User Reviews

Have you ever watched a film and felt like you'd seen it before...or, more precisely, that you've seen MANY movies like it before. This is the case with "High Explosive", a film that I found predictable throughout. Fortunately, the ending wasn't quite what I'd expected...so I increased its overall score to 5...meaning it's a time-passer but not much more.

Buzz (Chester Morris) is a hot-shot race car driver. However, he's headstrong and a bit of a blowhard. So, when he comes to work for his friend (Barry Sullivan) at his nitroglycerine factory, you know that his ego will get in the way. This is especially true when it comes to a girl he's head-over-heels for....as he's bound to screw things up. So how does he do this? Well, despite the lady's wishes, he brother gets a job with the company as a driver...and he's partnered with Buzz. You just KNOW that by the end of the story that the brother will be blown to bits...and Buzz's irresponsible behaviors will be the reason why. So how can Buzz manage to redeem himself? Well, this is the interesting part...the only interesting part.

The film is formulaic from start to finish--meaning it's very predictable and very familiar. Nothing terrible here...just nothing original nor interesting up until the thrilling ending...which, by the way, is pretty much the ending to many other films such as "Flying Tigers".

The two William's (Pine and Thomas) saw the perfect opportunity to tell timely stories in a series of fast moving programmers focusing on the Unsinkable heroes, both at home and abroad, during World War II. They focused on a variety of professions, both military and civilian, showing how even on the home base, factory workers and specialty experts could contribute to the fight for freedom. The stories had a pattern, usually some undisciplined free spirit finding out the importance of their job after some tragic event takes place and doing something remarkably heroic to redeem themselves. This story focuses on a reckless race car driver (Chester Morris) who is kicked out of his profession and thanks to pal Rand Brooks, ends up getting a job driving trucks delivering nitroglycerin. Brooks' sister (Jean Parker), in love with Morris but determined to tame him, stands by even when his negligence causes a tragic death. Barry Sullivan is their sensible boss, not giving up when the tragedy occurs, standing by to make sure Morris learns a serious lesson from his mistakes. Fast paced, thrilling and sometimes shocking, it doesn't stop for a second. The only thing keeping it from being a really good movie (other than the low budget and formula script) is the excessive bickering between Morris and Parker in the beginning, played for comedy. I'm sure with it's gripping realism that this played better on a big screen in 1943 for those who chose to stay and see the second feature after the main attraction ended.