Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

TinsHeadline Touches You

Steineded How sad is this?

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

dougdoepke Whatever the film lacks, which is a lot, focus on the imagery -- duelling hotrods, a dangling cigarette, country two-lanes, and a precious load of illegal booze, family honor, and a good woman. This is movie myth-making at its near purest, so what else could a ducktailed Elvis- clone of the 50's have wanted. Girls may have swooned over treacle like "A Summer Place", but hot-rodders packed this drive-in classic bumper to bumper. Sure, it's badly produced ($50 budget, tops), badly acted (even Mitchum struggles with the hopeless Keely Smith), and features one of the worst canvas backdrops on record (the water-wheel scene). Still it has the King of Cool gunning down the asphalt (don't let the sleepy eyes fool you), pits rugged individualism against angry collectivism (organized crime and big govn't), and opens with a throbbing title tune (composed and sung by Mitchum) -- topped by a look and feel unlike the usual Hollywood contrivance. And who can forget those forlorn headbeams searching their way through an existential void. The imagery was compelling and caught the edgy mood of a drive-in crowd feeling their own way through a world of teenage angst. Few would grow into the mythic shoes of road-warrior, Luke Doolin, but a lot sure wanted to try. Which is why this primitive slice of small-screen black-and-white continues to resonate, even into the big-screen myth-making of souped-up starships, evil empires, and computerized magic.

Robert J. Maxwell I understand this was Robert Mitchum's baby from the beginning. He wrote the music, sang the songs, chose the cast and crew, did Princess Aurora's pas de seul in the Sleeping Beauty sequence, and managed to shoot down four Zero fighters in one pass.I grew up in a subculture where cars and courage were much admired and this film has plenty of both. But I didn't enjoy it that much the first time around and, more recently, have found that my appreciation of it hasn't increased much.As the defiant, whiskey-running hero with the hopped up 1950 Ford, Mitchum is fine. He strides through the movie in that bulky, slightly swaybacked way of his. But he really doesn't get much of a chance to show his chops, as he did in, say, "Night of the Hunter" or "Farewell, My Lovely," or "Cape Fear." He's more of a monument than a human figure.Nobody else rises above "below average" -- certainly not Mitchum's son, James, who seems to be suffering a serious case of exopthalmia. Keely Smith has a smooth voice that's weak but polished. I like her. There's something anthropological about her features, but she can't act. Most of the supporting cast are embarrassing. I winced, watching the old timers sitting around, whittling wood, and trying to decide whether to defy the corrupt criminal organization that's trying to invade their generations-long enterprise in the North Carolina hills.Worst of all, the director has almost completely failed to capture the ethos, the atmosphere, of the Appalachian hill country. In the 1950s, Asheville had an accent that nobody could make up. Tomatoes were "maters", and bread became "braid." It's absent here. You get a much better feeling for the South in films like "Cool Hand Luke" (shot in California) and "In the Heat of the Night" (shot in Illinois).I wish it had been better. The script should have included some exposition on whiskey making and whiskey running but much of that is just plain skipped over. Someone flips open the hood of that Ford and men gaze lovingly down at the engine (the "mill", which has a "racing cam"). The engine appears to have three carburetors, but we don't know what we're looking at, or why it's so special, or why extremely high speed is necessary on twisting mountain roads. I expect even racing car enthusiasts may be disappointed. At any rate, there is a spectacular crash at the end.

jc-osms Robert Mitchum - renaissance man? You better believe it as Bob besides. naturally doing the lead acting honours, is credited with the original story-line, cops a production credit and even co-writes the winsome "Whipoorwill" ballad which frequents the movie.The movie itself comes off like a contemporary "beat" novel set to film, an unglamorous story of moonshine whisky transporters living just outside the law with Mitchum's Luke Doolan's character as talismanic main driver, not part of any team, but somehow the lightning rod around whom the whole story sparks.While obviously low-budget, there's a good cast here who give the film an ensemble feel and if you can ignore the obvious process "driving in my car" shots, there are also some exciting car chases, particularly the concluding one which sees Doolan meet his demise.Mitchum even introduces us to his son James in a prominent acting role and while he, not unnaturally, seems too young to be his old man's kid brother, he certainly seems like a chip off the old block. I also like the actresses who respectively play Doolan's mother, not above dispensing some peremptory corporal punishment when Mitchum Junior steps out of line and also the girl singer who gets as close as anyone to getting under Mitchum's tough skin as love interest. No beauty and obviously contrasted with the prettier more youthful girl with a major crush on Mitchum, their "love" scenes (I'm stretching the term) come across with engaging naturalism and realism.Perhaps the film has a little too many sub-plots and characters for its own good and it takes some while to find its rhythm, but once it settles, it finds a kinetic energy which keeps you watching and draws you into its small world, inspiring genuine interest in the characters. I also just wonder if it inspired Bruce Springsteen's famous song of the same name, several years later...

whpratt1 Enjoyed this Robert Mitchum film where he plays the role as a Korean War Veteran named Lucas Doolin who returns to his family and continues to carry on the family trade of running moonshine whiskey from the family still. Lucas is a very admired young man who has two different gals that are head over heels in love with him, but he just keeps running up and down the mountain hills of the South and never seems to want to quit and settle down. Gene Barry, (Troy Barrett) plays the role as a Treasury Agent who starts to investigate this moonshine business and is hot on the heels of Lucas Doolin. However, there is another man who wants to take over the whiskey running business and this creates more problems for Lucas as all his family and friends who are in this business and are going to run into big troubles. It was nice seeing Robert Mitchum's oldest son also giving a supporting role in this film.