Thieves' Highway

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source: Thieves' Highway

All of these films classified as "film noir" have three or four things in common: 1. The man is hysterical most of the time 2. Emotions run rampant and control his actions 3. Sitting down and rationally thinking things through never happens, It's all in the moment melodrama. With women of that time period, it was always called hysteria. It is the exact same thing with men, but they have escaped being pigeonholed with this label. But "hysteria" certainly fits the action of the men in question. 4. These are not just common, ordinary decent folk. In most films of this type, the "hero" is a few IQ points away from being average, but he always sits on the lower side of the scale. A man not capable of living life responsibly, unaware of the consequences of his actions, and willing to kill himself and everyone around him if his emotions take control (which is always). These films are all depressing because the hero never thinks things through to realize that you CAN get back at the protagonist. To do it so that it means something takes mental control. Rational thought is excluded in film noir and only melodramatic action is encouraged. No doubt there is a large constituency for this type of dark emotional material. However, "male hysteria" might be a better monicker than "film noir".

I have stumbled over the works of Jules Dassin only lately, first the atmospheric and gripping "Night and the City" and now "Thieves Highway", something you would certainly label a sociological drama today. Rchard Conte as a guy out on the mission to avenge the death of his brother and the crippling of his father from indirectly the hands of a corrupt fruit market guy. Wonderful acting by all main people, Richard Conte, Lee J Cobb, Millard Mitchell, and the Italian actress who never made it to a status that i can recall her name without checking the credits again... Dire portrait of the fight for existence of the trucker guys, the ways the retailer controls both ends of the supply chain and the mean and dark ways in a big market. Vegetables and fruits may just be a metaphor for something else, you see.... If you can get it on cable or DVD, don't let it pass by.

The soldier Nick Garcos (Richard Conte) returns back home from the war very happy with gifts for his parents Yanko (Morris Carnovsky) and Parthena Garcos (Tamara Shayne) and money in his pocket to open a business and get married with his girlfriend Polly Faber (Barbara Lawrence). Out of blue, Nick realizes that his father lost both legs and Yanko, who was a truck driver, tells that he was cheated by the dealer Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb) in the San Francisco's market when he delivered a truckload of tomatoes and was not paid. He believes that his accident was provoked by Figlia's gangsters. He also tells that he sold the truck to a driver named Ed Kinney (Millard Mitchell) that has not paid him. Nick meets Ed and tells that he will bring the truck back, but Ed proposes a deal with apples, where they may earn a great amount. Nick invests his savings in another truck and buys apples from a Polish farmer. They need to drive directly to the market in San Francisco without sleeping to keep the fruits fresh, but Ed's truck has problem on its axle and Nick arrives first. Mike Figlia hires the Italian * Rica (Valentina Cortesa) to distract Nick but she falls for him and tells that Mike is robbing his cargo. Mike is forced to share his selling with Nick and her earns a large amount. Then he calls Polly and asks her to meet him to get married, and Rica tells to Nick that Polly is only interested in his money. When Nick is robbed by Mike's gangsters, he learns who really loves him. But Nick still has to settle the score with Mike. "Thieves' Highway" is another great film-noir by Jules Dassin in a period of the post-war ruled by gangsters and corruption. Nick Garcos begins the story happy and expecting to get married with his girlfriend and ends a dark character in love with a prostitute with a heart of gold. The direction and performances are top-notch and the story is realistic. The sequence with the uncontrolled truck without brake in the highway is impressive. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Mercado de Ladrões" ("Thieves' Market")

When i was ten or twelve (about 1960) i saw this film on television. While many details have faded from memory, the sheer power of the one-man-against-the-corrupt system story remains. I would love to see it again.

Thieves Highway (1949) "Soft Hands." "Sharp Nails." Exactly What He Needs This starts with such naturalistic joy, and ends with such dark and violent honesty, with a final and really satisfying turn, it's hard to find fault in the details. Nick Garcos, played by Richard Conte, is out for justice, and no one can argue he shouldn't be. The bright, fast opening, more light than shadow, turns in phases to darker and darker moods, as Nick gets to the core of the many crimes associated with the villain, Mike Figlia, played with perfection by Lee J. Cobb . Garcos also gets to the core of his being as the film goes, and he finds what he wants in a woman, a refreshing twist. Director Jules Dassin had a full career with a concentrated burst of Post-War creative success in Hollywood, including The Naked City and Night and the City. This one, between these two, has a different feel, set out in rural sunny California and then in the night markets of San Francisco. Note the way seasoned cinematographer Norbert Brodine handles some of these darker scenes, such as the busy, sparkling nocturnal produce market, filled with more light than shadow. The night drive and its dramatic scene under the truck with passing lights is terrific, rather believable in its claustrophobia. The movie survives most of all on this naturalism, that is, on its portrayal of many small details in a intuitively convincing way, to the point of giving insight into a sliver of the world (fruit growers and truckers). Turning it into a crime story isn't just for dramatic effect. It helps flesh out some of the less obvious but important elements of that reality. And it's a polished, fast narrative, linking one scene to the next, interweaving the cross-cutting to a parallel scene, and keeping our attention. The few breaks from this convincing tone glare a little. A quaint scene with Nick on the phone in a restaurant talking to his fiancée (and the whole crowd in on it, posed perfectly) is too cute, and the two thugs following Nick's partner are a shade hammy in the first half. But these are minor mars on the almost documentary edge elsewhere. The gutsy Rica who Nick meets in the market at night is key for her character as much as her actions, because she isn't a glamorous stereotype. Instead, her character, as played by Valentina Cortese, has complexity, and she comes off as smart and as alone in San Francisco as Nick, so they seem suited, for the moment and beyond, and their entanglement is mature. Their scenes are blocked out and filmed with the darkest and noirest mood of the film, and the best. The clash of the worldly dame and Nick's precious (and dull) fiancée from Fresno is a bit of genius, even if their actual encounter in the film is slightly stiff. Hearing the Dassin was blacklisted just as he's making some of Hollywood's best films of this type makes you angry all over again. We've been robbed, but of exactly what we'll never know. What we have in these three films is a timeless compensation.

