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They Drive by NightRating:
Release Date: 04 November, 2003 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: Complete Cast (10 total) |
They Drive by Night Reviews
Never underestimate the women
This film takes on the same material as Thieves' Highway - fruit market, torturing driving hours, occupation hazard, from loan sharks, lack of sleep, dangerous curves on the road, cars falling apart and competition from fellow drivers.
What is different here is that the elder brother Joe Fabrini(George Raft) was fortunate to have a not so secret admirer Mrs. Carson(Ida Lupino) whose uncalculating husband ran a successful truck business. A car wreck might force Joe's younger brother, Paul(Humphrey Bogart), and their only truck out of the road for good, Joe was, however, offered the enviable and stable job of traffic manager at Carson's company. Here ended Joe and Paul's lives with the highway and began their ascent on the social ladder. And a winner takes all.
In a way, the movie depicted the harsh reality faced by independent drivers as well as how obsessed love created hatred and tragedy. While the former was well established, with an element of humour and kindness shown in highway restaurant by the sweet waitress Cassie(Ann Sheridan) and truck drivers who looked out for one another. The latter love tragedy was more dramatic than realistic. That said, Ida Lupino, as the unsatisfied and troubled Mrs. Carson, gave a riveting performance. Even though I could not figure out how a bold, determined and relentless Mrs. Carson could succumb to her own conscience eventually. But the ending had a comical touch which provided Cassie (Ann Sheridan) a chance to prove that she not only had a lovable and adorable face, she had brains!
66 years after its release, I heard this film saw the last of Humphrey Bogart as a character actor. Back then, this was Ida Lupino's break that won her a 7-year studio contract. She later directed episodes of more than 20 TV series such as The Untouchables, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir.
Enjoyable, And Hard To Classify
Not much action here for a "film noir" and really more of a melodrama than a crime story, but I still like this because the story's decent and it features a top-flight cast of actors who are usually fun to watch.
That cast includes George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart and Gale Page. My favorite of the group - in this film, at least - is Sheridan, a wise-cracking waitress. Raft and Bogart are truck drivers and Lupino plays the boss' wife. In here, the two women are more interesting than the men, which says a lot considering its Raft and Bogart.
Sheridan not only is easy on the eyes but delivers some great film-noir-type lines. Unfortunately, the edge is taken off her once she leave the diner and hitches a ride with Raft to Los Angeles. Bogart plays more of a low-key family man whose wife (Page) is the nice- looking, wholesome type. This is one of the last movies Bogart made before he became a star. Hence, he gets fourth billing in here. Lupino is very good as the vicious scorned woman, a role she found herself playing in a number of films.
As mentioned above, I'm not really sure how one would classify this film since there is humor, film noir, soap opera, straight drama and romance all in it. The combination makes the film interesting and recommended.
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