Review of Coffins on Wheels

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.