Highway Patrol
Highway Patrol was a syndicated, fictional police action series produced from 1955 to 1959, concerning the activities of the highway patrol and their leader, Dan Matthews (who held no rank). Although filmed in and around the Los Angeles area, the state setting for the stories was never identified, and city and street names were fictionalized.
The people behind the story
CAST
Episodes
39 episodes. Playback and audio depend on the available source.
S1:E1 Prison Break / Road Block
A hardened criminal, whose personality belies his viciousness, escapes from prison, killing a guard. Dan Mathews swings into action, and as the man commits one ruthless act after another to break through the trap closing in on him, it becomes apparent that there's almost a personal conflict between the two men - that ends only when they meet face to face in the final scene.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E2 Machine Story Copter / Machine Napping Copter
An expensive, giant computer, one of the twentieth century wonders, which does a tremendous amount of administrative work in just hours, is ingeniously 'kidnapped' from an electronics company by two men. The firm's owner is told to get $100,000 from his bank at two o'clock the next day and wait for instructions. A helicopter chase helps Dan stop the men from collecting the ransom or getting away.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E3 Reckless Driving
Systematic traffic checks and increased patrols begin on a high accident freeway. Hoping to determine causes and cures, Dan questions drivers who get too many citations there. One man refuses to accept Dan's safety philosophy. When his license is suspended, his wife drives him to an important business meeting. En route, her eyeglasses break and he takes over at the wheel. Encountering a traffic check, he panics and flees, resulting in a severe accident in which his wife is critically injured. He learns the hard way - and too late - what Dan had earlier tried to impress upon him.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E4 Lookout
An uninvolved man happens to be in the company of two brothers who hold up a diner and kill its owner. Fearing the police and terrified of the vengeance he may expect from the criminals, he flees. As Dan searches for him, one man winds up dead, two critically wounded, and the man who a few short hours ago was an average law-abiding citizen is harried to the point where he is willing to shoot it cut with the police - until Dan manages to show the error of his ways.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E5 Gambling
Dan Mathews and his officers assist a county sheriff in closing down a club that offers illicit gambling.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E6 Hitchhiker
A series of fraudulent insurance claims is discovered after Dan Mathews and his officers learn that the "accidental" death of a migrant worker was actually a homicide.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E7 Desert Town
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E8 Radioactive
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E9 Reformed Criminal
Dan Mathews has reason to suspect the worst when a courier with a criminal record disappears with $31,000 after an automobile accident.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E10 Father Thief
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E11 Retired Gangster
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E12 Phony Insurance
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E13 Escort
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E14 Resort
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E15 Girl Bandit
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E16 Mountain Copter
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E17 Lie Detector
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E18 Scared Cop
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E19 Harbor Story
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E20 Hit And Run
Dan Mathews must cope with a family's effort to protect an emotionally fragile young woman who fled after striking a pedestrian with her car.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E21 Car Theft
Car thieves purchase wrecked vehicles and transfer the VIN plates to stolen ones in order to escape detection.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E22 Human Bomb
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E23 Plane Crash
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E24 Desert Copter
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E25 Plant Robbery
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E26 Released Convict
A patient parolee decides the time is finally right to attempt the recovery of $250,000 stolen in an armored car robbery.
Not verifiedAudio unverified
2728 minS1:E27 Motorcycle A
Two bikers (Clint Eastwood as 'Joe Keeley', John Compton as 'Nick West') ride stripped-down Harleys into town and stop at a cafe. They are shocked when the cafe owner (Jack Edwards as 'Bernie Sills') confronts them with a shotgun and orders them to leave. As his wife calls the Highway Patrol her husband provokes the bikers, until Nick takes the gun from Sills and punches him. The bikers jump on their bikes and roar out of town. When Sills learns his wife has called the law, he hides the gun and lies to the responding motorcycle cop, telling him the cyclists started the trouble. The cop takes off after the bikers, only to be struck and killed by a trucker who runs a red light. Broderick Crawford’s ‘Chief Dan Mathews’ quickly sorts truth from fiction and arrests the café owner for assaulting the bikers. A nice (albeit unlikely) twist on the ‘bad guy bikers’ trope!
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E28 Mental Patient
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E29 License Plates
An alert boy is able to give Dan Mathews information that provides a critical break in the pursuit of a recidivist thief.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E30 Hitchhiker Dies
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E31 Blast Area Copter
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E32 Anti-toxin
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E33 Dead Patrolman
A Highway Patrol officer is murdered while pursuing a car stolen from a lonely bookstore owner.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E34 Art Robbery
Two thieves attempt to steal valuable paintings and demand ransom of $500,000. but they are forced to commit murder when the plan goes awry.
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E35 Runaway Boy
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E36 Taxi
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E37 Missing Witness
Not verifiedAudio unverifiedS1:E38 Prospector
A poor prospector arouses suspicion when he suddenly begins paying off long-standing debts from a large roll of new $100 bills.
Not verifiedAudio unverified