They Drive by Night

They Drive by Night

They Drive by Night

They Drive by Night

My father had certain movies that he liked to refer to with real or imagined quotes. MILDRED PIERCE was one ("Vita you *!", he'd say as though it was said by Joan Crawford). But another one was the statement "The doors made me do it! The doors made me do it!". He was actually quoting (correctly, as it turns out) Ida Lupino in her climactic courtroom moment in THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT. I just have discussed the actual original version of this plot - BORDERTOWN (1935) with Paul Muni (awful), Bette Davis (fine), and Margaret Lindsay (above competent) in a romantic triangle, where (oddly enough) both women seriously lose out (Bette losing her mind, and Margaret her life). The films of all the studios had a habit of being reused if necessary. GRAND HOTEL became WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF. GUNGA DIN became SOLDIERS THREE. But usually a decade or more passed before such reuse occurred. Not so here - only five years. Yet there are improvements. Muni's hammy performance as incompetent, overwrought Latino Johnny Rodriguez (certainly among his worst performances) was thrown out. All the characters in this film are Americans (except George Tobias as George Rondolos, but at least he sounds normal). The roadhouse story is dropped: now we are dealing with trucking, and actually this is a plus. Few of us run fancy roadhouse gambling establishments, but most have regular jobs like driving trucks. The screenwriters noted the problems of independent truckers, such as money lenders like Charles Halton (a nice wormy performance) who drain them dry. There are so many of these guys around they are cutting each other's economic throats. Both George Raft and his brother Humphrey Bogart (one of their two films together - the other is INVISIBLE STRIPES) do have their friends on the road (their is a tragic side plot about the death of their friend John Litel who falls asleep driving a truck for too many hours), but they have to fight for every cargo they can get. Raft is able to tie up with trucking concern of Alan Hale Sr., and things improve for him and Bogart (who has lost an arm in a trucking accident). But like Bette Davis in BORDERTOWN, Ida Lupino takes a hankering for Raft, and does in her husband Hale using the same method (the closed garage with the car motor still running). The only difference is that the doors are electric doors (did they pick that trick from Stan and Ollie's misadventure with an electric garage door in BLOCKHEADS (1938)). When Ida turns on George after he rejects her advances, and tries to ensnare him as a co-conspirator, her mind collapses on the stand, and she starts screaming about the doors! No problem of Raft losing all sexual fulfillment here like Muni did - Ann Sheridan is available to take up with him now. No, this is a far more satisfying film than BORDERTOWN, but still (despite a grand Warner Brothers cast) it is a minor film for all that.

Truck-driving brothers GEORGE RAFT and HUMPHREY BOGART not only have to put up with the hazards of wildcat driving but the manipulations of the scheming wife of boss ALAN HALE, played with intense conviction by IDA LUPINO. But it's a plodding tale that takes awhile to work up any steam while director Raoul Walsh concentrates on the rough-housing camaraderie of the blue collar set before getting to the heart of the story involving two very different women--the good one, ANN SHERIDAN, and the femme fatale played with relish by IDA LUPINO. It is the romantic trio that ends in tragedy that gives the film its potent interest. Lupino's mad scene on the stand is worth waiting for--although not entirely convincing. Nevertheless, she creates a vixen you won't soon forget. George Raft ambles pleasantly through a rather dull role while Humphrey Bogart, as his brother, attracts more attention in a sideline role. Ann Sheridan is a sheer delight, adding her usual warmth and zest to a typical Sheridan role. The script crackles with tart remarks. Not exactly great filmmaking--and too long in getting started--but worth the wait for some good performances. Only drawback seemed to be ALAN HALE as an oafish boss who becomes even more obnoxious when he's drunk. Hale overplays the role to such a degree that, in a way, it comes as a relief to see Ida knock him off with those car doors. "The doors made me do it!" is her scream from the witness stand. Summing up: the kind of melodrama Warner was famous for in the '40s with the right cast doing it justice.

I get more respect for director Raoul Walsh with every film of his I see. In this one for Warner Brothers he does an excellent job with a strong cast telling a story about California Long Haul Truckers in the late 1930's. The realism is there all the way through. This is one of George Rafts better performances, and Ida Lupino is excellent as the woman he scorns. Ann Sheridan is very good as the woman he loves. Humphrey Bogart in a supporting role is very good as Rafts brother. Alan Hale Sr. does a fine job as Lupinos husband. The film gives the viewer a very strong flavor for what the early long haul trucking was like before World War 2. With the roads the way they were in that era, Long Haul in this is shorter than today & trucks were really just getting started, the railroads still dominated freight then in the US. The story while more predictable than Dark Command which Walsh had just finished, still does a good job of pulling in the viewer with Raft & Bogarts characters flying on the edge of failure early in the film. The accident sequences are done crudely but this was in a day when the special effects were still developing. The main action in this film is truck accidents & a couple of fist fights. This is a very fundamentally sound film as Raol Walsh always seems to deliver. In this case, the truckers deliver a good story.

