Leofwine_draca I enjoyed this little propaganda film made in America in 1942. It's a thriller about a criminal organisation making and selling low-quality car tyres from re-used rubber, hence the title. The situation arose due to the strict rationing in place in America during the war years and has plenty of propaganda elements, particularly in a lengthy moralistic conversation at the outset.Otherwise this is a strict B-movie made on a low budget, albeit one with plenty of action and incident to sustain the hour-long running time. The main character is a low key criminal just released from prison who decides to get involved in the racket himself, only to realise the danger to life it poses. He then goes up against the bad guys with the help of his girlfriend. It all ends in one of those delightfully ferocious brawls that usually ended these productions.

Robert J. Maxwell This was shot, I assume, in the months following Pearl Harbor, when everyone was in a chauvinistic rapture -- except for the criminals who make shoddy tires. Planktonrules has already given as much of the details of the plot as the film deserves, so I'll skip most of it.Opening scene: a young man is pointing an early model Thompson sub machine gun at the camera lens, then slowly moves to the side and stitches a row of bullet holes through a post of Mussolini, Hitler, and Tojo. He's shooting at a target in a defense plant while the other workers tand around and grin encouragingly. He remarks with a grin, "Okay, I just gave this Jap exterminator a try out and she's ready to go, so spin her along." I guess that's Bill Henry. He can't act very well but then the movie is not worth much of his effort. He has a cute girl friend waiting for him outside the plant, Barbara Read. Boy, she sure wishes her application for a job at the plant would go through, and Bill would like it too because it would free him to do some of "that front line stuff." I guess I'll explain the process behind Ricardo Cortez' phony tire racket. It's impossible for anyone to buy new tires because Southeast Asia is now in the hands of the Japanese and Latin America's rubber must go straight to the military. So Cortez takes threadbare old tires, rubs off the brand name, puts on a coating of faux rubber that will last only a few thousand miles, and offers them as brand new. It would be a joke if it ended with "Shorty's Recapping and Vulcanizing Service, Punxatawny, Pennsylvania." As it is, it was a serious business during the war years. I was a child but can remember the rationing of many consumer goods. Not just rubber but gasoline, meat, and most other stuff we think of as staples today. Butter was next to impossible to buy. Instead, housewives used a greasy white material called "Nucoa" that needed a yellow dye stirred into it to deceive the eye. School kids were sent out to collect milkweed pods that were used in the manufacture of life vests. Of course that was in a period when everyone chipped in to pay for a war. Fortunately, we now have many many little wars but nobody pays for them.So what this amounts to, in less than an hour, is a kind of training film for civilians. "Reefer Madness" taught us that if you smoke weed you go crazy. "Rubber Racketeers teaches us to watch out for phonies and if you run into them, don't patronize them. Report them. Or -- as here -- shut them down yourself.The patriotic programmers never really worked because someone always figures out a way to game the system and by 1944 the black market was flourishing, although it's not something you hear about. "All My Sons" did a better job.In its own shabby way the movie is an interesting example of the vernacular culture of the period -- the cars, the clothes, the lingo, the attitudes. A little like taking a Twilight Zone trip into the past.

MartinHafer During WWII, lots of items were rationed--mostly because they were needed for the war effort. In some cases, such as rubber, it was even harder to get because many of the nations that provided rubber to the US and its allies had been conquered by the Japanese. So, although it's really odd, a few films like "Rubber Racketeers" (as well as "The Last Ride") were made to warn the public about organized crime and tires sold to the unsuspecting public. "The Last Ride" was a pretty good film--"Rubber Racketeers" was less so."Rubber Racketeers" begins badly, as you hear a young couple having a ridiculously improbably conversation about patriotism, the war effort and the need to all work together for victory. Again, it sounded nothing like a real conversation a man would have with his girlfriend, that's for sure! While "The Last Ride" had a bit of this, here in "Rubber Racketeers" they really lay it on strong--and it continues throughout the film. In fact, in several places it's obvious the characters are making speeches AT the audience and it seriously impairs the film's watchability. Even back in the ultra-patriotic 1940s, folks must have groaned at this speechifying.As for the plot, after a gangster gets out of prison (Ricardo Cortez), his driver manages to cause an accident with his reckless driving. Because of this little incident, he eventually comes up with the idea of selling defective or stolen tires. As for the defective ones, his men are able to make them appear brand-new--but the rubber is crap. Soon, a guy has an accident due to these 'new' tires. So, his friends all band together to get down to the bottom of this--to find these evil un-Americans and bring them to justice. And, in an odd message, the film seems to endorse vigilante justice! So, is there anything I like about the film? Well, Cortez is good (as usual) but most of the rest of the acting is pretty bad. You do, however, get to see a young Alan Hale Jr. in one of his earliest roles--which is mildly interesting. And, the film is a nice window into the past--even if it is a crappy quality movie. The bottom line is that the low-budget really shows in this one, as the film just seems very cheap and jingoistic--even by WWII propaganda standards. It's mildly entertaining provided you have very low expectations! My advice--see the other film instead.With films like this to his credit, I can understand why Ricardo Cortez soon decided to retire from pictures. He was a good actor but the quality of his films kept getting worse and worse. And, incidentally, retiring turned out to be great, as he actually was able to make a very nice living working on Wall Street according to IMDb.

GUENOT PHILIPPE Fast paced little crime programmer, with an unusual topic, involving gangsters who manufacture bad quality tyres. And that makes people's life in jeopardy, especially drivers, as you can guess. The plot line has already been told in detail, just above. The story itself remains after all very classic, not so many surprises. Harry Young, the director, made a batch of films in the thirties and forties very hard to catch. Obscure features, I can guarantee. So, I did not miss this opportunity to watch it.The copy in DVD I saw came from a 16mm print very pleased to play. Good quality. Maybe you will find it on TCM, one of these days. Who knows?