Customer Reviews

They Drive By Night [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This awesome classic starts out as a drama about the hard lives of truckers but ends up being a sort of film noir! Ann Sheridan was perfectly cast as a sassy independant woman, & I loved seeing George Raft & Humphrey Bogart playing brothers! And of course let's not forget Ida Lupino, one of the best (& craziest) femme fatales of all time! Also there's Alan Hale, who adds a whole lot of humor to the mix! I won't go into the plot b/c other reviews have fully explained the plot, but I will say that you definitely need to add this gem to your dvd collection! Be aware that the real star of the film is George Raft, despite the misleading cover art, which tries to cash in on Bogey's fame. This wasn't disappointing to me at all, though. I thought George Raft was cool! I highly recommend this to fans of great classics.

They Drive By Night has a lot going for it. It's directed by Raoul Walsh, who knew how to make a tough guy movie, yet give it some heart. It has two of the screen's great tough guys, George Raft and Humphrey Bogart. It also has two of the screen's best tough guy girlfriends, Ann Sheridan and Ida Lupino. And it has some really great dialogue that time has not dated. It's the story of two truckers who are brothers, and it looks at the difficulties facing truckers (sleeplessness that can lead to accidents, suppliers that don't pay up, etc). Bogart and Raft are good as the brothers, although Raft doesn't have much of a range as an actor. Raft hooks up with Sheridan, a woman who can hold her own with any trucker. Sheridan plays her with just the right mix of outward toughness, but decency and tenderness, too. Unfortunately, Lupino wants Raft, and she won't be denied what she wants. Lupino gives the performance that you'll remember from this film. She becomes more intense with every scene, and by her last scene, she reaches a level that is amazing to behold. With Lupino's performance and the great dialogue, They Drive By Night is a Warner Brothers' film that should be seen.

They Drive by Night was so much fun to discover! Anyone who likes old movies will enjoy seeing this one. With Bogie as George Raft's little brother, working together as truckers, and the wonderfully wicked Ida Lupino married to the blissfully ignorant Alan Hale, this movie was a joy to watch from start to finish.

When I first watched this movie, I was only mildly interested in the first part which shows how hard life is for two trucker brothers (Raft and Bogart). Only when Ida Lupino is introduced as the off-kilter, man-killing Lana Carlson did I really sit up and take notice. She continued to steal all her scenes as she degenerates into madness after killing her buffoon of a husband for the cold Raft character. Her gradual breakdown is something to see and electrified audiences in l940. When she begins to shriek on the witness stand: "The doors made me do it!", you freeze in amazement at her powerful acting. Her "mad" scene was phenomenal. A note: compare her portrayal of the man-crazed heroine to the way Bette Davis portrayed her in the original, the l934 "Bordertown". Davis always bragged that the quiet way she went crazy on the stand was the right way but after seeing how Lupino did it, you'll think that Davis was wrong. Sorry, Bette, but Lupino did it a l00 times better and a hell of a lot more powerful. Lana Carlson--one mixed-up, crazy dame from Warner Brother's golden days--thanks to the genius of Ida Lupino!

I thought that the movie was very well written and acted, I was watching at 1 a.m. one night when I had nothing else to do, I was hooked right away. I think the movie is well worth the money you invest in it.

The Fabrini brothers, Joe (George Raft) and Paul (Humphrey Bogart), are truck drivers that struggle to make it on their own as a loan shark is on their heels trying to repossess their truck . It all seems futile as Joe and Paul's competition is full of bigger companies that do not care about the smaller companies as it is a dog eat dog world. This forces the Fabrini brothers to work long hours often without adequate sleep. One night after a rough day Joe and Paul pick up a hitchhiker, Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan), and together the three of them witness a truck accident where some friends die as they fell asleep behind the wheel. This is a wake up call for the brothers as they have different priorities in their lives, and it brings them in different directions. They Drive By Night is an interesting film with multiple themes, which offers a good cinematic experience

What a cast! Humphrey Bogart, George Raft, Ann Sheridan and Ida Lupino. That's a dream come true for any classic movie lover, but an added bonus for me is the truck driving action and Joyce Compton - the hot blonde from THE AWFUL TRUTH (my favorite movie). I was so excited I watched the movie twice.

