Born to Be Wild (1938)

Load of rubbish!!

I'll tell you why so serious

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Easygoing truck driver Steve Hackett (likable Ralph Byrd) and his worrywart partner Bill Purvis (solid Ward Bond) get a job hauling a lot of dynamite to a town that needs a dam blocked before it breaks and floods said town. Our intrepid pair face opposition in the form of hired thugs and treacherous roads as they try to make their delivery in the nick of time.Director Joseph Kane keeps the engrossing story moving along at a brisk pace, maintains an amiable tone throughout, and stages the action with a reasonable amount of aplomb. Nathanael West's compact script boasts plenty of sharp dialogue. Byrd and Ward display an engaging natural chemistry in the leads, pretty Doris Weston delivers a charming portrayal as the spunky Mary Stevens, and Robert Emmett Keane cuts a suitably obnoxious figure as pompous trucking magnet J. Stearns Davis. Jack A. Marta's competent black and white cinematography makes neat occasional use of fades and wipes. As a pleasant bonus, Byrd heartily belts out a few nice songs. Nothing special, but a fun enough diversion just the same.

Truth be told, "Born To Be Wild" is not a good film, but there are much worse. Starting with the title - it seems to fit a JD flick or a biker flick better than it does in this trucker's movie, as really, who exactly is 'born to be wild?' It certainly isn't the truck driving stars, who aren't that wild at all. Matter of fact, one just wants to sleep, and the other breaks out in song at weird times! What kind of songs? Truck driving songs of course! The plot - our two "wild" drivers are hired to haul a truckload of lettuce (which is really dynamite) for a grand (each? never specified) while bad guys of some sort try to stop them. It all gets revealed in the film's last ten minutes, in a confusing array of nonsense which you are not going to care about.As they are hauling, you'll see it's mostly a dull trip. There is a LOT of talking, and it's all that 1930's real fast "witty" talk that either cracks you up, makes you roll your eyes, up, or both. There is a good quick scene where their truck smashes a car.The pretty girl they pick up is kind of a secret agent, or double agent, or, well, who cares. It's explained later but by then even though the movie is just over an hour, you are too exhausted to care who is who and why.There is some interesting miniature special effects work at the end which is fun to see. The film also has probably the worst and least convincing "fake background scenery scenes as we show the people driving" scenes ever done."Born To Be Wild" isn't wild at all, but may interest you if you are feeling sick on an afternoon where you have NOTHING better to watch on hand for a little while.

Joseph Kane seems to have some kind of golden touch. The low budget films he directs would appear to be very depressing and embarrassing to the cast. Or so you would think. In Kane's films, he seems to be able to get them to see the light side and have fun and this shows. This is what I like about them. the plots are ludicrous and brutally contrived but they are less like film and more about a surprisingly enjoyable house party. That's why his westerns are so fun. There's no Oscar stress, it's the depression, and they're working. Look at Public Cowboy No. 1 or Man From Music Mountain. In Born to be Wild we have a couple of guys driving a truck and having some pretty crazy problems. Ralph Byrd shows way more personality than in those Dick Tracy things. The female lead is a very appealing Doris Weston who had practically no career. The surprise for me was Ward Bond who showed great range and personality as a curmudgeonly truck driver who was capable of being the life of the party with a hilarious rumba. The relaxed wit and chemistry among these three is excellent. The other great thing about this film is the location shooting and the period atmosphere. You can't fully enjoy this film unless you have an interest in 30's history. They show things like a picket line, a hokey land developer, etc. And the film moves along, you never wallow in tedium. As usual in a Kane film, even the bad guys seem to be having fun. The story, well I don't know.

Or perhaps 'Snoozer' would be the right term for an undiscovered masterpiece of bad film making. If you've ever seen THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, you may know there was a genre of trucking pictures in the late 1930s. Well, this is a SINGING trucking picture. Yes, Ward Bond sings! And no ordinary songs of love and the open range, but songs of the dangers of trucking and truck stops and blowouts. Surprisingly, the score was not considered worthy of being nominated for an Oscar.Then there's the plot, which is about two truckers who are not in the least surprised to be given a $1000 bonus to drive lettuce to market, how they discover it's dynamite and the beautiful woman who doesn't believe them. Given the not inconsiderable talent -- that's Western director Joseph Kane behind the camera -- it's a real achievement for a movie this bad to show up. Take a look if you don't believe it. You'll find yourself humming 'Danger Ahead'.