SnoopyStyle Brothers Paul (Humphrey Bogart) and Joe Fabrini are independent truckers struggling to make ends meet. A big operator is trying to drive them out of business. They pick up fired waitress Cassie Hartley out in the rain and Joe begins a relationship. Trucking business owner's wife Lana Carlsen (Ida Lupino) has her eye on Joe. Paul's wife Pearl wants him to quit the dangerous poorly-paid profession and stay home.Obviously, I'm watching this for Bogie and Ida Lupino doesn't hurt either. I don't know anything about George Raft. He seems to be a solid character actor specializing in tough guys. Star power would dictate that the brothers switch roles but this was a year before Bogie started his run. The story meanders around. All kinds of melodrama happen without getting to a particular destination. At first, it's a trucker story and then it goes into jealous obsession. Along the way, one loses an arm. It feels random. The movie should start closer to the accident and make the murder the central plot. The winding plot keeps the narrative flow uncertain. It's nice to see early Bogie even if his role diminishes late.

weezeralfalfa This interesting Warner crime drama is partly based upon A.I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel "Long Haul", while the last half is a reworking of the last portion of Warner's 1935 film "Bordertown", in which George Raft takes the place of Paul Muni, Alan Hale replaces Eugene Pallette, and Ida Lupino does Betty Davis's role. The first half introduces most of the main characters and consists of a drama about the financial and practical hardships of independent truckers during the depression era. Several spectacular truck accidents are staged, often caused by a driver falling asleep from driving too many hours. We are introduced to Ann Sheridan's character: Cassie, a wisecracking cynical waitress in a coffee shop , and her budding romance with George Raft's character: Joe Febrini. We are also introduced to Joe's truck-driving brother, Paul(Humphrey Bogart), and his long suffering wife Pearl(Gale Page), who would like to have a child, but can't afford one. ..... The second half begins with Joe accepting the offer of Ed(Alan Hale) to join his trucking company, after Joe and Paul lost their truck in a fiery accident, in which Paul lost his right arm. We are introduced to Ed's beautiful, sophisticated, wife , Lana(Ida Lupino). Although Ed is an extrovert: friendly and always joking, he is too oafish for Lana's liking, and frequently gets drunk at parties. She would much prefer Joe as a lover. Apparently, they had a brief prior relationship. She was obsessed with resuming their secrete relationship, but Joe turned her down, saying that Ed is his friend, as well as employer, and that he hoped to marry Cassie as soon as he can afford to. Lana is quite jealous of Cassie. When they meet, she sizes her up as an inferior woman to herself. To hopefully make herself more available to Joe, in his mind, Lana took advantage of a situation to indirectly murder her husband(Ed). She made it look like an accident, which it was initially reported to be. But in her hysterical confrontation with Joe, she yelled that she had murdered her husband so she could have Joe, and that she would claim that he made her do it, if he didn't cooperate.....In court, it was proven that Joe had nothing to do with the murder. When Lana took the stand, she was as if in a trance, repeating that "The door made me do it". She was concluded to be insane, thus not responsible for her actions. Although many reviews consider Lana's testimony the climax of the film, to me , the climax occurred previously during her hysterical pleading with Joe..... To my knowledge, this was Bogart's last film in which he played a supporting actor. In his next film: "High Sierra", he would be paired with Ida Lupino as the lead actors. In that film, Ida's character wasn't nearly as interesting as in the present film, but she still served well as eye candy. Now 22, Ida had been starring in minor films since age 14! Her performance here was good enough to earn her a contract with Warner. In addition to his movie career, George Raft was a well established dancer, and danced in some of his early films : quite different from his later slick gangster persona. When he moved to Warner in 1939, he tended to be cast in roles that Bogey would be an alternative for. In fact, he was offered the lead roles in "High Sierra", and "The Maltese Falcon" : roles that Bogey picked up and added to his popularity.

moonspinner55 Truck-driving brothers George Raft and Humphrey Bogart have nightly adventures hauling produce to local markets until Raft lands himself a position in the office; unfortunately, this means having to mingle with the raucous boss and the boss's wife, a scheming shrew with murder on her mind. Raoul Walsh ably directed this quintessential Warner Bros. drama, hard-bitten and yet humorously disengaged. However, one can easily sense the narrative coming unhinged in the second-half, which leads to a jailhouse-and-courtroom finale that seems to have nothing to do with the promising earlier scenario of working stiffs on the open road. The pungent, pithy dialogue from screenwriters Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay (working from A.I. Bezzerides' novel "Long Haul") can't camouflage the shift in priorities, and the 'winking' tag seems like a put-on. Still entertaining, with Raft a smoldering (if somewhat stationary) screen presence. **1/2 from ****

seymourblack-1 "They Drive By Night" is an entertaining movie with an unpredictable plot, some witty dialogue and lots of action that's delivered at a lively pace. What begins as an account of the trials and tribulations experienced by a couple of freelance truckers later (and rather surprisingly) develops into an intriguing drama which involves infatuation, murder and a predatory femme fatale who's played brilliantly by Ida Lupino.The Fabrini brothers, Joe (George Raft) and Paul (Humphrey Bogart) are a couple of truckers who struggle hard to become successful independent operators so that they can be their own bosses. They routinely transport perishable goods from farms in the country to dealers in the city markets but their work is hard, the hours are long and the rewards are very uncertain. Trying to make progress proves difficult as they contend with problems caused by accidents, unscrupulous dealers and living under the constant threat of having their truck repossessed. When they eventually make some headway and pay off the truck, misfortune strikes again when Paul falls asleep at the wheel and their vehicle is wrecked. Joe suffers only superficial injuries but Paul's are more extensive and result in him losing his right arm.After the accident the brothers are no longer able to continue in business but Joe has the good fortune to be offered a management job in a trucking business run by Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale). Joe's relationship with Cassie (Ann Sheridan), who he first met as a waitress in a roadside diner, has also developed and things seem to be going well for him.It soon becomes clear, however, that Joe's good fortune comes with serious complications attached. He'd initially been offered his job because Ed's considerably younger wife Lana (Ida Lupino) had pulled the strings. She was obsessed with Joe and desperately wanted him to be her lover. When her repeated attempts to seduce him fail because of his loyalty to Ed and Cassie, Lana removes what she considers to be the main obstacle to her ambitions by killing her husband. The circumstances of Ed's death are made to appear accidental and Lana appears to be in the clear when the local D.A. has no reason to believe that any foul play was involved. Inevitably, however, there are other interesting developments before the story finally reaches its conclusion.The two brothers at the centre of the story are quite different as Joe is very ambitious, focused and not at all deterred by any of the difficulties that they encounter. Paul, on the other hand, finds the work exhausting and only stays with the business out of loyalty to Joe. When they're on their journeys, Paul misses his wife who would prefer him to do a more regular job where his working hours would be more reasonable and his income would be more reliable.George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are both convincing in their roles and Ann Sheridan provides good support as Joe's girlfriend who can be witty and entertaining but also uses her toughness and sharp tongue to control their relationship. Ida Lupino is terrific from the time that she first appears on screen as the acquisitive and manipulative Lana who is prepared to stop at nothing to get what she wants. Her performance continues relentlessly at this level throughout the remainder of the movie and she makes an indelible impression as the incredibly evil femme fatale.