...Fifties drive-in flick you could hope to see, as pure an example of the early output of that supreme ginch-meister distributor, American International Pictures, as you could hope for. Featuring a risible screenplay with some of the goofiest dialog imaginable ("Don't boil!"), equally laughable and indifferent direction, production values that only The Three Stooges could love, and acting chops straight out of the "I Love Lucy/Donna Reed" playbook, "Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" manages to fail on every count while still providing mucho unintentional amusement. Thankfully, it's barely an hour long. Currently "free" on Amazon Prime, it's undoubtedly out there equally cheap on platforms like YouTube. Need a sleeping pill? Here ya go! Truly, I should have rated it much lower, but somehow it struck my funny bone in all the right (or wrong) ways.

Take all possible scenes that might occur in a 50s teen flick, mix them together, and you have the plot of "Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow". This is perfect fare for a drive-in, where audiences paid little attention to the screen anyway.There's beautiful teenager with a penchant for drag racing. There's a father who has concerns about the younger generation. A grandmother who likes to play the flute. Scenes of swing dancing and some really awful examples of guitar-driven rock-n-roll. Mix in a parrot that talks too much and a foursome that represent the bad element (Eric von Zipper's understudy?).For no apparent reason, the action shifts to a supposedly haunted house, complete with things that revolve and things that cast large shadows. It's there that a talking car is revealed. And a highly-charged drag race occurs offscreen while the big ghost mystery is solved. Just in time for the big teen romance to...hey wait there's no resolution of boy and girl. Maybe it's because there never really was a conflict to resolve. Just harmless, campy fun in the suburbs.

Some films are simply fun nonsense, like this silly, example of a late 50s teen movie. It predates 'Beach Blanket Bingo' and many others that used a similar formula. They had some quirky characters that actually were funny, like the tall girl with the glasses and her boyfriend. And the film did not take itself seriously which was a plus. The rock band shooting off guns in the air was surprising. I especially liked the costume party near the end where they used some creature outfits from other famous B-horror films of the time. If you watch it see which monsters you can ID. Once again the movie poster art makes promises the movie does not deliver on, still we had a good time watching this the other night.

A very loose sequel to AIP's 1958 Hot Rod Gang, which was marginally more serious, this movie is just sheer goofiness from start to finish. For a hot rod movie, there's not much in the way of drag racing action, but there are plenty of dance numbers with assorted leggy girls rocking and rolling in a way guaranteed to raise the average male's blood pressure. ( Check out the slumber party sequence with the young ladies dancing in short nighties).A lot of the humor is pretty feeble, but it's an engaging little movie in its own right. Anyone who likes the AIP teen flicks of the Fifties will probably enjoy this.