Highway 301 (1950) User Reviews (27)

Ruthless law breakers who dared to defy the government, the law, and the people!

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 28 September 2012]

Highway 301 is written and directed by Andrew L. Stone. It stars Steve Cochran, Virginia Grey, Gaby André and Edmond Ryan. Music is by William Lava and photography by Carl Guthrie. Story is based on a real gang of robbers known as The Tri-State Gang, who terrorised and thieved in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Plot chronicles their activities and the pursuit of them by the authorities.

It opens with a trio of state governors cringe worthily pumping up the hard sell, for what we know is going to be a "crime doesn't not pay" message movie. I half expected the Star Spangled Banner to come booming out the speakers and an FBI version of Uncle Sam to flash on the screen telling us to come join the Crime Stoppers! Thankfully, once the cringe stops the film kicks in with a ruthless bank robbery and never looks back from that moment.

Led by cold blooded George Legenza (Cochran), this gang don't wear masks, they are ruthless but not beyond error, and tagging along are molls who are either oblivious to the gang's activities - fully complicit - or ignorant. It's a pressure cooker dynamic and as we soon find out, women are not going to be treated well here at all, if they are in the way or a threat to safety, they will cop it. Highway 301 is a violent film with some cold characterisations, and there may even be a subtle homosexual relationship between two of the gang members.

Andrew Stone's direction is tight and in tune with the jagged edges of his characters, with barely a filler shot used in the whole running time, while his scene structure for dramatic impacts work very well. Refreshingly there are no cheat cut-aways either. His cast are on form, with Cochran looming large with an intense and thoroughly dislikable portrayal leading the way, while Guthrie photographs with shadows prominent and a couple of night time street scenes that are visually noirish. Unfortunately Stone's screenplay hasn't the time to put depth into the principal players, the gang are bad and greedy, the women scratching around for purpose or brains, but that's all we know. It's the one flaw in an otherwise great crime movie. 8/10

"Don't dance with strangers or talk to anyone with a mustache."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 4 December 2014]

A gang of well-dressed armed robbers, unimaginatively dubbed the Tri-State Outfit by police, go on a crime spree across three states. The opening bit with the real governors of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina giving speeches about law & order will have you rolling your eyes. But stay with this one because it does get better. Steve Cochran is great as the cold-blooded leader of the gang. Robert Webber, Wally Cassell, and Richard Egan are among the other familiar faces in the cast. Lovely actresses Virginia Grey, Gaby André, and Aline Towne pretty things up as molls. Grey's character is a radio junkie, which leads to some funny moments. I liked the location scenery and the cars, fashions, and architecture of the period. It's a well-paced B crime picture with lots of grit and some atmosphere. Cheesy at times and never anything deep but it is solid entertainment. Were it not for the corny "crime does not pay" messages, this one would probably be more well-known and liked.

Highway 301 (1950)

[MartinTeller · 6/10 · 3 January 2012]

The criminal exploits of a small group of gangsters working in the Maryland/Virginia/North Carolina area. The docudrama subgenre of noir tends to produce few masterpieces and a lot of mediocrities. This one is closer to mediocrity, but has a few worthwhile assets. The intro, with "crime does not pay" lectures by the governors of the three states, sets the self-righteous, judgemental tone for the film's narration and messages. The story follows a standard formula, with early successes by the gang followed by the net of the law gradually closing around them and forcing their hand. The characterizations are fun but one-note. Steve Cochran in the lead has an edgy brutality but not much else. However, the action sequences are well done, and there is one nail-biting, suspenseful scene as one of the gangster's gals tries to escape. The photography is quite nice as well, at least during the gloomy night scenes.

Gang-on-the-run movie packs a dirty wallop

[bmacv · 7/10 · 27 June 2001]

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.

Fictionalized exploits of notorious Tri State Gang ends up somewhat suspenseful

[Turfseer · 6/10 · 26 November 2022]

Highway 301 opens with three real-life governors praising the film, highlighting the exploits of the Tri-State Gang and their reign of crime in North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia. However, what these long-forgotten figures fail to mention is that the actual crimes of the Tri-State Gang occurred in 1934, approximately 15 years before the fictionalized events depicted in this film.

