They Drive by Night

Rating:
Summary: "The doors made me do it! The doors made me do it!"
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie shows true facts of early trucking
Review: This movie lets you see how early truckers had to fight and scratch to survive. They went through so much tragedy just to get the job done. Lets you feel how they felt before regulation and lets you see how much we have progressed and are protected by the laws.

Rating:
Summary: "If we go over a cliff, wake me up."
Review: 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.

D: Raoul Walsh (WHITE HEAT, HIGH SIERRA)

Joe Fabrini - George Raft (SOME LIKE IT HOT, SCARFACE)
Paul Fabrini - Humphrey Bogart (ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, THE AFRICAN QUEEN)
Cassie Hartley - Ann Sheridan ( ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE)
Lana Carlsen - Ida Lupino ( THE SEA WOLF, PRIVATE HELL 36)

Rating:
Summary: Dynamic Lupino!
Review: 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!