Tonight's Movie: The Last Ride (1944) - A Warner Archive DVD Review

THE LAST RIDE (1944) is an entertaining Warner Bros. "B" film just released on DVD by the Warner Archive.

THE LAST RIDE is about two brothers -- Pat, a cop (Richard Travis) and Mike (Charles Lang), a crook -- on opposite sides of a case.

Mike is involved with a gang of crooks who steal tires for the rubber; they also sell defective tires to unsuspecting people. After a young couple die in a wreck caused by the bad tires, Pat goes to work investigating the racket, which means potentially putting his own brother behind bars. When the chips are down and the bad guys (Jack La Rue and Cy Kendall) try to kill Pat, will Mike be loyal to his brother or the gang?

This was a fairly engaging little movie. The plot elements are familiar but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and the story's put over with energy in a briskly told tale which runs just 57 minutes.

The rubber shortage angle is a rather interesting wartime issue also seen in Universal's EYES OF THE UNDERWORLD (1942) with Richard Dix.

The plot also seems to have been somewhat inspired by the Warner Bros. film EAST OF THE RIVER (1940), which also featured good and bad brothers, who both fall for a young woman taken into their home by their mother. In this case it's just reversed; Pat and Mike both love Kitty (Eleanor Parker), whose mother (Mary Gordon) took them in.

Eleanor Parker got her start at Warner Bros. appearing in "B" films such as this and BUSSES ROAR (1942). Unfortunately her story, as part of the romantic triangle, strangely disappears partway through the film; one minute she's making the brothers dinner and then that's the last we see of her! It's really too bad that story didn't have a resolution but with such a short running time, apparently there wasn't room for it; one would think the movie could have afforded a couple more minutes with Parker at the end!

Travis and Lang had costarred the previous year in the delightfully titled TRUCK BUSTERS (1943), also a Warner Archive DVD release, which was reviewed here in 2012. Neither is particularly memorable -- indeed, I frankly had to watch them closely to remember who was who! -- but they do an adequate job.

There are a number of interesting players in small parts. Virginia Patton, who played Harry Bailey's new wife Ruth in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) -- and is now 93 -- plays Hazel, who survives the first car incident but isn't so lucky later in the film; Dolores Moran of TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) plays Molly in the first minutes of the movie. William Hopper of PERRY MASON fame is also on hand.

The movie was directed by D. Ross Lederman and filmed by James Van Trees.

The Warner Archive DVD is a good print. I did have to adjust the sound up and down a couple times as some scenes seemed quieter than others. There are no extras.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this DVD. Warner Archive releases are MOD (manufactured on demand) and may be ordered from the Warner Archive Collection at the WBShop or from any online retailers where DVDs and Blu-rays are sold.