While the movie does incorporate some historical accuracy, such as the portrayal of a bank robbery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, featuring impressive on-location cinematography, most of the film seems to have been shot on studio backlots in California, likely due to budget constraints.

One notable storyline revolves around a botched $2 million heist, where the gang inadvertently kills the armored car driver only to discover that the stolen cash has been shredded and is worthless. The film's star, Steve Cochrane, delivers a compelling performance as George Legenza, the leader of the gang, portraying him as a brutal psychopath who coldly murders his common-law wife when she attempts to leave him.

Two actresses, Virginia Grey as Mary Simms, the girlfriend of Legenza's associate who remains loyal to the gang despite her addiction to radio soap operas, and Lee (Gaby Andre), a naive young French-Canadian woman whose boyfriend is killed by the police, add intrigue to the narrative.

While it is safe to assume that many of the events involving Lee are fictionalized, the gripping scenes depicting Legenza stalking her on the streets and ultimately shooting her when impersonating a cab driver provide the film's most intense moments.

Another suspenseful sequence occurs when Legenza decides to finish Lee off in the hospital. However, the portrayal of the police providing little protection initially and their delayed arrival, allowing Legenza a brief escape, stretches credibility.

In the second half of Act 2, two gang members disappear for an extended period, leaving viewers wondering about their whereabouts and role in the unfolding story.

Cochrane's performance as the ruthless gang leader is commendable, and his eventual demise, run over by a train, provides a satisfying resolution.

Highway 301 manages to deliver a degree of suspense, and the film's concluding message that 'crime does not pay' resonates. However, despite its compelling moments, the film falls short in maintaining consistency with historical accuracy and occasionally stretches believability in its plot developments.

Probably the best thing Steve Cochran ever did...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 7 April 2016]

... and he didn't even need much dialogue! This film is about the tri-state gang that robbed banks in North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. The title comes from the actual Highway 301, which was a byway for the gang which actually operated in the 1930's not the 40's when this film was made.

The beginning is basically like a "Crime Does Not Pay" short from MGM, in which leading officials of the three states involved talk about the gang. The voice over continues through parts of the film.

Cochran plays the head of the gang, George Legenza, and seems to enjoy just BEING a criminal as much as or more than the money it brings him. He shoots his common law wife dead after she gets boozed up and starts mouthing off. He does so without breaking a sweat, without a change of expression, and just walks away, not even interested in the elevator operator who sees the whole thing, just assuming that given what he has just seen he will keep his trap shut. He does.

One gang member, Bill Philips, brings a wife back home from Canada (Gaby Andre as Lee) after he has had a short vacation, and she is basically innocent of the entire enterprise. She thought her husband and his associates were salesmen, but soon learns the truth but is basically trapped into going along with them. Bill promises nothing will happen to her while he is around, but then he is NOT around after a robbery goes wrong and he is killed.

Lee tries to make her escape but Legenza tracks her down on the dark streets and shoots her in a prolonged and tension filled scene. She lives, though, and now Legenza has to come up with a way to finish the job in a hospital filled with policemen guarding her. How will this all work out? Watch and find out.

I remember this film when I was in fifth grade, home sick from school, and didn't even know its name until it showed up on Turner Classic Movies decades later. I did remember Lee walking down the dark streets after she learns her husband is dead with the voice over saying "Bill said you were safe while he was around, but now he is not around anymore. What will happen to you now?". I always thought this was hitting the poor girl over the head for basically being a victim of circumstance.

Legenza may have been the leader, but some of the other gang members, given their actual names here, did things that were pretty brazen too. For example, Wally Castle is sixth billed here as Robert Mais. Mais actually was in jail in Richmond, sentenced to death, and in spite of the fact he was a known long time habitual criminal with habitual criminals as friends, was allowed to receive those criminal friends as visitors! One of them slipped him a pistol, and he and Legenza escaped after a shootout that left one guard dead. Later a deputy committed suicide over his feelings of guilt in allowing the convicted murderers to escape. You won't see any of THAT in THIS film, because it is the production code era and makes law enforcement look a wee bit incompetent.

