Shocking! Most Americans don't realize why they pay higher prices for their toasters, hairdryers, and television sets. Hijackings on our highways. Trucks are robbed enroute to their destinations and their goods stolen. This costs Americans $40 million per year. It costs trucking companies $200 million in elevated insurance costs. Yep, this is almost as much as a few Somali daycare centers in Minneapolis rip-off the federal government in a week. Somali fraud is rampant now, and we implore ICE to help take care of it. But in 1950, $40 million was real money, hence we will look at that year's Film Noir picture, "Hi-Jacked," directed by Sam Newfield.
Joe (Jim Davis) is a schmuck truck driver. He's a good soul and on parole. As the film begins his sweet wife, Jean (Marcia Mae Jones) comes back to him. So cute! Uh oh...Joe is being set up by his own trucking company. His truck is hijacked and he is knocked out in the process. He comes to and the cops and insurance investigators figure he, a parolee, did the job. The trucking company manager, Clark (Ralph Sanford) funnels info on the routes and loads, to hijackers headed by Matt (David Bruce). Killer (Sid Melton) is one of Matt's thugs and is eager to get a gun and murder someone. Matt wisely never gives him a gun...until...well, you'll see. Killer? He looks and talks just like Joe Pesci and has a Napoleon complex. Now Joe is made the patsy again in a fur heist. The coats are worth thousands...each. Now the trucking company has to fire Joe if they plan on keeping their insurance.
Joe realizes only he can clear his name. Before he sets out to do this, the hijackers show up at his house, rough him up, and lock his sweet wife in the closet. She got off easy. Now Joe figures on violating his parole with his plan of violence he adopts to clear his name. The schmuck Joe puts two and two together, figures his manager, Clark, is in on it, and heads to them. Oh, Jean, the sweet wife? Yeah, the hijackers take care of her as soon as Joe leaves on his quest of vengeance. Now Joe's idiot plan to clear his name better work perfectly, or poor Jean will...well...you'll see.
Will Joe clear his name? Will the sweet Jean remain unsoiled as the end credits arrive? Can't Fernando Mendoza, who just signed a $57 million dollar/year contact with the Raiders, write a check and cover all the hijacking losses? This is a gritty one, and you will enjoy the scenes at the diner with one colorful and sultry waitress played by Iris Adrian. See "Hi-Jacked," and learn some weird new names for common diner food.
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