This is an exceptional flick. Seldom have former stars like Dana Andrews and Jeanne Craine appeared in such slapdash schlock. Every five minutes brings a fresh laugh.

No sense going through the story except to say that the ultra-straight Andrews family, including his wife Craine, his nubile teenage daughter (Mock), and a less than usually loathsome young boy, head out West where Andrews has just bought a motel/café in the middle of an unpopulated desert. They are harassed along the way -- and at the motel -- by the most retrograde bunch of rich, clean, white juvenile delinquents imaginable.

This, mind you, is 1967. The Andrews family could still be found lying around in 1967. But the reckless adolescents? Expensive, customized "souped-up sardine cans," clean and pressed clothing, duck-tailed haircuts, without tattoos, drugless and abstinent? That, my friend, is from a 1955 screenplay.

Jeanne Craine looks snazzy, but the particular charm she brought to her early movies -- "Leave Her to Heaven" and "State Fair" -- is lacking. It isn't that she seems defeated by the stereotypical role of the hysterical and helpless Mom. It's that she doesn't know how to play it believably. Well, maybe she was more concerned with her real family than this fictional one.

Dana Andrews is equally unsubtle as the uptight and moralistic pater familias. He looks were evidently coarsened by years of boozing but that's okay. The family head doesn't need to be a glamor boy. But the problem is that HE seems to be phoning in his part too -- snarling and scowling and muttering about these damned kids today. I can't stop laughing as I think about the movie, though the last time I saw it must have been ten years ago.

Laurie Mock as the daughter who falls for one of the hell-bent gang, presents her symptoms thus: a great big bouffant hair do and phony eyelashes the size of window awnings. They must flap in the breeze, though her hair never does, frozen into place as it must be by an entire can of Fixative. She's really slinky though. The hoodlum may have no taste in cars or Renaissance band music but he knows a babe when he sees one. Good grief -- she bounces so gracefully when she walks.

The music is to the ears what the visuals are to the eye. If you have never been rapidly and repeatedly hit over the head with kettle drum mallets, this must be what it feels like. Boom boom boom boom -- agitato, so to speak.

Worth catching for its laugh-inducing quotient.

Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain, who had been in "State Fair" and "Madison Avenue" together, reunite for this story about a family being terrorized by young punks who have nothing better to do but race down the desolate highway somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Arizona, I think, and run people off the road.

To be more specific, the father can't defend himself or his family due to his bad back and recovering from a previous car accident, where it was all just awful, "the rain, the bright headlights, the Jingle bells (on the radio), everything." In fact, what sounds like an awful film that should be forgotten makes for some good campy fun, due mainly to some hilarious dialogue spoken mainly by Dana, like: "I had to do something. I couldn't just sit here like a stick." It's funnier with Dana saying it. In fact his whole on-edge performance is practically the whole show.

I'm sorry to read here that Mr. Andrews was an alcoholic, but I've told family members about this film and said I've never seen anyone who could act so unhinged as Dana in this film, and also in "Zero Hour!". Another ingredient, alluded to in message boards, is Dana's speech and/or way of speaking words like "animals" and "police." So, it may be because of Dana's condition, or is it just his little acting tricks, that make for entertainment in this 60s camp classic. At least that's what it's called on a camp classic DVD set, which includes "Zero Hour."

Lastly, I will add that the actress who plays the daughter is quite good and we see her as more three-dimensional than any other character in the movie, And for that matter, the dialogue between the siblings and the way they treat each other make us feel they really are brother and sister.

So, if you want a hoot from the 1960s, get out the popcorn and pull into your own "drive-in" theater for some real hot rods and Dana unnerved.

When you're a middle aged film star past your prime years, Hot Rods to Hell is an example of what you get when you're anxious for work and just want a pay check.

Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain star in this film about a middle-aged married couple who are starting life in a new town where Andrews has just bought a motel. Their daughter Laurie Mock isn't really crazy about the move.

On the road the family gets involved with some punks in some souped up hot rods. But their troubles really multiply when the punks discover Andrews is buying a motel which is a local hangout for them, it contains a bar where owner George Ives isn't too scrupulous about selling liquor to minors and then renting rooms for short stays.

If you're a fan of drive-in cinema I think I've given you enough information about where this film is going. I think that Dana Andrews might have been attracted to the project because he had a well known struggle with alcoholism and around this time did become a spokesperson for Alcoholics Anonymous.

I think Andrews's good intentions clouded his judgment and also because probably this was the best of film offers he was getting then. But for those who remember his performances in classics like Laura and The Best Years of Our Lives, Hot Rods to Hell is one painful experience.