Cast:<\/strong> John Wayne, Louise Latimer, Robert McWade, Theodore von Eltz, Tully Marshall, Emerson Treacy<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before that can happen the story introduces Biff\u2019s lady of choice, Mary, played by Louise Latimer, chatting with her bro Charlie, played by Emerson Treacy, about his new trucking business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of his competitors in the business, the evil-looking Padula, played by Leroy Mason, appears in the family caf\u00e9 and starts to threaten Charlie but is interrupted by Mary\u2019s former boss Jim Gifford, played by Theodore von Eltz, who still obviously has the hots for his former employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biff arrives to see Mary just in time to catch Padula slipping one over on Charlie by sabotaging his truck which means Charlie won\u2019t be able to fulfil his first delivery to Chicago. Mary helpfully suggests Charlie uses Biff\u2019s bus to transport the goods instead which unfortunately consists of cheese one way, and fertiliser for the return journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She also adds insult to injury by telling Biff it\u2019s about time he got a bit more ambitious and stopped working a little job for a little pay cheque, seeming to forget she gave up her job in Chicago as secretary to Gifford to work in her mother\u2019s small-town diner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Biff still lets her kiss him though, so he obviously doesn\u2019t really care what she thinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biff gets fired for stinking his bus up and, in an impulse buy, purchases the very vehicle that cost him his job in the first place. I have to admit I really didn\u2019t see that one coming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary eventually confesses she was the one who engineered Biff\u2019s dismissal by phoning the bus company anonymously to complain about the smell in order that he find a more ambitious career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When she playfully suggests that \u201cyou wouldn\u2019t beat a woman up would you?\u201d Biff replies playfully \u201cnot until we were married\u201d which I thought was very chivalrous of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything seems to be going swell for both Biff and Charlie who partner up in their own business and then, before you can say \u201cHoly Wages of Fear\u201d, they\u2019re offered the job of shifting a truck load of nitro-glycerine, a job that even Padula has turned down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite Mary\u2019s warning that this might not be a good thing on account of \u201cwhat happened to dad\u201d \u2013 presumably he\u2019d been delivered to heaven in pieces a few years back \u2013 Biff insists he\u2019ll take the load himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He then gets into a fight with Padula and ends up in jail with \u201cFish\u201d McCorkle, played by Australian actor Harry Allen who demonstrates a pretty convincing Cockney accent for an Aussie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Biff out of the picture Charlie draws the short straw and is forced to drive the nitro-glycerine truck himself, Padula tricking him into taking the vehicle down the wrong road. The truck gets stuck in the mud and, like father like son, poor old Charlie gets blown to kingdom come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This obviously puts a bit of a downer on the marriage plans of Biff and Mary, with Mary leaving town and taking up her old job in Chicago with \u201cHands-on\u201d Gifford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biff finally digs deep and gets himself some moxie \u2013 this is what happens when you watch old 1930s movies, you end up talking in a language that no longer exists – and ingratiates himself with old man Corrigan, played by Robert McWade, the boss of a large trucking company who gives him the break he needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rising quickly to a role as a superintendent Biff finds himself up against Mary\u2019s boss Gifford who gives ruffian Padula a job on account of the firm that Biff works for has put him out of business.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, in what I can only describe as a convoluted plot twist, Biff gets fired by Corrigan for doing something that has upset a company that then affects the financial well-being of Corrigan\u2019s company so in desperation Biff comes up with a plan to prove that trucks can do long haul as well as short haul business which means a race between trucks and the railway to deliver goods for a ship moored in Los Angeles before a strike shuts everything down with a million dollar contract going to the winner. I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biff\u2019s caravan of trucks compete against the train through snow and rough weather, the \u201crace\u201d itself more of a compilation of stock footage on account of this being a low-budget film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Gifford realises Biff is going to win the million dollar contract he orders\u00a0 Padula to do his sabotage thing and intercept Biff and his drivers. In the process the car that Gifford, Biff and Mary is travelling in crashes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the way to the hospital Padula, knowing he\u2019s not going to make it, confesses his part to Mary in the death of her brother Charlie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s all a bit predictable at the end with Biff\u2019s drivers getting their goods to the boat in time, old man Corrigan presumably giving Biff his job back so that he can marry Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s quite an action-packed film considering it only runs for just an hour but the downside is there\u2019s obviously no time for any subtlety in terms of direction or cinematography or even acting for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s an impressively atmospheric feel to the scene in which Charlie meets his maker but apart from that \u201cCalifornia Straight Ahead\u201d is rather pedestrian, to say the least. Probably the weakest of the six Universal films Wayne appeared in so far but still worth a look for the uninitiated amongst you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this, the third of the six films John Wayne starred in for Universal in the mid-1930s, he plays school bus driver Biff Smith who sings \u201cMerrily we roll along\u201d with the youngsters, the cynic in me anticipating that something … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6165"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6169,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6165\/revisions\/6169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"california](\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/california-straight-ahead-poster-1024x767.jpg\")
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