*** Out In The 1950s B-Film Noir Night- Robert Lippert’s Motor Patrol

 

 

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Motor Patrol, 1950

Yes, if anybody is asking, I am on a B-film noir tear these days having exhausted most of the A-list stuff like Out Of The Past and Gilda. Down in the Bs though things get dicey- either the plotline is weird or the acting is wooden or the scenery looks like it cost about twelve dollars and some change to create. The film under review, Motor Patrol, fits that second category since the plotline is fairly decent, not up to its brothers and sisters on the A-list but not bad. Here it is in a nutshell.

The sprawling Los Angeles area in the post-World War II period needed every law enforcement tool at its command so it beefed up the motorcycle squad to handle the increased traffic, and an occasional murder. That murder, or rather murders part is what drives this film. A seemingly routine hit and run accident uncovered a big-time car heist operation-in a car crazy city that is hardly extraordinary although murder to keep such an operation going is a little unusual. As the coppers started zeroing on the bad guys, especially the head of the operation, a veteran motorcycle cop in pursuit of that honcho was killed.     

Naturally that set the whole city police apparatus on the trail, including using a police cadet to infiltrate the operation (said rookie the fiancé of the dead motorcycle cops’ sister-so it was personal). As he wormed his way into the operation as a top-flight out of town (Chi town, okay) car thief he raised suspensions (especially when he was clueless about auto repair) and was eventually exposed. But nothing bad happened to him since half the force came to his before that point, the point where the bad guys were just ready to do him in. The bad guys tumbled and that now seasoned rookie decided to try out for the bikes squad. Figures.