THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940) B/W 93m dir: Raoul Walsh

w/George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, John Litel, Henry O'Neill, George Tobias

From The Movie Guide: "Amid tough competition, Ida Lupino steals it. This cult classic is one of the best road movies to emerge from a major studio in the 1940s. Raft and Bogart are truck-driving brothers who have left the large company run by Hale and bought their own truck to work as independents. The first half of the film details their rise as they drive all night, skimp on needed repairs, and struggle to keep their fledgling business afloat. ...

"A loose remake of BORDERTOWN (in which Bette Davis asphyxiates husband Eugene Pallette in order to win Paul Muni), THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT could have been another routine film but for Lupino's incredibly forceful performance and Raft's smooth depiction of the tough trucker. Bogart --- still wallowing in the lull in his career between the time THE PETRIFIED FOREST established him as a serious actor and the time HIGH SIERRA finally made him a star --- is very good, especially when he is embittered .... Walsh's direction is as forceful and vigorous as always and this film is among his very best."