Highway 301 (1950)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Dreadfully Boring

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

After ten years directing musicals and comedies, Andrew Stone with 'Highway 301' turned to making the thrillers for which he remains most fondly remembered. The distinctive 'documentary' style of his later films like 'The Steel Trap' (1952) and 'The Last Voyage' (1960) - using natural sound and authentic locations - is hinted at in the opening robbery sequence, but much that follows resembles a conventional studio-shot gangster film. In their enormous, immaculate suits Steve Cochran and the rest of his gang at all times look as if they're about to go to a wedding in those big black cars they're driving. Described by Bosley Crowther at the time as "a straight exercise in low sadism", its a far more brutal film than Stone's later thrillers, which tend to take a more benign view of humanity and have more upbeat endings.

The HD copy of Highway 301 currently available through Warner Archive is a special treat for those who appreciate noir cinematography. The picture starts off with location footage of Winston Salem, North Carolina, one of the three states in which our gang of robbers moves back and forth. (In the intro which precedes the opening bank heist, the real governors at the time of North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia attest to the ominousness of these fact-based exploits, one of them even describing them as "criminal terrorism.") But after another heist, this one of a railway express truck where the stolen money turns out to be cut - gang leader Steve Cochran later describes it as "shredded wheat"- the last part of the film turns into more of a studio bound, moodily photographed exercise in noir style. The first such scene shows Cochran trying to escape from cops, after his partner has been shot, through the dark, wet streets. The second, especially exciting scene shows the French-Canadian wife (Gaby Andre) of one of the other crooks (Robert Webber) fleeing through a park at night,to escape Cochran who she suspects will kill her because she knows too much- she lands up getting into a cab which turns out to be driven by Cochran! The film climaxes in a tense hospital episode where another of the gang women (especially well played by the underrated Virginia Grey) pretends to be a reporter, so she can scope out the setup where Andre, shot earlier by Cochran, is hidden and the gang can finish the victim off, she almost fools the police sergeant. Carl Guthrie's lensing of these three sequences along with Andrew Stone's writing and direction make of this seemingly ordinary crime picture something memorable.

I saw this very exciting and fast paced gangster movie over 50 years ago and remember it fondly to this very day. I even remember the theater I saw it in on a Saturday matinée. It kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end and the action never lets up. It's a classic Steve Cochran performance. A real bad apple with no redeeming qualities. Andrew L. Stone directed which is really no surprise because he specialized in action and suspense films which don't allow the viewer to take a deep breath such as the Last Voyage, Cry Terror and Blueprint for Murder. This is the kind of cops and robbers film that they don't make any more.

The heart sinks when Highway 301 opens as the governors of three states bore us blind with pompous crime-does-not-pay speeches, one after the other. (It was 1950, and before we had a good time we had to be morally reassured.) Luckily, things pick up quickly in this modest but very well done look at life on the lam. A gang of bank-and-payroll robbers is terrorizing North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland; its leader (Steve Cochran) is especially vicious, and seems to take particular delight in bumping off women who cross him. One of them (Virginia Grey) gets bumped off much too early, as her sassy mouth is one of the best things in the movie. Another is the French-Canadian girlfriend (Gaby Andre) of another gangster, who only slowly comes to realize that she's fallen in with a den a theives ("duh?"). The tensest sequence in the movie occurs when Cochran is stalking her, by night, in the streets of Richmond, Virginia. The concluding scene, in a hospital, is almost as good. Again, by no means a vital installment in the noir canon, but quite professional and engaging.