This is a predictable short of the "Crime Does Not Pay" series. No surprises, but it does hold one's interest for the 15-20 minutes of the film. It also provides an historical perspective for our current consumer protection laws. This short is broadcast occasionally on TCM.
11 Reviews
Predictable short film from the "Crime Does Not Pay" series of the '40s...
Doylenf25 August 2008
This is a well done but predictable short from the series popular during the early '40s illustrating that crime does not pay.
Used car dealer (CY KENDALL) uses smooth talk and unethical tactics to convince buyers they're getting a good deal when it comes to purchasing a used car. In actuality, they're getting cars that have been superficially painted and customized cheaply to correct whatever flaws existed.
A teen-ager (who looks much too young to be driving in the first place) is gullible enough to buy a car that is really a pile of junk painted over and given a few gimmicky things to make it appear like a real buy. What he doesn't know is that the brakes are weak. A strip of asbestos around the brake drum is used to fix a brake problem.
The dealers protect themselves by selling the autos in a condition described as "sold as is." An elderly gent is sold a car that has serious clutch problems but is denied a return on his money when he makes a complaint.
It's up to the D.A. (ALLAN LANE) to bring the bad guys to court after a serious accident kills one boy (DARRYL HICKMAN) and puts the other into the hospital.
"These cars would have been a death trap even if the brakes had held," says someone after court proceedings are over and the men are convicted and sent to jail.
At the end, we hear the narrator say: "This case must serve as a warning to the public."
Summing up: Good public service announcement, fast moving and swift in making its point.
Used car dealer (CY KENDALL) uses smooth talk and unethical tactics to convince buyers they're getting a good deal when it comes to purchasing a used car. In actuality, they're getting cars that have been superficially painted and customized cheaply to correct whatever flaws existed.
A teen-ager (who looks much too young to be driving in the first place) is gullible enough to buy a car that is really a pile of junk painted over and given a few gimmicky things to make it appear like a real buy. What he doesn't know is that the brakes are weak. A strip of asbestos around the brake drum is used to fix a brake problem.
The dealers protect themselves by selling the autos in a condition described as "sold as is." An elderly gent is sold a car that has serious clutch problems but is denied a return on his money when he makes a complaint.
It's up to the D.A. (ALLAN LANE) to bring the bad guys to court after a serious accident kills one boy (DARRYL HICKMAN) and puts the other into the hospital.
"These cars would have been a death trap even if the brakes had held," says someone after court proceedings are over and the men are convicted and sent to jail.
At the end, we hear the narrator say: "This case must serve as a warning to the public."
Summing up: Good public service announcement, fast moving and swift in making its point.
"That car'll run for the rest of your life"!
classicsoncall27 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This 'Crime Does Not Pay' short takes a look at the 'lunatic fringe of the used car business' - a description I would have liked to use but they beat me to it. An unscrupulous car dealer and his shoddy mechanic and salesman are shown in a couple of scenarios bilking unsuspecting customers by selling reconditioned vehicles with problem brakes and other assorted malfunctions. Cy Kendall, a perennial outlaw in Western and mystery films of the era is similarly cast here as the seedy shop owner, so it's only appropriate that he's brought to justice by Western cowboy hero Allan 'Rocky' Lane portraying the District Attorney involved in prosecuting these kinds of rackets. The picture probably didn't need to go so far as allowing little Billy Phillips (Darryl Hickman) to die in a car crash to prove it's point, but it certainly was effective. This film short brings one back to a point in history when, if you can believe it, car salesman were held in even lower esteem than members of Congress.
Crime May Not Pay But Crime Movies Do
boblipton6 July 2019
A crooked used-car dealer buys a wreck for $20, slaps some paint on it and sells to to Darryl Hickman. Its brakes fails almost immediately in this cautionary CRIME DOES NOT PAY short.
We see the dealer's "mechanic" fix the brakes using asbestos-covered paper, then another man complains about his car. This one goes to the police, who can do nothing save point out the flaws and useless "repairs" on his car; the contract says the car was sold "as is". When Hickman takes his brother and friends for an outing, however, it becomes more than a matter of money....
This MGM series told a lot of cautionary tales about rackets in its first few years. This is a pretty good one.
We see the dealer's "mechanic" fix the brakes using asbestos-covered paper, then another man complains about his car. This one goes to the police, who can do nothing save point out the flaws and useless "repairs" on his car; the contract says the car was sold "as is". When Hickman takes his brother and friends for an outing, however, it becomes more than a matter of money....
This MGM series told a lot of cautionary tales about rackets in its first few years. This is a pretty good one.
Did people actually trust used car salesmen in 1941?
