The Last Ride (1944)

It's wartime and rubber is in short supply. A tire bootlegger ring steals tires from cars on the streets and resells them. Teenagers find their tires stolen. They call up the tire bootleggers. With the newly installed tires, the reckless teenagers go street racing. One of the tires fail and two are killed in the crash. Police Detective Lt. Pat Harrigan is tasked with taking down the ring. It turns out that his brother Mike is the leader of such a ring and both brothers are in love with Kitty Kelly.

I've never considered tires as black market material. That is a plus on its side. On the minus side, it starts with annoying teenagers and has no name actors throughout. First, the kids garnered no sympathy. I couldn't care less that they're dead. If they're played as normal, it would be a public benefit to get the criminals. As it stands, this is a no-humans-involved situation. The crime investigation is less than compelling. The most interesting aspect is the subject matter and this is an almost passable B-movie.