Highway 301

Andrew L. Stone's crime picture follows a gang robbing banks along the highway between Virginia and North Carolina. The robberies keep working and the local authorities keep raising the pressure. It opens in the manner of its period, claiming a basis in real events, and at no point makes the criminals appealing; the man Steve Cochran plays is notably cold. The level of violence was considered high for 1950, because women are among the victims and the film does not step around that. It is a short, fast, unadorned B production, sitting at the cheap but effective end of film noir.