Review: They Drive By Night

George Raft and Humphrey Bogart play brothers and truckers, who endure long hauls hoping to earn enough money to pay off their truck and go into business for themselves. Bogey’s a family man, whilst Raft has just met cynical waitress Ann Sheridan. Plans go up in smoke after a bad accident leaves Bogart without an arm. Raft decides to take up an offer from boozy acquaintance Alan Hale to work for him in an office gig. Lupino plays Hale’s no-good wife, whom Raft is known to, and Lupino would like him to get to know her even better. When Raft rejects her advances…well, bitches be cray cray, as the kids today say. Joyce Compton plays a bimbo whom trucker Irish (Roscoe Karns) meets, whilst Gale Page is Bogey’s wife.

 

Although I have a personal preference for the rugged 1958 British trucker movie “Hell Drivers”, this 1940 flick from Raoul Walsh (“White Heat”, “Dark Command”, “The Lawless Breed”) is rock-solid, too. Seedy-looking George Raft is an interesting choice for the lead and perfectly fine. Normally cast as gangsters, his casting lends the character a slight edge to what might’ve otherwise been a bit of a dull part. However, an underused Humphrey Bogart steals every scene from him, whilst Ida Lupino and especially Alan Hale take off with the whole thing. Hale, in another of his back-slapping boozy fool roles, has a nice line in laughing at his own terrible jokes. You almost feel sorry for the guy, he has no idea what a piece of work Lupino is (Hint: She’s nucking futs!). Ann Sheridan’s cynical waitress schtick at the beginning is annoying (you’d swear she was about to say ‘Why, I oughta…!’ at any moment), but she eventually settles down nicely (she’s quite pretty, too), and more briefly Joyce Compton is convincingly stupid in a bimbo role.

 

An interesting look at truckers who are tired, overworked, and underpaid. I must say, though, that although occasionally quite exciting, the film makes truck driving seem just a tad too dangerous to be credible. I mean, these guys are either just terrible drivers or blind, not merely tired and overworked. Still, the sense of irritability and fatigue is mostly well-conveyed.

 

It’s a good film, it’s just a shame that Bogey drifts in and out of the film, because he’s more charismatic company than Raft. Based on a book by A.I. Bezzerides (screenwriter of “Kiss Me Deadly”, and Bogey’s later “Sirocco”), the screenplay is by Jerry Wald (“Out of the Fog”, producer of “Johnny Belinda”), and Richard Macaulay (“Out of the Fog”, “Across the Pacific”). I still think “Hell Drivers” is better and grittier, but this is an easy watch too, especially for fans of the two leads. And remember, the doors made me do it!

 

Rating: B-