I have no idea why this film exists, nor what audience it was intended for. This 1955 Republic drama in widescreen looks terrific and allows for some great L. A. background of the era. Adele Palmer costumes are good and the cast are quite effective, especially Ben Cooper. The film almost exists just to make a good trailer, which is well worth seeing how they salvaged the best bits for that. So much of the information is not shown, eg that Ben is a hot rod driver, so they just tell us. Also I have never seen a film end so abruptly. They just tell us what happened and cut to the fade out. I really enjoy Republic titles especially mid 50s but this one plays like Television in Cinemascope and contrives scenes and locations just to make a good trailer glimpse. The snow tractor on the poster is only there for 30 sec. I wanted to like this more but was continually shortchanged by the film just being cheap and silly. However days afterwards I kept thinking about it and how I now now want to see it again. Republic made about a dozen of these really cheap widescreen action dramas at the time and whilst each are interesting in their low budget way, they really are a suburban time capsule of their time. I have no idea who would go to see these in any cinema when first released. SNOWBOUND HOODLUMS would have been a far better title.
Review of A Strange Adventure
