care about money all that much. In fact it makes you wonder why either one of these truck drivers really want to get the payload to their location.
We're told that the main guy (Ralph Byrd: Who would later go on to all those Dick Tracy films) really cares about this delivery. The whole thing feels kind of forced. As if he's just making it up because he knows he's already stuck in the situation and he might as well come out with a bit of a moral High Ground behind him. But neither of them have any reason to care.
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