They Drive by Night

Two brothers work as truckers, hauling produce through the night in a rig bought on credit. Sleeplessness and debt lead to a crash and one of them loses an arm. The other takes a job at a haulage company and draws the interest of the owner's wife. The film is not interested in the road. It is interested in economic pressure: the first half shows how narrow the margin is for independent truckers, with instalments, brokers, night driving and sleep. The form splits down the middle: work and road film first, murder and courtroom drama second. That abrupt change is regarded as its known flaw, but Ida Lupino carries the second half. Lupino plays the owner's wife, and her breakdown in the courtroom is remembered as the moment her career took off. George Raft and Humphrey Bogart play the brothers, and Ann Sheridan the woman working at the diner. Raoul Walsh directed, from A. I. Bezzerides's novel. Who it is for: viewers who like forties Warner Bros. pictures and stories about labour. Who it is not for: anyone wanting one continuous story. The film changes subject halfway and leaves the concerns of its first half behind.