George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are two hard-working brothers just trying to get ahead in the truck driving business. Crazy drivers, bill collectors, worried wife, white line fever the cons far outweigh the money, but that ain't stopping them from trying.

The excitement level is running high until about halfway through when the whole thing changes gears (get it?!) and turns into a fatal attraction/legal drama. People who read my reviews on a normal basis would expect me to freak out at about this point and start yelling about how the blasphemous idea of detouring away from the truck driving to get into legal stuff is about as bad as having Burt Reynolds arrested 2/3 of the way into SMOKEY & THE BANDIT. But I'm not that upset solely based on the fact that the person responsible for this turn of events is one of my favorites: Ida Lupino.

She screams, she cries, she kills, she smolders and in no small feat she out acts Bette Davis who originally played the role this character is based on 5 years earlier in BORDERTOWN.

This almost like a film with two personalities. The first and best half deals with truckers Raft and Bogart and the hazards of their profession. The second half deals with Ida Lupino's attempts to get her hooks into Raft after killing his boss (her husband) and her final mental breakdown in court. Classic lines (in a diner): Ann Sheridan: Anything you'd like? Raft: Yeah, but it ain't on the menu. Sheridan: And it ain't going to be.

Well, this was different. THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940) begins, rather unusually, as a story of the Fabrini brothers Joe (George Raft), and younger brother Paul (Humphrey Bogart). It tells the exciting story of the life of independent truckers. See them drink cup after cup of coffee, play game after game of pinball, and make pass after pass at the pretty waitress (Ann Sheridan as Cassie) in the roadside diner. Directed by the accomplished and usually brilliant action director Raoul Walsh, the first half of THEY DRIVE is an incredibly slow-starting action movie. You can, I suppose, squeeze just so much drama out of things when the biggest threat is drowsiness and the biggest enemy is a little fellow trying to collect on a note for the Fabrini truck. Bogart and Raft have good rapport - they look and act enough like brothers - and Walsh was in his element with tough loving men and tough talking women, but this one really takes its time before it develops any forward momentum.

Fortunately, THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT is hijacked at the midpoint by Ida Lupino, who proceeds to steal the movie from everyone else for the duration. Lupino plays Lana Carlsen, wife of big Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale), who, through circumstances best left unspoken, finds himself in a position to offer Joe a job with his trucking company. Big Ed Carlsen, in the best tradition of crime thriller husbands, is oblivious to the, er, tension between friend Joe and wife Lana. Ed Carlsen is one of those types who talks too loud, drinks too much, and laughs too hard at his own jokes. If you look hard enough you can usually see vultures circling high in the background the first time these guys show up in a movie. Anyway, things pick up considerably when the movie changes into its femme fatale clothes. The movie belongs to Lupino, who chews enough scenery to fill someone twice her size. What the heck, though. The part calls for it, and Lupino is every bit as good as Bette Davis would have been.

The print is in very good condition. Besides a theatrical trailer, the disk also includes a ten-minute special entitled `Divided Highway: The Story of They Drive by Night', a brief, okay introduction to the movie. Better yet is the 19-minute `Swingtime in the Movies,' a color Vitaphone short starring Fritz Feld as the autocratic, vaguely Prussian director Mr. Nitvitch. I've seen one other Nitvitch short, and they seem designed to parody directors, showcase some young actors, fill out a playbill, and show off Warner Brothers stars in the studio commissary or on the set. The youngsters in this one are Kathryn Kane and John Carroll, who Nitvitch is humorously directing in a musical western. The cameos include Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Marie Windsor, and John Garfield.

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.