Movie Review: Highway 13 (1948)

Synopsis: A series of accidents begins to plague the Norris Trucking Company, prompting an investigation when the company's heiress, Henrietta Denton, is killed in one of them. When there is another death, truck driver Hank Wilson, the man who found and tried to save Henrietta, comes under suspicion and the only way he can avoid a murder charge is finding out the truth.

Who's in it? The movie stars Robert Lowery, Pamela Blake, Clem Bevans, Michael Whalen and Lyle Talbot.


Review: I came across Highway 13 on Amazon Prime Video last night and decided to add it to my list for this morning. It seemed like an intriguing mystery and had a handful of actors that I recognized. After seeing it, I thought it was a good choice.

The various truck accidents were clearly not just accidents because there were just too many of them. However, the motive for wrecking the trucks and the person behind them were unclear. Hank (Lowery) was as good of a suspect as any of them, though the accusations seemed to be much more of a way to blackmail him into finding the real criminal than the result of anyone believing he was guilty.

The people at the diner Hank frequented seemed suspicious as well, especially Bill "Pops" Lacy (Bevan), though the motive there also remained questionable, and Lacy always seemed to be too inebriated (or at least too slow) to carry out something that complicated.

II did feel like the movie made the solution to the mystery a bit too easy. It was probably because of the short runtime for the film (about an hour) but Hank didn't have much trouble figuring out who was behind the crimes and why. While I don't think it was anything that hurt the film and could understand the time limit creating the need, it would have been nice to see some surprises.

The final moments of the movie did prove to be somewhat intense, making up for the above, with both Hank and his love interest Doris (Blake) risking certain death while the bad guys were in pursuit. This led to a solid ending that did the rest of the film justice.

Final Opinion: The mystery part of it could have been a little stronger but I thought it was an OK film overall and didn't regret choosing it.

My Grade: B

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