They Drive By Night **** (1940, George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan) – Classic Movie Review 1584

Director Raoul Walsh’s robust and realistic 1940 classic stars George Raft and Humphrey Bogart as embattled long-haul truck driving brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini, shipping fruit from farms to the markets in Los Angeles. It’s a hard-boiled, richly entertaining movie.

The brothers are in a tough business with constant battles against long hours, corrupt businessmen and red-hot competition. But, Raft explains, ‘We’re tougher than any truck ever come off an assembly line.’

One night they pick up waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan) who’s just quit her job at a truck stop and the trio witness the death of a mutual acquaintance who falls asleep at the wheel. All is well with the heroes until Bogart loses an arm in a crash, while Raft gets mixed up with murderous minx Lana Carlsen (Ida Lupino), wife of a haulage company boss (Alan Hale Sr).

[Spoiler alert] A murder plot kicks in as Lana bumps off her husband by carbon monoxide poisoning. Lupino explains: ‘I saw him lying there, drunk, and I heard the motor running. Then I saw the doors and I heard the motor. I saw the doors. The doors made me do it.’

They Drive by Night is a great showcase for Raft’s very considerable, underrated acting talents, and supporting star Bogart is never overshadowed, while co-stars Lupino and Sheridan are first rate, adding their usual stylish impact. Then there’s also a huge roster of effective Warner Bros contract players to enliven any dull areas and the playing throughout is first-rate, lifting the yarn way above any kind of possible routine status suggested by the pulpy plotlines.

Walsh’s dynamic direction and Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay’s polished screenplay match the excellence of the acting. The screenplay is based on A I Bezzerides’s 1938 novel The Long Haul and the murder plot material from the 1935 film Bordertown. It was released in the UK as The Road to Frisco and the novel was reprinted as They Drive by Night.

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