Still it is a tense and action packed B noir. Recommended.

Several Beautifully Shot Noir Scenes In Tri-State Gang Thriller

[lchadbou-326-26592 · 7/10 · 24 August 2015]

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.

Andrew Stone Turns to Crime

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 24 September 2017]

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.

Rip-roaring retro

[melvelvit-1 · 9/10 · 17 January 2009]

HIGHWAY 301 is a rip-roaring Warner Brothers return to their hard-hitting early 1930s gangster cycle complete with a "Crime Does Not Pay" prologue delivered by the governors of the three states the events take place in. Filmed in a semi-documentary style with sporadic voice-over narration, the tale is based on "cold, hard fact" and is surprisingly sadistic -which could be the reason why I never saw it on TV growing up. Like many good crime melodramas, H301 opens with a bank robbery and follows the gang and their molls as they live life on the run and I was reminded of 1967's BONNIE & CLYDE in its depiction of a "family" of outlaws contending with pressures from within as they're relentlessly pursued by the long arm of the law. The brutally handsome Steve Cochran dominates his surroundings as the flint-eyed, heartless, "take-no-prisoners" leader of the "Tri-State Gang" who can calmly kill at the drop of a fedora and Robert Webber and newcomer Gaby Andre (whatever happened to her?) are believable as a young con and his naive bride in over their heads. Familiar face Virginia Grey scores as a radio-addicted dame who knows the score and the reliable Eddie Norris and Richard Egan are also on hand in small roles. The director, Andrew Stone, wrote the never-a-dull-moment script and, in addition to the solid direction and "A" production values only a major studio can provide, the violence directed at women and the high body count made this fast-paced police procedural a slick "shocker" for its day and it still packs a punch. Warners also made WHITE HEAT, KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (both with James Cagney), and THE DAMNED DON'T CRY (again with bad boy Cochran) around the same time. Highly recommended for fans of this type of film -and you know who you are.

"Several good suspense sequences, some good comic observation, and many pleasing visual moments of the wet-streets-at-night category." -"Punch"

Almost a solid 7, perhaps 8

[artalaska-24645 · 6/10 · 1 June 2022]

With Steve Cochran as the steely psychopath, his solidly loyal gang members (and Cochran loyal to them), and the carefree, hardboiled but feminine Virginia Grey, the film is well acted. The action on the streets and with large crowds is pleasingly complex and realistic. The finely staged light-and-shadow settings are consistently startling and eye-catching in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings. These elements, despite the governors unconvincingly reading their scripts and a narrative voice for documentary effect, could have made this film a solid 7 and perhaps an 8 out of 10. However, the predictable, tedious melodramatic "Perils of Pauline" escape attempts of the Lee Fontaine character are a ball-and-chain that (for this viewer) held this film back from being a runaway noir success.

a real humdinger of a cops and robber movie.

[sharynordon-1 · 10/10 · 6 February 2007]

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.

"Don't dance with strangers or talk to anybody with a mustache."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 30 January 2023]

Made on the heels of Cagney's turn in "White Heat", this film features Steve Cochran as the leader of a criminal gang that terrorized three states with a series of vicious robberies and murders. It's based on the real-life crime spree of the Tri-State Gang operating in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina in the 1930's, the title referring to the highway connecting them all, but oddly it isn't mentioned throughout the story. The film opens with something I'd never seen before, as the governors of those states appear on screen beforehand to basically send the message that crime does not pay and that the criminals responsible would be brought to justice. Cochran gives it his all in portraying mob leader George Legenza, who isn't averse to taking out his gal pal when she just about admits to the new wife of gang member William Phillips (Robert Webber) that their stock in trade involves robbing banks and armored car payrolls. When Phillips is shot and killed during a police confrontation, his wife Lee (Gaby André) attempts her own getaway, and unexplainably survives a point-blank shooting when Legenza catches up with her in a cab he stole! Legenza's attempt to finish the job leads to a car chase through city streets and a final, fatal showdown at a railyard where the Tri State crimewave comes to a halt. I caught this film on Turner Classics earlier today with host Eddie Muller, who had high praise for Steve Cochran, at one point calling him the 'Elvis' of film noir.

