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75% Critic Match
Born to Be Wild
“GANGLAND RIDES the HIGHWAY! (original poster)”
7.5 / 10• 1938• 1h 6m•NR• English
ActionDrama
Storyline
Truck drivers Steve Hackett and Bill Purvis are fired from their jobs with the West Coast Trucking company for not using second-gear going down steep grades. Davis, the company vice-president, surprisingly asks them to carry a load of merchandise to Arrowhead and offers a $1000 bonus. He tells them it is a load of lettuce. Several miles out of Los Angelese, they are stopped by a mob of lettuce-farm workers on strike. When the first crate is tossed off the truck, it explodes and the two pals learn their merchandise is a cargo of dynamite. The workers let them proceed and they crash into a car driven by Mary Stevens, whom they had met at a restaurant. She and her dog, "Butch" (played by a Credited dog named Stooge), join them and they deliver their cargo, and learn unscrupulous real-estate operators have jammed the locks on the dam in order to ruin the ranchers and farmers and take over their property.
Cast & Crew
Ralph Byrd
Steve Hackett
Lead
Doris Weston
Mary Stevens
Ward Bond
Bill Purvis
Robert Emmett Keane
J. Stearns Davis
BH
Ben Hewlett
Wilson
Charles Williams
Company Spotter
Davison Clark
Stranger
Byron Foulger
Husband
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Joseph Kane's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
4.0
“Every frame feels alive. Born to Be Wild is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
