Step On It

Daredevil motorcycle cop Larry Evans always gets his man, but women are another matter. He loses his job after giving a speeding ticket to the wrong girl -- Connie Banning, the hard-partying daughter of a shipping magnate. But the secretive Mr. Banning has another reason for taking Larry off the force. Gangsters have been threatening drivers and dynamiting trucks. He appoints Larry his head of security, assigned to bring in the saboteurs, dead or alive. It won't be easy, particularly when Larry falls for the boss's pretty daughter...the same one who got him in this predicament in the first place...

Step On It is a showcase for the extraordinary physical prowess of Richard Talmadge (1892-1981). Born Sylvester Alphonse Metz in Germany, he was a boy acrobat before breaking into Hollywood as a stuntman, doubling for superstar Douglas Fairbanks. His good looks and remarkable athleticism soon made him the leading man in a series of stunt pictures that he produced himself. He never quite got rid of his German accent, however, meaning that Step On It would be one of his few talkies. Leading lady Lois Wilde was also not long for Hollywood. After two years' worth of appearances in westerns and serials, her career came to an abrupt end in 1938 when she crashed her car while speeding through the streets of Los Angeles...ironically, what her character in Step On It is arrested for at the beginning of the picture. This film was also released under the titles Hunting Trouble and Speed Demon.