The Roaring Road

"Toodles" Walden sells cars for J. D. Ward, aka "The Bear." Walden is in love with Ward's daughter Dorothy, aka "The Cub." Toodles wants a crack at driving Ward's racing car, but Ward refuses. When several of Ward's racing cars get wrecked in transit, Walden and his mechanic Tom Darby make a new one out of the parts from the three old ones. Then Walden enters a local race and wins, and asks Walden for Dorothy's hand. Ward says he won't let his daughter get married for five years. Walden more or less tells Ward where to get off. Ward wants to enter a car in the Los Angeles to San Francisco road race, and concocts a plan whereby he will board a train for San Francisco with his daughter, and force Toodles to race after them. Unfortunately, Toodles is in the clink on a speeding violation. So somebody has to spring him from jail. Will Toodles break the speed record for the road race? Will he finally win Dorothy's hand (and the rest of her)?

This is an OK production, with nothing much new. The story goes pretty much as expected. The first race is a letdown, as the camera is stationary and we just see cars whiz by. These scenes were filmed at the Santa Monica Race course. Press reports stated that Reid did his own driving, and exceeded speeds of 100 miles per hour. The climactic road race from LA to San Francisco has some decent camera work, with a driver's-eye view, shots from the side as Ward and his daughter watch, but with the now clichéd "car beating the train across the tracks" scene.

Theodore Roberts, as "The Bear," steals the show. His bluster, messed-up hair, and cigar-chewing are a riot to watch.