I understand Jules Dassin was more or less driven to work in Europe by the HUAC investigations. If he was a Commie you'd never be able to tell from this film, which fits right smack into the frame established by the Warner Brothers' working-class films of the 1930s -- "Manpower," "Tiger Shark," "They Drive By Night," and a dozen others. "They Drive By Night," was written actually by the same writer as "Thieves' Highway," Besserides, a Greek-American from California's central valley, a truck driver by training. Dassin has directed this piece about relatively small-time skulduggery and double crosses efficiently, and he has a good cast. Richard Conte is more animated than usual. Lee J. Cobb is a kind of Johnny Friendly who runs a big but crooked fruit stand. Barbara Lawrence is beautiful, as a model should be, and is as tall as a giraffe. Valentina Cortese has a thoroughly novel role -- a * with a heart of gold. Her acting isn't exactly subtle. Maybe she had trouble with the language. But she's magnetic, perhaps because she's given some of the best lines in the film and is a more complex character than most of the others. Maybe too it has something to do with her appearance. She's not a beautiful woman. Her face is long, and her nose almost equally long. It's not a Roman nose either. It's Milanese. She has tiny shoulders and very little neck so that she seems hunched over most of the time. But her eyes are exquisite if they are considered individually, as they must be because each is unique and each looks in a different direction. Yes, I think that's her secret. The eyes have it. The story is out of a B movie. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. There are some characters in between -- Millard Mitchell, Cortese, Conte, and two mostly comedic hot-shots -- who may not be entirely dishonorable but are capable of being bent by the drive for money and revenge. The B-movie budget shows, alas, and there's a tacked-on ending in which a cop shakes his finger in our faces and warns us that just because we've been wronged, that doesn't mean we can go around taking the law into our own hands. The scene was written and directed by Darryl F. Zanuck without Dassin's knowledge. Watching this engaging but no-more-than adequate film, one wonders what could have been done with an A-movie budget. A little more time (shooting took about one month), more money, more thoughtful casting, more polish on the script. It might have been better than good enough.

That's right! how many movies main character falls in love with a hooker these days, and please don't mention 'Pretty Woman'. This film is sensational, each and every performance is on the dime every time. Lee J Cobb is superb as the slimy Market Boss. Richard Conte is great, Stars of this period seem to have a little more to tell you, maybe they have had a few more knocks than many stars of today a little more life experience, whatever it is it helps tremendously when delivering tough performances, it's the same for many of these old schoolers, Paul Muni, John Garfield for example, and I will mention Valentina Cortese who plays Rica she has the same quality and remains beautiful so I'm not saying they have to look like Jack Palance to have a story book face, it's something that shines through regardless of appearance. Jack Oakie who plays Slob was a very endearing character in this movie and due to the Films serious vibe his likable demeanor was very welcome, he's like the old friend you never knew. The Love Story is very sincere, and very simple, and dare I say it very touching. Jeeze I'm almost gummy smiling, I must be eating too much estrogen, now where did I put my wine and chocolates?

This film was a huge influence on David Lynch when he was studying film at AFI and you'll find references to it in every film he's made since then -- The grinding gears in Eraserhead, the downtown soundscapes of that film, Dune & The Elephant Man, orchard visuals in The Straight Story, and most directly Isabella Rossellini reprising Valentina Cortese in Blue Velvet. I'd go so far as to say Blue Velvet is a scene-for-scene crib of Thieves Highway in theme and all its major details, with Dennis Hopper as Lee J. Cobb. Conte's legless father is mirrored in Jeffrey's stroke-ridden father. Both come back from independent lives of young adulthood to help their struggling families in a stultifying world of greed. Both have the corn-fed woman they love and the Italian demoiselle they sleep with. Both find their lives endangered by a corrupt crime boss. There, is that ten lines?