Caper thriller starts out well, but quickly sinks into B-gangster formula

[BrianDanaCamp · 3/10 · 24 July 2010]

I had high hopes for HIGHWAY 301 (1950). It's a Warner Bros. crime picture produced a year after WB's classic, WHITE HEAT, with two of the same cast (Steve Cochran and Wally Cassell), and it's based on the true story of the Tri-State Gang. It starts out well with semi-documentary sequences, including speeches by three Southern governors (from Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina) warning us that crime doesn't pay and hoping this film will reinforce that message. There are establishing shots of Winston-Salem, NC, before the film reverts to Southern California locations for the first caper in the film, a well-planned bank robbery by the five members of the gang. The next caper, still within the film's first half-hour, is the disastrous robbery of an armored truck, filmed on location in L.A. (but taking place in Virginia). Eventually the cops close in and the gang goes on the run, taking with them Lee Fontaine (Gaby Andre), the French-Canadian girlfriend of a now-dead gang member, and holding her captive after she's finally figured out that these guys aren't women's apparel salesmen after all. She comes off as astoundingly naive, so it's hard to feel sympathy for her.

After all the location footage in the first half-hour, the rest of the film is shot entirely on Warner Bros. soundstages and the studio's generic urban backlot. This part is supposed to take place in Richmond, Virginia, but there isn't a single element of southern flavor nor a southern accent to be heard anywhere. (Nor do we ever see Highway 301.) There are no more robberies as the film becomes a standard gangster picture as Fontaine tries to escape the gang at various points. In one scene she's stalked by Cochran at night through deserted streets, parks, and back alleys which create a nice noir-ish effect that would have meant something if the film had managed to generate any suspense. It all culminates in a hospital stand-off and a no-budget car chase staged entirely via rear screen projection. This was during a year when location-filmed car chases were attracting attention in films like Gordon Douglas's BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN and Anthony Mann's SIDE STREET, so it's hard to excuse the shoddy work in this film.

Two members of the gang, played by Richard Egan and Edward Norris, disappear for long stretches of the film even though they're all supposed to be on the run. Robert Webber, in his film debut, plays the boyfriend of Fontaine and the one who told her they were a team of salesmen. (The oldest film of Webber's I'd seen previously was TWELVE ANGRY MEN, 1957.) As many of these movies as I've seen, and as many books about real-life crime gangs as I've read, I don't recall coming across any major instance where the gang lets a woman into their inner circle who doesn't already know—and accept—what they do. Fontaine's presence, as well as that of Cochran's ill-fated girlfriend seen earlier in the film (played by the pretty Aline Towne), violate a key precept of the genre and the tacit allowance of it by Cochran's hardened gang leader made it difficult for me to suspend my disbelief. Virginia Grey plays Cassell's girl, the only remotely believable female character in the film, although her addiction to soap operas heard on the portable radio she carries around seems like a screenwriter's construction designed to give her a "quirk." Her attempt to impersonate a reporter at the hospital is pretty funny, though.

Cochran (Big Ed in WHITE HEAT) snarled with the best of them and does it throughout this film in a portrayal he could have pulled off in his sleep. He's quite menacing to the women in the film, who spend a lot of time sneaking down stairways to avoid and escape him. (In real life it was quite the reverse, or so I've heard.) Cochran was an excellent actor, but he suffered from typecasting, especially in a film like this, where he's given no characterization at all. Wally Cassell (Cotton Valetti in WHITE HEAT and also seen in THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA) plays Cochran's closest sidekick and it's the biggest part I've seen him in. He's very good, but it's strictly a standard-issue role.

Edmon Ryan co-stars as Sergeant Truscott, a mild-mannered Washington DC police officer who leads the investigation and also narrates the film. One of his final lines to the audience is quite memorable: "You can't be kind to congenital criminals like these."

