Highway 301

Andrew L. Stone’s Highway 301 tells the true(ish) story of the “Tri-State Gang” through a semi-documentary lens; in fact, the film opens with brief statements from not one, but three state governors whose citizens were impacted by the violence (about the film, one states, “I congratulate Warner Brothers for producing it”). With the support of Warner’s high production values, Steve Cochran shines as the beastly, psychopathic ringleader George Legenza, who makes Cochrane’s Eddie Roman in The Chase (1946) look like a pussycat, and who, from time to time, gets bored of killing innocents and turns his gun on his own women. The most suspenseful sequences, in fact, involve Legenza appearing at his girlfriend Madeline’s (Aline Towne) apartment while she packs to leave town, and when Lee (Gaby Andre) escapes the dark room where she’s been contained and escapes through the empty nocturnal streets with Legenza hot on her tail. (In some ways, the terror in these scenes presages the slasher movies of the 70’s and 80’s). Top-notch cinematography works seamlessly with William Lava’s near perfect orchestral score: note how the woodwinds add tension to Lee’s expressionistic escape.