MovieChat Forums > Hot Rods to Hell (1967) Discussion > What I learned from H.T.H:

What I learned from H.T.H:

posted 17 years ago by singjohn
5 replies | jump to latest

1. Hoodlums don't always wear leather jackets and chains. Sometime they wear tucked-in, button-down, short-sleeve oxfords and penny loafers.

2. Good girls sometimes wear lots of eyeliner and Elvira-style hairdo's.

3. Bad girls sometime wear their hair like Doris Day or Marlo Thomas.

4. Anyone wearing a midriff is bad.

5. Mom and Dad don't always know best. Sometimes your creepy little brother does.

6. Any of the following emotions can be conveyed by a grimacing, constipated look:

Fear
Anger
Arousal
Rejection
Frustration
Pain
Joy

7. Annoying kids and nagging girlfriends are OK to pimp slap.

8. Drinking and driving is bad. Even if you're only drinking root beer.

9. Nothing good ever happens at a motel in the desert. (Also see: Psycho, Motel Hell, The Hitcher, The Grifters, etc....)

[–] lostto 14 years ago

lol! great list!

[–] shtiffen 13 years ago

I cannot believe that a quality actor like Dana Andrews (The Best Years of Our Lives, etc.) found it necessary to resort to this kind of made for tv crap toward the twilight of his career!!! This is one of those films (if you can call it that) you catch in the wee hours of insomnia and it can provide some laughs and cringes, if you're lucky, it will put you out.

Anyway,

10. If at first your nemeses in the idling hot rod don't back down to your
threatening them with a nail riddled piece of plywood and, instead,
creep up on you with the car...slowly back up to the doorway you had
just entered moments ago and rather than simply re-entering it and
holding your position just inside the frame (to protect you from the car
crushing you) stand there with a fearful, hopeless, constipated,
defeated, grimace.

I mean, after all, that is no advantage for you since
they would now have to either wreck their car or be blocked in and
if they now tried to get at you they would be in the very awkward
position of having to climb up over the hood and you would not be
able to bash their skulls in from you much improved and quite
desirable defensive position.

11. If your character's back is so f'ed up that you play him throughout the
movie with obvious intense pain (enduring grimaces and the
inability to do almost anything) you'll still be able to pull out boards
nailing a door opening shut...no prob there.

[–] medal5 9 years ago

12. If you are driving through the desert and need a place to take a break, look for the nice shady picnic area, with the lake and the boat rentals and all the people. There's one along every desert highway.

13. If a ten year old kid wearing a goofy hat with feathers punts a football, you can only catch it if you played football in high school!

14. Cops have a right to grab your drink out of your hand and sniff it!

[–] phillindholm 8 years ago

And a long-abandoned restaurant/coffee shop has no WOKING telephone. So, don't bother breaking in to use it.

[–] phillindholm 8 years ago

And, when traveling through the desert, even getting a flat tire is such a (comparatively) momentous event, that once you stop at a gas station to change it, EVERY member of your family will take the opportunity to have a long, hard look at it.