Death in Small Doses (1957)

Chuck Connors steals the show in "Red Skies of Montana" director Joseph M. Newman's "Death in Small Doses" as a long-haul trucker addicted to illegal amphetamines in this criminal expose. The movie opens with a reckless trucker gobbling Benzedrine pills who has gone too long without sleep and then hallucinates that a car has swerved into his lane traffic. He tries to avoid smashing into the oncoming vehicle, plunges his rig down the side of hill and dies in the crash. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C., launches an investigation into this epidemic. They dispatch a clean-cut, square-jawed agent (Peter Graves of "Stalag 17") to infiltrate the trucking business and come up with a lead. Everybody that Tom Kaylor runs into while he masquerades as a student driver either is addicted to 'co-pilots' or dies from them. One guy dies from a heart attack that was connected to his amphetamine abuse while loading up Kaylor's truck. As Mink Reynolds, Connors lives at the same boarding house as Kaylor. Mink is strung out constantly and living perilously on the edge as if there is no tomorrow. The guy can get neither enough action nor enough amphetamines. He pushes them on Kaylor, but Kaylor doesn't buy. Eventually, even a workhorse like Mink succumbs to their dire effects, and reluctantly divulges to Kaylor the name of his source. Earlier, Tom had been training as a student driver with an older, more mature trucker, Wally Morse (Roy Engel of "The Naked Dawn") who knew how deleterious the drugs were. Morse stuck his neck out too far snooping around and got beaten to death at a truck stop while Kaylor was sleeping in the back of the cab. Now, with the tip that Mink gave him, Kaylor has a solid lead. Ironically, he discovers that the woman, Valerie 'Val' Owens (Mala Powers of "Rage at Dawn"), who runs the boarding house where he lives, is up to her ears in the amphetamine racket. Incidentally, she was married to the guy at the beginning of the movie who wrecked his rig and rolled it down a hillside. The criminals nab Kaylor and take him to remote spot where they intend to kill him when one of them changes his mind and helps Kaylor defeat them. The beauty of this concise, efficiently helmed, black & white, 79-minute film is that Newman doesn't waste a second. The dialogue is sharp, too.

Peter Graves is a federal agent trying to find out the source of the amphetamines that is killing and driving insane so many long haul truck drivers. An opening segment shows one of the long haul truck drivers trying to stay awake and downing "bennies" as they call them here to the point where he sees cars where there are none, and swerves, crashing his truck and dying, grabbing the viewer's attention.Tom Kaylor (Graves) goes undercover as a student truck driver. He moves into the rooming house run by the widow of the dead truck driver from the opening segment.Tom keeps asking for bennies from people who he thinks might be selling them, and getting rebuffed - practically with a sermon - every time. His first partner on a long drive actually opens up to Tom about the bennie business and how the pills are killers and how he is going to ask around to see if he can find out who is supplying them. He winds up beaten to death.There are a number of suspects as usual in this kind of film, and it keeps you guessing as to whether they are in on the pill business or just afraid of crossing those who are. The end is rather anti-climactic as the person who is the guilty party doesn't evoke either anger or sympathy from the audience. Plus the opening segment makes you believe that Kaylor is after a "Mr. Big", and this person hardly comes across like that.The best part of this film is seeing Chuck Connors of "The Rifleman" TV fame, which is a role that is to come only a year later,as a perpetually hyped up hepcat amphetamine addict of a truck driver, "Mink", who also lives in the boarding house with Tom. It's worth the price of admission just to see him hammily - and figuratively - climbing the walls.I'm giving this five points for Chuck Connors' cheesy performance and for the great roadhouse atmosphere of a bygone era - of boarding houses, transistor radios, cramped ma and pa diners with friendly service, of long haul working stiffs just trying to make ends meet. Then there is the sympathetic treatment the actual addicts are given. Considerable time is taken to show how some of the addicts got trapped in the web of addiction with a good dose of empathy.

DEATH IN SMALL DOSES is an American B-movie crime thriller set in the world of truckers and trucking. It's nowhere near as good as that British classic HELL DRIVERS, but the plot is unusual enough to keep you watching and it could be a lot worse. Future MISSION IMPOSSIBLE star Peter Graves is tasked with investigating the prevalence of illegal amphetamines which truck drivers have been taking to keep them awake during long drives. Unfortunately the side effects include hallucinations and death, so Graves must find the supply chain and nip it in the bud before anybody else dies.What follows is your usual second-tier story with a little mystery, a little suspense, and a handful of action scenes. Graves is a perfectly likable hero but the real scene-stealer here is Chuck Connors as a beatnik-inspired loudmouth who lights up the screen whenever he appears. Mala Powers is particularly stunning as the love interest of the piece, and the stunt scenes, while hampered by the low budget, keep the production moving along nicely. The twist ending is a strong way to end the film too.

Note this commentary may contain a ***SPOILER**Another one of those "B" 1950's crime thrillers "...ripped from the pages of todays headlines." This film was inspired by a Saturday Evening Post expose about the use of amphetamines of long haul truck drivers. In this film, Peter Graves plays an FDA agent who goes undercover as a truck driver in order to get the goods on who is supplying the drivers with "bennies". Chuck Conners plays a hip talking truck driver hooked on the pills and freaks out and almost kills Peter. Mala Powers plays the widowed boarding house owner that caters to truck drivers whom Peter becomes romanticly involved. Too bad Peter never learned never to trust grieving widows who wear cocktail dresses. Robert Shayne has a small part as Peters boss. Graves gives his usual dependable performance as the determined agent. Its amazing how many of these forgotten low budget films Graves made in the 1950's. Chuck Conners however, goes way over the top as the hip talking, jazz loving amphetamine hooked truck driver. Mala Powers is attractive.