AlsExGal14 July 2019
Maybe. It was a less cynical time. Plus the idea of a used car was relatively new. Ordinary people could only afford a car once the Model T's started coming off the line in 1908, and cars were built to last in those times.
So this episode in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series is about racketeering used car salesmen. By racketeering I think that they just meant completely dishonest, because there seems to be no mob involvement. It opens with the dishonest salesman closing the deal on a car to an older fellow who needs the car to make deliveries and hold his job. The car breaks down shortly thereafter, and when the dealership tells him to get lost he goes to the police. Odd how the police department would have time to go over a bad used car with a consumer, but apparently here they do. The police mechanics tell the owner that the car was a former taxi and probably has over 200K miles on it. Examinations of the sales contract and the bill of sale don't hold any guarantees, so the police can do nothing in this case.
But then there are a couple of kids right out of an MGM family film screenplay that buy one of the lemon cars, and you just know this is going to end badly in a way that will get the criminals on the hook. You'd be right or else this would not be a "Crime Does Not Pay" entry.
A couple of things I took away from this. The introduction does not say that this scenario is exactly true. It is probably just representative of a number of actual cases. Also, why is everybody being raised by their grandparents in this short? The salesman who has a little daughter and buys the first lemon car looks like he is at least 50. The man who is the father of the teen who buys the second lemon car looks at least 60. Maybe the decade long depression the country had just come out of aged people badly, but it is very noticeable.
Still, a worthy entry in the MGM series if you are a fan.
So this episode in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series is about racketeering used car salesmen. By racketeering I think that they just meant completely dishonest, because there seems to be no mob involvement. It opens with the dishonest salesman closing the deal on a car to an older fellow who needs the car to make deliveries and hold his job. The car breaks down shortly thereafter, and when the dealership tells him to get lost he goes to the police. Odd how the police department would have time to go over a bad used car with a consumer, but apparently here they do. The police mechanics tell the owner that the car was a former taxi and probably has over 200K miles on it. Examinations of the sales contract and the bill of sale don't hold any guarantees, so the police can do nothing in this case.
But then there are a couple of kids right out of an MGM family film screenplay that buy one of the lemon cars, and you just know this is going to end badly in a way that will get the criminals on the hook. You'd be right or else this would not be a "Crime Does Not Pay" entry.
A couple of things I took away from this. The introduction does not say that this scenario is exactly true. It is probably just representative of a number of actual cases. Also, why is everybody being raised by their grandparents in this short? The salesman who has a little daughter and buys the first lemon car looks like he is at least 50. The man who is the father of the teen who buys the second lemon car looks at least 60. Maybe the decade long depression the country had just come out of aged people badly, but it is very noticeable.
Still, a worthy entry in the MGM series if you are a fan.
Crime Didn't Pay Then Either
Michael_Elliott25 February 2008
Coffins on Wheels (1941)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Entry in MGM's 'Crime Does Not Pay' series talks about used car salesmen who sell lemons to buyer who don't know any better. The ending here is predictable but that doesn't take away from the entertainment level. I think this is one of the best short series out there and this is another winning film. The movie certainly holds your interest from start to finish with some nice drama and serving justice.
Turner Classic Movies show these films quite often so if you're interested then keep your eyes open.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Entry in MGM's 'Crime Does Not Pay' series talks about used car salesmen who sell lemons to buyer who don't know any better. The ending here is predictable but that doesn't take away from the entertainment level. I think this is one of the best short series out there and this is another winning film. The movie certainly holds your interest from start to finish with some nice drama and serving justice.
Turner Classic Movies show these films quite often so if you're interested then keep your eyes open.
Who is Ray the Lab Tech?
JoeMcDonald12 January 2023
Raymond Bailey is credited as "Ray the Lab Tech" but the actor in this short is definitely not the Raymond Bailey we all know as Mr. Drysdale.
During the scene where the faulty brakes are being examined in the garage there is a policeman standing behind the car that may possibly be Mr. Bailey but it is very difficult to tell.
Other parts of this short are quite interesting such as the older vehicles shown in the street scenes and the prices discussed as well as the dialog between the characters.
Seeing actors like Walter Baldwin, the original Barber on the Any Griffith Show, in his early days is also quite interesting.
During the scene where the faulty brakes are being examined in the garage there is a policeman standing behind the car that may possibly be Mr. Bailey but it is very difficult to tell.
Other parts of this short are quite interesting such as the older vehicles shown in the street scenes and the prices discussed as well as the dialog between the characters.