Good stuff in Steve Cochran's "White Heat"

[jadedalex · 5 April 2012]

I will always have fond memories of Steve Cochran's portrayal of the scheming but doomed "Big Ed" in Raoul Walsh's classic "White Heat".

Cochran gets to play the brutal lead gangster in "Highway 301". I wonder how much Cochran absorbed watching Cagney play the criminally insane "Cody Jarrett". Cochrane has a brutally handsome sinister face, but not much else. To be fair to Cochran, the script is hardly of the caliber of "White Heat". Steve is one mean son of a gun here -- he seems to get a real kick out of murdering women and bank guards. But whereas Cagney's performance in "White Heat" is a fleshed-out fully alive personality, Cochran's Legenza is a cardboard villain whose sadism is never explained.

There are some good moments. Director Stone crafts a scene that is worthy of Hitchcock (and no doubt inspired by the Master) when Gaby Andre's character uses a piece of paper and a hairpin to unwedge a key, drop it onto the paper and slide it over to her side of the door. It doesn't sound like much on paper -- but the editing is well done and the scene becomes that overused term "Hitchcockian".

Cochran's death is fairly hideous, a brutal affair involving a freight train, but the scene only reminds me of how great Cagney was on "top of the world'.

If you can get past the slow opening with three fine governors from the states bordering "Highway 301" (this film is supposedly based on a true story) pontificating about what a wonderful film you are about to see, you are in for a rough brutal ride.

Actually, thinking of Cochran, he was fairly effective as "Big Ed" in "White Heat". Even though we have seen his character in a love affair with Cody's wife Verna, there is still a curious admiration for this young gangster when he declares to Verna that he must take a stand against Cody Jarrett. As I said, had the script been better, Cochran could have done something more interesting on "Highway 301".

The actual Tri-State Gang was, believe it or not, a LOT worse than the folks in this film!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 30 January 2023]

"Highway 301" is a very good film but a flawed one. Unlike most other film noir pictures, this one is about a real life group of terrorists who murdered and robbed with abandon in the Maryland-Pennsylvania-Virginia area in the mid-1930s. They were so notorious and awful that they were the subjects of an episode of the TV show "The Untouchables" as well as this film. But, on the other hand, MUCH of the film (apart from the gang members' names) is fictional and many of the gang's worst actions aren't even in the movie. It's a shame, as what IS in the film is terrific.

In the film, Steve Cochran stars as the coldblooded murderer and leader of the gang. Apart from killing many people with little provocation, he leads the gang in bank robberies and an armored car robbery. Oddly, the real gang ALSO was involved in a kidnapping, postal robberies, cigarette truck robberies AND a bloody escape from prison after two of the members were convicted of their crimes and were soon to be executed. Why would they leave this out of the story? Perhaps they wanted to shorten the film but why no mention? And, why would they make the capture of the gang 100% fictional? It's all a darn shame, as the movie IS great...but it's just very, very wrong as well when it comes to details.

If you can ignore the bad history lesson and moralistic prologues, the film is excellent and doesn't hold back when it comes to violence and believability. Cochran is at his best and the rest of the cast quite good as well. In particular, I loved the film noir-style cinematography.

highway 301

[mossgrymk · 6/10 · 15 June 2022]

Early in his career film maker Andrew Stone was bitten by the Delmer Daves bug (i.e. "I can write AND direct this sucker!") and the results, as with Daves, were less than fortuitous. In other words this is typical 50s crime stuff with the action scenes well handled and Steve Cochran doing his usual solid work of embodying scum but with a general flatness of dialogue and story that drags the whole thing down into a dull vat of standardization. If I'd been the producer instead of Bryan Foy I'd have fought for outsourcing the screenplay to Phil Yordan or Bill Bowers. And while I was at it I'd ask the cinematographer to do a better job of having downtown LA stand in for Richmond Va (as in losing the oil drums, arid foothills and palm trees). Give it a C plus.