They Drive by Night (AKA: The Road to Frisco) is directed by Raoul Walsh and adapted by Jerry Wald & Richard Macaulay from the novel "The Long Haul" written by A. I. Bezzerides. It stars George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. Adolph Deutsch scores the music and Arthur Edeson is the cinematographer. Plot finds Raft & Bogart playing the Fabrini brothers, two guys trying to make a living as truck drivers during the Depression era. Just about keeping afloat in a very competitive market, the boys find that they have to work longer hours to stay ahead in the game. But that brings fatigue and danger, and with the repo men after them they could do with a break; a break that comes by way of work for Ed Carlson (Alan Hale). But the fortune is short lived as trouble awaits, not only on the road, but also in the form of Carlson's wife, Lana (Lupino). Warner Brothers produce a film of two differing halves that blends social realism with film noir edges. The script is tight as the narrative firstly deals in an adventure with period detail, then shifts to drama as bad luck and a bad woman come into play. There's zippy dialogue to digest, too, while Walsh keeps the pace brisk and provides good attention to detail in relation to the subject of the trucking industry. With Bogart a year away from leading man status (High Sierra/The Maltese Falcon), he was fourth billed for this movie. He gets relegated to the sidelines for the second half of the piece but by then he had made his mark. Sheridan is effective, in what ultimately is a love interest role, while Raft dominates as the centre piece character. But it's Lupino's movie all the way. True enough to say that her pivotal scene has a touch of the over theatrical histrionics about it, but it works in context to how she had formed the character up to then. Playing it man hungry and vixen like; yet with a sternness that oozes business woman sensibilities, her performance earned her a studio contract. Two movies for the price of one, then, and nary a dull moment in either of them. 7.5/10

... as in the two male leads - 4th billed Humphrey Bogart as Paul Fabrini, and top billed George Raft as his brother Joe. This film is a (very) loose remake of 1935's "Bordertown", and it is much better IMHO, because the plot at least makes some sense. Plus Warner Brothers is all over these working class melodramas - the truck drivers pushing their bodies to the point of disaster - as in falling asleep at the wheel, the hash joints, the bosses that won't pay up, the rough and tumble along the way. Paul and Joe are partnered in truck driving, and decide to leave behind a boss that cheated them for an old friend with a trucking business - Alan Hale as Ed Carlsen. But there is trouble brewing. Ed's wife, Lana (Ida Lupino), has been carrying a torch for Joe all of these years she was married to Ed, and yet she has the dexterity to simultaneously do some serious scenery chewing. Ed can't see he disgusts her, and Joe is blind to her true feelings for him until it is too late. I won't go into all the details, let's just say nobody does a 1940 working class Lady Macbeth like Ms. Lupino. She outshines Bette Davis' performance in the 1935 film. Why my title? Before and After? Because this is a fork in the road for Bogart and Raft. They are great in their parts here, and at least Jack Warner lets Bogart do something here in his long apprenticeship with Warner's other than play Duke Mantee AGAIN. But the winds of fortune are about to change for Bogie exactly because Raft made some very bad career decisions. He turned down "High Sierra", "The Maltese Falcon", AND "Casablanca". Bogart got the parts instead and by the time they were released he was on his way to being Hollywood legend. Raft, unfortunately, was on the road to obscurity. He would never return to the heights of his 30s career. Raft made other mistakes along the way - let's just say I read his autobiography and the alternate title should be "Don't Let This Happen To You". He picked the wrong girl to marry who then wouldn't divorce him and left him on the hook for 46 years of alimony ( they were only really married one night!). And when he wanted out of his contract with WB Jack Warner named a figure and Raft thought that HE was supposed to pay WB! Jack did not correct Raft's impression! But hey, nobody does the tough guy who knows the score who yet has a moral core like Raft and I always enjoy his films. This one is highly recommended.

Just didn't care much for this film. Bogart was Bogart, but he was not the star here. Ida Lupino just wasn't very convincing in her madness. I know that old movies tend toward the melodramatic, but it just didn't seem to work here. Ann Sheridan's performance was the best part of this film.

Two truck driving brothers (George Raft, Humphrey Bogart) get tired of being screwed over by bosses and decide to strike out on their own and start their own trucking company. But tragedy strikes and their dreams come crashing down. That's just the beginning of their problems. Gritty, ballsy WB crime drama with a cast of colorful characters. Best truck driver movie ever. Raft and Bogart are great. This is Bogey pre-leading man but at least he's not the villain this time so he was making progress. Lovely Ann Sheridan is good as the tough working class dame who falls for Raft. Ida Lupino is particularly wicked as the sarcastic woman after Raft who goes completely bonkers before it's all said and done. Her performance is over the top in the best way. Great WB supporting cast includes people like Alan Hale and Henry O'Neill. Love getting to see the inner workings of the trucking industry back then and seeing how things have changed (and how they haven't). Love those old trucks, too. Fantastic movie. An underrated classic.