Highway Mania

Year Published: 1942

Creator: The Commercial Department Pathé News Inc.

Complete Record: The film is about driver safety, BUT it is also a visual record of driving, new highways, cars, and ‘rules of the road’ in the 1930s to the date of 1942. The premise of the film is that an average driver can become a murderous maniac. Whereas cars are built to be safer and roads are built well, the accident rate continues to go up. Examples are of cars on roads and highways doing strange maneuvers. Motoring is compared to a sport: Sport has rules and drivers, must become aware of them. Every driver should learn ‘rules of the game.’ There follows examples of good and bad driving and its causes. What is clear in this film is that with the invention of cars, the American driver had to become aware of an etiquette of the road. In rural America, this was probably harder to enforce, but in urban areas, traffic control was necessary. Shots of significance: Cars from 1930s through 1942 traveling on the New Deal highways that are expansive with few cars. Bad driving habits with great documenting film: (1) Cars not granting ‘the right of way.’ (2) Drivers not giving proper hand signals. (3) Cars passing on left side of road. (4) Driving too close to cars . (5) Weaving in and out of traffic. (6) Driving too fast for conditions. (7) Stopping in the middle of road to read road signs . (8) Pedestrians on rural roads walking with backs to traffic. Always face traffic when walking. (9) Parking or passing at crest of a road. (10) Using wrong lane for turning. (11) Confusing signaling. (12) Forming third line at stop light. (13) Passengers getting out on wrong side of car into traffic. (14) Pedestrians in an urban setting jaywalking. (15) Children playing in streets. (16) Cop directing traffic and pedestrians in urban areas. (17) At the corner of Broad and Market Streets in New York City, double parking with fire truck caught in road. (18) Examples of thrills achieved by taking chances. The following shots are noted: (1) Some early shots are in Los Angeles where the Arlington Theater tower in Westwood is clearly visible. Also the palms along Sunset Boulevard are markers for Beverly Hills. (2) Accidents on roads; (3) Car rolling down hill; (4) Train crashing into car that has gone through traffic barriers; (5) Burning of passenger ship, Morro Castle (1934) off coast of New Jersey that took 135 lives. Traffic accidents take more. (6) Shots of hurricane and damage off coast of Florida. (7) Footage of floods of 1936 in New Jersey. (8) Car spinning out of control on country road. (9) Interior shots of State of New Jersey governor’s office as conversation ensures; (10) As preventive measures -- traffic circle with cars going around. (11) Highway medians and overpasses to take traffic away from going through signals. (12) Shots of a golf game; has lots of people watching. (13) Shots of horse racing around track. Riders are slugging it out as they ride to the finish. (14) Football scrimmages and some footage of a game that has a touch down. (15) CU of bad driving habits as typed on police reports. These are dateless so could be used for films needing this sort of image. (16) POV behind wheel of car looking for driving infractions. These include: Going around curves on new highway and through tunnel; shots similar to those at the start of film, but POV, rural as well as urban. Novel hand and arm signals. Proper signals demonstrated. Children playing in street. POV from on the fire truck in New York City trying to get around double-parked cars. Bi-wing airplane tricks, including a jazz trio on the wings of the plane. Cars racing on track. Car drives through barn and collapses it. Motor biker crashes into shed. Man jumps from building onto a canvas net. Shots of a rodeo. Various car crashes. Car plunges off a very steep rock cliff.