PS...Ever wonder where the genesis of Black Lives Matter and Defund The Police lies? Check out the broken windows/ "don't coddle young hoods" speech by the law enforcement geek at the film's conclusion.

Sweaty, No Frills Noir

[evanston_dad · 7/10 · 20 June 2023]

A sweaty, no frills noir about a gang of bank robbers trying to evade the law and gunning down anyone who might be able to rat them out.

Steve Cochran struts his macho stuff as the leader of the gang, and man is he a no-good dude. He'd as soon shoot you as say hello. There are some shocking moments in this film, usually involving a character who I was certain the movie would not kill off but then does. And there's a gem of a little performance by Virginia Grey as girlfriend of one of the gangsters. She's never involved directly in any of their shenanigans, but she's just as ruthless and jaded in her own way as any of them.

Grade: A-

Under-Seen Underworld Sleeper Violent and Suspenseful

[LeonLouisRicci · 9/10 · 6 December 2014]

Here Come the 1950's and There Goes Film-Noir or at Least there is an "Evolution" of the Noir Sensibilities. Hollywood Now Seems to have been Pressured into Cleaning Up Their Act, or Pretending to be On Board with Pro-Post-War Conservatism.

The Government, Law Enforcement and J. Edgar Hoover were Infiltrating Every Aspect of American Life (sound familiar Today), Dictating Mores and Clean Living (for the Proletariat that is but not for that Hypocrite Hoover). The HUAC Hubris is On the Horizon.

So the Film Opens with Big Brother State Governors Reading Cue Cards about the Folly of Crime and it Doesn't Pay and All of That. Then Director Andrew Stone Seems to be Saying OK now that's Out of the Way, and Let's Loose with Some Gritty Up Close and Personal Violence. In Fact One Such Shooting of a Female Gang Moll is Point Blank and that is Dialoged About Afterwards and No One can Figure Out How She Survived.

The Movie Clips Along at a Rapid Pace and there is Much Suspense and Action with a Finale that has a Guns Blazing Car Chase that Ends with a Speeding Train that is Quite Startling. Steve Cochran Steals the Show as the Gang Leader and gets Good Support from Everyone Else.

Overall, an Above Average and Forgotten Crime Noir that is Stylish, Brutal, and Nasty. It is a LIttle Known Movie that is Highly Recommended.

The full impact of the law

[nickenchuggets · 8/10 · 9 April 2023]

