Raoul Walsh - They Drive by Night (1940)

A good example of Warner Brothers' social 'realism', adapted from AI Bezzerides' novel Long Haul: Raft and Bogart as truck-driving brothers trying to set up their own business, directed in typically gutsy style by Walsh. It degenerates into a courtroom murder melodrama about halfway through, with Ida Lupino (bored wife of their boss, trying to involve Raft in a little Postman Always Rings Twice malarkey) losing her marbles in the witness box in what Hollywood likes to think of as an acting tour de force. Still, the first half has pace, and the wisecracking wit is often laid on thick and fast by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay's script, particularly in a scene with Ann Sheridan as a roadside café waitress. All the performances are good. -- RM/Time Out Film Guide 13




Maybe you don't know that a big transport truck is called a "rig," that the tough babies who "wheel 'em" are "road slobs" and that the "road slobs" who "wheel" their own "rigs," independent of the fleets, are known to the trade as "wildcats." This and much more enlightenment upon the subject of truck-driving will be yours, however, should you happen around to the Strand, where the Warner's latest muscular melodrama, "They Drive by Night," drew up with brakes screeching yesterday.
As usual, the Warners are delivering in A-1 shape another of their fast action dramas about tough guys and gals, sweaty with honest toil and very loose with suggestive repartee. As usual, they have packed it well with exciting episodes—trucks running wild on the roads, tumbling over cliffs and the like. And, smartly, they have chosen to play it the cream of their ungrammatical roughnecks, starting with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart, and their ace baggage, Ann Sheridan.
Less smartly, however, they have permitted the second half of the picture to run off on a soft shoulder. During the initial half, when Mr. Raft and Mr. Bogart are fighting along as a couple of desperate "wildcats," the pace is fast and the action exciting. But when the story moves indoors and Mr. Raft is unjustly accused of murdering his boss, a fleet owner, it tangents off into conventional court room melodrama. Conveniently, the boss's wife, Ida Lupino, goes crazy, and confesses to the murder, so Mr. Raft is saved. (Incidentally, Miss Lupino goes crazy about as well as it can be done).
But for fanciers of hard-boiled cinema, "They Drive By Night" still offers an entertaining ride. As Mr. Raft modestly remarks of his breed, "We're tougher than any truck ever come off an assembly line." That goes for the picture, too.
-- NYT, BOSLEY CROWTHER, Published: July 27, 1940




Plot Synopsis: They just don't make 'em like They Drive By Night anymore. This slam-bang Warner Bros. attraction stars George Raft and Humphrey Bogart as Joe and Paul Fabrini, owners of a small but scrappy trucking firm. The film deftly combines comedy with thrills for the first half-hour or so, as the Fabrini boys battle crooked distributors and unscrupulous rivals while establishing their transport company. Things take a potentially tragic turn when the overworked Paul Fabrini falls asleep at the wheel and cracks up, losing an arm in the accident. He's pretty bitter for a while, but, with the help of his loving wife, Pearl (Gale Page), Paul eventually snaps out of his self-pity and goes to work as a dispatcher for the Fabrinis' company. Meanwhile, Joe's on-and-off romance with wisecracking waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan) is threatened by the presence of seductive Lana Carlsen (Ida Lupino), the wife of glad-handing trucking executive Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale). At this point, the film metamorphoses into a remake of the 1935 Paul Muni-Bette Davis vehicle Bordertown. Desperately in love with Joe, Lana murders her husband, making it look like an accident, then offers Joe half-interest in Carlsen's organization. Joe accepts the offer, but spurns Lana's romantic overtures, whereupon the scheming vixen accuses Joe of plotting Carlsen's murder. Thus, the stage is set for a spectacular courtroom finale, completely dominated by a demented Lana, whose "mad scene" rivals those of Ophelia and Lucia di Lammermoor. In addition to the full-blooded performances by the stars and the virile direction by Raoul Walsh, They Drive By Night benefits immeasurably from the nonstop brilliant dialogue by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay -- especially in an early lunch-counter scene between Ann Sheridan and George Raft, generously seasoned with hilarious double- and single-entendres.
-- Hal Erickson, AMG




http://rapidshare.com/files/62864287/DriveNight.part1.rar
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