Rent They Drive by Night (1940)

Haulage Melodrama. - They Drive by Night review by Steve

Warner Brothers haulage melodrama which takes the premise of the Bette Davis vehicle Bordertown and welds it onto the chassis of AI Bezzerides' pulp novel The Long Haul. George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are wildcat truck drivers continually getting gypped by the buyers. Ann Sheridan is the sassy hash-slinger who wins Raft's attention away from Ida Lupino, the wife of a wealthy haulier who she's looking to turn into an insurance payout.

Raft has the lead role, with Bogart subdued in support. Sheridan has little to do, but she's skilled with the sexy, snappy backchat that's compulsory for a waitress in a diner in a Hollywood film. The last third of the film is stolen wholesale by Lupino as the deadly femme fatale. On being snubbed by Raft after killing her vulgar, but loaded, other half, she is willing to destroy herself to take Raft down with her.

Her disintegration in the witness box is a stunning tour de force. Alan Hale is excellent as her unlucky husband. Jules Dassin's noir classic Thieves Highway (1949) was made from an almost identical story by Bezzerides. That was a socialist film and there's a little of that social protest also stowed away in They Live By Night. The haulier business is unsafe, corrupt and unjust and in need of regulation.

But of course the studio was not making a political picture. It's road film, loaded with atmosphere and interesting social history. Raoul Walsh keeps the story rolling forwards. The laconic dialogue is excellent and the hybrid narrative is interesting. There's a weary, gloomy pessimism on board which gives the film the haunting despair of film noir, though still a few years short of the noir big bang.