I've seen dozens of film noirs by now, but one thing that keeps me interested in the genre is seeing just how violent each one of these films can be. While what's being shown onscreen can easily be misconstrued by many people as a display of bloodshed the producers take pleasure indulging in, it's actually the opposite most of the time. Highway 301 is quite violent, but only because the producers are trying to dissuade the viewers from participating in crime. The film starts off with a gang robbing a bank. The gang's leader, George Legenza (Steve Cochran) is a no nonsense, coldblooded killer who is willing to risk the lives of everyone around him (even his own men) to get what he wants. After speeding away from the bank heist, George, his guys, and 3 girls go to a restaurant. Everything appears nice and calm, until one of them, Madeline, inquires about what happened at the bank. A French Canadian woman named Lee wants to know about what happened there, but the guys just shrug it off and say it was meant to be a joke. Secretly, George is livid. Madeline knows that George is going to come after her for almost blowing his cover, so she tries to go back to her apartment, gather her things, and then run away. George ambushes her at the top of the elevator and shoots her dead near a stairwell. George and the others later attempt to rob an armored car and kill a guard to do it, but after getting away, they find out the money is worthless as all of it has been cut in half. The gang head to an apartment in order to hide for a while, and cops eventually come across their car, the plate number matching the one they're looking for. A cop disconnects something under the hood. When George and another gang member try to start up the car and nothing happens, they're ambushed by the cop. George runs back to the apartment, and the other guy is shot dead. Lee is confronted by George in a bedroom, and George tells her now that her boyfriend is dead, she should go with him now. Lee doesn't want this, and instead wants to move back to canada. George knows this is something he can't allow, as she knows too much. He locks her in the bedroom, then visits a diner, planning to shoot her once he gets back. George leaves another one of his thugs to make sure Lee doesn't run away, but he falls asleep on the couch. Lee manages to pick the lock and escape. When George comes back, he tries to chase Lee through the streets, but is forced to back off after a few drunken friends show up. Lee manages to hail a taxi, but is shocked to learn that somehow, George is driving it. He shoots her point blank with his magnum. Back at the apartment, Mary, another one of George's molls, tells him that she heard on the radio this morning that Lee is not dead and is being treated at a hospital. George decides the only way to make sure she doesn't squeal is to shut her up for good this time. He and his gang drive to the hospital and instruct Mary to go inside and find what room Lee is being treated in. She finds the room, but is taken in for questioning by a sergeant who wants to know why she needs the room's number. Mary says she's a reporter for a Mr. Blake, but when the sergeant attempts to call him, her ruse is discovered and she's arrested. George and his thug go in the hospital, find the room and shoot Lee, but she doesn't die. Once they try to escape, George's car overturns and he attempts to outrun the cops, eventually coming to some railroad tracks. He is shot several times and then brutally splattered by a locomotive. I have to say, this movie is pretty barbaric. It's not the first film (not even the first film noir) I've seen where the main character is run over by a train at the end, but even so, Cochran's character is 100 percent murderous. Even in White Heat, James Cagney is shown to care for at least one person, but Cochran doesn't give a damn about anything. He hits his girlfriend, guns down his former one after she asks about a robbery, and kills people in broad daylight. While I thought this was entertaining to watch just how evil he is, it made him feel quite one dimensional. Like any noir worth anything, Highway 301 is not lacking in shadows and dark visuals, particularly the scene which has George chasing Lee throughout the town. You can pause the movie at any time during that sequence and each frame would look stylish. In all, I felt Highway 301 was a remarkably savage movie that shows how (most) criminals will get caught sooner or later, no matter how dangerous or sociopathic they are. Shooting someone laying in a hospital bed is an all time low.

It STUNK

[mls4182 · 3/10 · 20 May 2022]

This dull, mundane B noir is a predictable gangster flick except for a few camp moments.

The killing is so gratuitous and casually carried out you don't take it seriously. I almost laughed at some.

The one moll has such a thick overdone accent you end up laughing every line she utters. She sounds more like Elmer Fudd than a French person.

With the palm trees and smog on the horizon, certain scenes are obviously Los Angeles, not Virginia.

Milking the Premise

[dougdoepke · 4 December 2014]

A criminal gang gains a cross-state reputation for big-time robberies.

Looks like Warner Bros. was trying to repeat the success of White Heat (1949) from the year before. This movie's got plenty of action, plus snarling bad guy Cochran, and a capable cast even if stuck in one-dimensional roles. All in all, it's a decent slice of thick-ear, but a long way from a classic like Heat. Trouble here is that the staging goes from location style realism in the first half to studio bound noir in the second, a rather awkward adjustment. On one hand, I suspect the first half was to underline the prologue of the three state governors. On the other, noir is clearly artifice and calls attention to mood as well as story.

Then too, French import Andre's role grafts on like a studio effort at career promotion. She does okay, but the role is like an add-on. And dare I say it, but the climax is way overdrawn, as if they're intent on milking the situation dry. After all, impact doesn't have to depend on length. None of this is to deny the many moments of real suspense that dot the movie as a whole. I especially like the cat and mouse between cop Ryan and gang girl Grey. It's a peach of acting and scripting.

It's also probably worth noting that the epilogue is harshly law and order, at a time when Hollywood's social direction was largely reformist, e.g. Caged (1950), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1953). Anyway, if you don't mind your gunfire and melodramatics slathered on, this is a movie to catch.

GREAT THRILLER...!

