They Drive by Night (1940)

Directed by: Raoul Walsh | 95 minutes | drama, thriller, crime | Actors: George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, John Litel, George Tobias, Eddie Acuff, William Bendix, Marie Blake, Eddy Chandler, Richard Clayton, Joyce Compton, Alan Davis, Joe Devlin, Demetris Emanuel, Frank Faylen, Eddie Fetherston, Pat Flaherty, Bess Flowers, Brenda Fowler, Sol Gorss, Jesse Graves, Mack Gray, William Haade, Charles Halton, John Hamilton, Phyllis Hamilton, Carl Harbaugh, George Haywood, Oscar’ Dutch’ Hendrian, Howard C. Hickman, Al Hill, J. Anthony Hughes, Paul Hurst

When Katryn Bigelow received the Oscar for best director in 2010, she probably didn’t think back to Ida Lupino (1918-1995), although she paved the way for her successors. British-American Lupino began her film career as an actress. She starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in ‘They Drive by Night’ (1940) and ‘High Sierra’ (1941). In the mid-1940s, she said she began to get bored on set, “while someone else was allowed to do all the interesting work.” Together with her then husband, she therefore started her own independent film company and Lupino took on the duties of producer, director and screenwriter herself. She was the first – and for a long time the only – female film director of that time. The films noirs ‘The Hitch-Hiker’ and ‘The Bigamist’ (both from 1953) are her best-known films as a director. In between all the film making, she also continued to act until she was sixty.

In ‘They Drive By Night’ Ida Lupino only appears in the second part. Initially, the film focuses on brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini (George Raft and Humphrey Bogart), who earn their money as truck drivers. They risk their lives every day for a starvation wage, because the journeys over narrow roads and along chasms and ravines are perilous. They also have to deal with corrupt traders and fierce competition. Joe and Paul decide to start their own business so that they have more money to spend on their risky work. However, being your own boss turns out to be very tiring. Literal. During a transport, Paul falls asleep at night, loses control of the wheel and in the ensuing collision he loses an arm. He is forced to look for another job. Joe, meanwhile, joins the trucking company of Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale), a jovial hottie who is married to the gorgeous but cunning Lana (Ida Lupino). She falls head over heels for the attractive Joe, but he doesn’t want to damage Ed’s trust. Moreover, he is in love with the smooth waitress Cassie (Ann Sheridan). However, Lana is a lady who will not be rejected just like that…

‘They Drive by Night’ was directed by Raoul Walsh, known for gangster films such as ‘The Roaring Twenties’ (1939) and ‘White Heat’ (1949). A very skilled director, who certainly doesn’t deliver his best work with this, but still manages to keep things together nicely. Less convincing is the script by Jerry Wald and Richard Macauley, who adapted AI Bezzerides’ novel “Long Haul.” The film seems to consist of two separate stories, which do not fit together very well. First, the script focuses on the appalling conditions in which Joe and Paul Fabrini and their fellow truck drivers try to make a living every day. ‘They Drive by Night’ initially seems to become a social drama. However, halfway through the film completely turns around. Paul fades into the background, as does Joe’s friend Cassie. Enter Lana Carlsen, a typical femme fatale from the classic film noirs. The socially critical drama makes way for a crime of passionnel. Suddenly the fate of the truck drivers is no longer important, everything has to give way to the indestructible passion that Lana feels for Joe.

Both parts are more than well developed and deserve a high rating as standalone films. Now that they are braided together in a somewhat artificial way, that does detract from the whole. That is somewhat rectified by the strong acting performances. Ida Lupino in particular impresses with her crushing performance, even if she might go a bit too far at the end of the film. With this role, the versatile Lupino once again underlines why she was called ‘the poor man’s Bette Davis’. Ann Sheridan also plays an excellent role, although her contribution is unfortunately somewhat limited. George Raft is solid as the likeable Joe, the man the viewer sympathizes with the most. Humphrey Bogart did not yet have the status here that he would earn a year later with ‘The Maltese Falcon’ (1941) and has a relatively small role, but already treats us to some great one-liners (for example, he says to his wife: ‘We’ll have so many kids, we’ll run out of names’.)

With ‘They Drive by Night’, Raoul Walsh offers his audience two films for the price of one. Each individually, the social drama from the first half and film noir from the second half are great movies. Knitted together like that, it’s also very doable, but you can’t help but feel that it would have made for better movies if the two stories weren’t linked together. Nevertheless, ‘They Drive by Night’ survives thanks to fascinating characters, two excellent female roles (certainly not self-evident for the time) and solid craftsmanship from director Walsh.