Hitchhike to Hell (1937)
1/2 (out of 4)
Awful exploitation flick that pretty much forgets to do exploitative. A pimp named Slavick wants to take control of a small bar owned by a do-gooder so that his prostitutes has somewhere to bring their clients. You see, the pimp sits the girls on the side of the street where the hitchhike for clients so it would save time by just having the women come back to the bar. Daddy bar owner refuses and of course the pimp goes after his son who also happens to be falling in love with one of the girls. This film was released under countless titles including GOING MY WAY, MISTER?, HIGHWAY GIRLS and HIGHWAY HELL, which is the title used by Alpha on the DVD as well as the print. No matter what you call this thing the end result is one of the absolute worst of the 1930s exploitation. I think most people go into films like this, REEFER MADNESS and MANIAC expecting something really bad and you always want to get lucky and find one that's so bad it's good. Sadly, this film here is just downright bad and it's way too bland to have any sort of entertainment. The only reason this sucker doesn't get a BOMB rating is because it's one of those movies where you keep yourself entertained just by waiting for something good to happen but of course it never does but at least the 55-minute running time never dragged too much. The performances are all beyond horrible including the "girls" as many of them can't even get their line of dialogue (Going my way, mister?) out. Julian Harris plays the pimp and has to be the most boring, non-threatening pimp in the history of pimp hood. Charles Maurice plays the bar owner and doesn't do any better but his preaching to the camera gets a few minor laughs. What really kills this film is the fact that it was sold as an "Adults Only" film and yet there's very little here in terms of exploitation. It's known what the girls are doing yet you never see them with any clients and the worst thing they do in the film is have a drink of alcohol. I'm really not even sure if this thing would have had any issues getting past the Hayes Office but thankfully this thing didn't get into more theaters as I'm sure the manager of the place would have had to be handing out a lot of refunds.