[masonfisk · 8/10 · 29 May 2022]

A crime thriller from 1950 about a group of professional thieves & the determined police force on their trail. These thieves, a core group of 3 men, are in lockstep in their M. O. when they hit a place to rob, as seen in the film's opening bank robbery which they pull off w/surefire precision but their collective Achilles' heel is their women. The boss's, played by Steve Cochran, woman is very lippy & when she gets on his bad side & tries to flee the coup, she gets gunned down by him sending her down a flight of stairs. The other partner in this criminal triumvirate, played by Robert Webber (he was one of the jurors in Twelve Angry Men, the advertising guy), has a Canadian moll who knows nothing of his common criminality but after he gets killed by the cops (in an excellently tense sequence), she is all about looking for that door to get out but after another nail biter of a chase, she too gets some lead for her trouble sending the film into its equally nerve fraying finale when the crooks find out the shot girl is in hospital & they try to devise a way for them to get to her not knowing the cops have staked out the location. Fans of movies like Heat or the derivative Den of Thieves (a shameless Heat clone) will see the unmistakable DNA of those later films in this exciting predecessor which rewards the viewer w/excellent performances across the board.

Live Action Looney Tunes

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 4/10 · 31 January 2023]

In the opening scene right before the first bank job, look at Steve Cochran and his gang in their over-sized, boxy suits, the way they wear their hats, and the way they self-consciously talk out of the sides of their mouths. Now search ''Golden Yeggs," a Looney Tunes cartoon from just the year before where Daffy Duck (pretends) he's laid a 24K egg. Check out Rocky and his gang. Now tell me this movie isn't a live-action caper with the same gang, just with a different scenario.

That's about as interesting as it got for me. Because otherwise it's just a dull police procedural with some offensively clueless dames, diligent coppers, and overly earnest narration.

Gaby Andre's frenchie accent grated on my nerves. I hardly understood a single word she said. Plus, she couldn't act, so I assume she was cast because she filled a sweater nicely. Virginia Grey as the other girlfriend is early 30s if you believe her bio but with those painted eyebrows she looks mid 40s. Aline Towne as the mouthy and doomed girlfriend (not a spoiler since it happens in the first 15 minutes) was such a prize even Cochrane says to her, ''why don't you go work on your face, honey. That oughta take a couple of hours."

My wife hated this movie because she thought Cochrane was an unlikeable, violent ape.

So if the story doesn't grab and the male or female characters leave you with no rooting interest, there's not a lot to keep you glued to the set.

Shocking crimes

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 29 January 2022]

In HIGHWAY 301 Steve Cochran leads a bunch of suave goons. Most notable is Robert Webber in his motion picture debut as a buddy who gets snuffed out a third of the way into the story. Plus we have Richard Egan near the beginning of his screen career.

The molls are played by accomplished ladies. There is loose lips Aline Towne, bumped off early on, because she won't keep her trap shut and Cochran can't have that. There is sassy Virginia Grey doing her level best to keep things together. And then there is a naive French-Canadian (Gaby Andre) who gets mixed up with this group, because she has started dating Webber unaware of his actual profession.

Much of the action is told pretty straightforward, in the classic semidocumentary style with considerable voiceover narration. The film begins with introductory remarks by then-governors of three states in which the real-life Tristate gang operated-- Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. One of the governors says these men were criminal terrorists who committed their acts out in the open without masks, killing anyone that got in the way. One of the other governors reminds the audience that these lawbreakers learned the hard way that crime does not pay and it never will.

HIGHWAY 301 is not quite as good as other gangster flicks from Warner Brothers...but there are some must-see moments. The deaths are spectacular. Cochran's character meets his maker when his getaway car hits a pole and then flips upside down with him trying to crawl out but dying as police catch up to him.

My favorite scene involves our foreign heroine. She has realized she knows too much and that the gang will surely kill her after her boyfriend Webber has died and is no longer around to protect her. Cochran makes a play for her and she rejects him so that means she is now disposable.

That night she sneaks out of the apartment and there is a suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase with Cochran going after her. She rushes up to some drunken strangers on a street corner and asks if they will stay with her while she gets a cab, fearing Cochran will suddenly reappear. One of the drunks waves down a cab and they put her inside. As the car pulls away we see that Cochran stole a taxi and he is driving her to her death. He shoots her at point blank range inside the moving vehicle. It is a totally shocking moment.