Seeing actors like Walter Baldwin, the original Barber on the Any Griffith Show, in his early days is also quite interesting.
one change
SnoopyStyle11 June 2022
This is another episode of the Crime Does Not Pay series. Sleazy used car dealer Nick buys a wreck and cleans it up. What he doesn't do is make it safe. He sells dangerous junk cars with superficial fixes. Tommy Phillips is a teenager eager to buy his first car. The trouble is that the car comes with bad brakes.
This is actually a very effective episode. It has some action. It has a good villain. It's got the consumer protection angle. It's very effective. I would make one change. Announcing the death of the child should be done in silence. It's done badly here with weak acting. More than anything, it would concentrate the punch to the line where they change the charge to manslaughter. That would be more powerful.
This is actually a very effective episode. It has some action. It has a good villain. It's got the consumer protection angle. It's very effective. I would make one change. Announcing the death of the child should be done in silence. It's done badly here with weak acting. More than anything, it would concentrate the punch to the line where they change the charge to manslaughter. That would be more powerful.
Pretty exciting stuff!
planktonrules20 November 2013
I was pretty happy as I watched "Coffins on Wheels", as several of the Crime Does Not Pay shorts preceding this one were pretty dull and preachy. This is because the great series took a bit of a nosedive when WWII began, as MGM began focusing less on organized crime and violence and more on topics like civic duty and patriotism. Yet, somehow, the series avoided these preachy topics and got back to their roots with "Coffins on Wheels".
This film is about unscrupulous used car dealers who buy unsafe cars and give them cosmetic changes to make them seem road-worthy. The jerks in this one have no trouble selling a teenager a car with faulty brakes and it ends up leading to a thrilling and bloody accident. But, as you'd expect with the series, the baddies get theirs in the end! It makes for a very exciting film--one that won't disappoint.
A few folks to look for in this one are a very young Darryl Hickman, the cowboy star Allan 'Rocky' Lane and Roy Gordon. Who is Gordon? Well in the films in this series, the films are introduced by some important government official. In this particular film, it's supposed to be Mr. Blake from the Department of Motor Vehicles, but like ALL the films he's just an actor!
This film is about unscrupulous used car dealers who buy unsafe cars and give them cosmetic changes to make them seem road-worthy. The jerks in this one have no trouble selling a teenager a car with faulty brakes and it ends up leading to a thrilling and bloody accident. But, as you'd expect with the series, the baddies get theirs in the end! It makes for a very exciting film--one that won't disappoint.
A few folks to look for in this one are a very young Darryl Hickman, the cowboy star Allan 'Rocky' Lane and Roy Gordon. Who is Gordon? Well in the films in this series, the films are introduced by some important government official. In this particular film, it's supposed to be Mr. Blake from the Department of Motor Vehicles, but like ALL the films he's just an actor!
A Cautionary Tale
Ron Oliver24 June 2005
An MGM CRIME DOES NOT PAY Short Subject
A crooked car dealer sells COFFINS ON WHEELS, used cars which are dangerously unfit to be on the road.
This little film served as an admonition to car buyers to only purchase vehicles from reputable dealers. It is well made and fast moving, getting its message across effectively.
Darryl Hickman plays the tragic young Billy. Allan Lane is the determined police lieutenant. The vile car dealer is performed by Cy Kendall and his sleazy salesman by an uncredited John Gallaudet.
*****************************
Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.
A crooked car dealer sells COFFINS ON WHEELS, used cars which are dangerously unfit to be on the road.
This little film served as an admonition to car buyers to only purchase vehicles from reputable dealers. It is well made and fast moving, getting its message across effectively.
Darryl Hickman plays the tragic young Billy. Allan Lane is the determined police lieutenant. The vile car dealer is performed by Cy Kendall and his sleazy salesman by an uncredited John Gallaudet.
*****************************
Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.
When the Law Avenges the Dead
theowinthrop18 April 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Last night they showed this short from the "CRIME DOES NOT PAY" series on Turner Classic Movies, just before STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET. So I was able to watch it before the feature (which would have been what I would have experienced when going to the movies in the 1940s or 1960s, of watching the short subject before the feature).
The "CRIME DOES NOT PAY" series was both instructive and simplistic. The purpose was to warn the public of all kinds of frauds perpetrated on them by the criminal classes. Other films in the series dealt with mail frauds or with psychics who were fakes. On the other hand they tried to push the official view that all criminals are caught and punished. This was what the police across the country wanted to indoctrinate into the general population (for reasonable goals - of convincing people not to be criminals!). It was also in line with the Breen Office and the Hays Code not to glorify criminals by showing them succeed. But they do frequently succeed. For all the gangster films like LITTLE CAESAR or SCARFACE where the crime boss dies in the gutter or frightened at being alone at the end, most crime bosses died like Frank Costello or Meyer Lanski quite well-to-do and respected.
The best part of this particular short dealt with the growing number of criminal enterprises dealing with selling used or defective cars, and the way various tricks were used (such as putting strips of asbestos around breaks to replace real break linings, or putting sand into carburetors to reduce noises showing the motor was shot). One interesting trick here that I never saw before was how they take the time to create a fake tire tread on an old tire to make it look new again.*
(*In this same period, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy fought an illegal stolen tire ring during wartime - rubber was heavily rationed during the war. The ring is run by the criminal Beebee Eyes. In the end of that series of stories, Beebee Eyes hides on a barge being towed out to see, which has a lot of garbage on it. When he is accidentally dumped with the garbage (how symbolic) into the Atlantic, he falls into a set of three or four truck tires that entrap his body in their centers. As a result he can't swim and drowns.)
Cy Kendall (fat with that fedora on his head and the cigar parked in the side of his mouth) heads a used car lot. His two assistants are the sleazy salesman (John Gallaudet) and the mechanic. We see two victims of his sales - Tommy Baker as Tommy Phillips, who buys a jalopy from them, and Walter Baldwin, who buys a car he needs for his business. Baker (due to social position) is able to get Kendall to agree to repair work on his jalopy's breaks (and this leads to some shoddy work by the mechanic). Baldwin is less successful, and goes to the police. Although Baldwin learns how he was rooked into buying the lemon he can't bring suit against Kendall as he signed a "contract" that had a waiver in it (Baldwin did not read the contract). Baker is going to football practice, and takes his younger brother Billy with him. Except for Kendal and Baldwin, Billy is played by the best known actor in this film - Daryl Hickman.
There is an accident due to the failure of the breaks, and a fatality results. And we last see Kendall and his two partners getting long, long prison sentences for their crimes. Would it have happened in real life? I don't know, but I hope it would. In any event this short film does give a satisfaction to the viewer...so maybe the fiction of "Crime does not Pay" does not matter if one is entertained by it at the end.
The "CRIME DOES NOT PAY" series was both instructive and simplistic. The purpose was to warn the public of all kinds of frauds perpetrated on them by the criminal classes. Other films in the series dealt with mail frauds or with psychics who were fakes. On the other hand they tried to push the official view that all criminals are caught and punished. This was what the police across the country wanted to indoctrinate into the general population (for reasonable goals - of convincing people not to be criminals!). It was also in line with the Breen Office and the Hays Code not to glorify criminals by showing them succeed. But they do frequently succeed. For all the gangster films like LITTLE CAESAR or SCARFACE where the crime boss dies in the gutter or frightened at being alone at the end, most crime bosses died like Frank Costello or Meyer Lanski quite well-to-do and respected.
The best part of this particular short dealt with the growing number of criminal enterprises dealing with selling used or defective cars, and the way various tricks were used (such as putting strips of asbestos around breaks to replace real break linings, or putting sand into carburetors to reduce noises showing the motor was shot). One interesting trick here that I never saw before was how they take the time to create a fake tire tread on an old tire to make it look new again.*
(*In this same period, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy fought an illegal stolen tire ring during wartime - rubber was heavily rationed during the war. The ring is run by the criminal Beebee Eyes. In the end of that series of stories, Beebee Eyes hides on a barge being towed out to see, which has a lot of garbage on it. When he is accidentally dumped with the garbage (how symbolic) into the Atlantic, he falls into a set of three or four truck tires that entrap his body in their centers. As a result he can't swim and drowns.)
Cy Kendall (fat with that fedora on his head and the cigar parked in the side of his mouth) heads a used car lot. His two assistants are the sleazy salesman (John Gallaudet) and the mechanic. We see two victims of his sales - Tommy Baker as Tommy Phillips, who buys a jalopy from them, and Walter Baldwin, who buys a car he needs for his business. Baker (due to social position) is able to get Kendall to agree to repair work on his jalopy's breaks (and this leads to some shoddy work by the mechanic). Baldwin is less successful, and goes to the police. Although Baldwin learns how he was rooked into buying the lemon he can't bring suit against Kendall as he signed a "contract" that had a waiver in it (Baldwin did not read the contract). Baker is going to football practice, and takes his younger brother Billy with him. Except for Kendal and Baldwin, Billy is played by the best known actor in this film - Daryl Hickman.
There is an accident due to the failure of the breaks, and a fatality results. And we last see Kendall and his two partners getting long, long prison sentences for their crimes. Would it have happened in real life? I don't know, but I hope it would. In any event this short film does give a satisfaction to the viewer...so maybe the fiction of "Crime does not Pay" does not matter if one is entertained by it at the end.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
