They Drive by Night

directed by Raoul Walsh
List(s):"Movie Two"
Category: "Suspense"
Year of Release:1940
Date Added:02/05/2015
Date Watched:10/22/2024
Description:The Fabrini brothers, Joe (George Raft) and Paul (Humphrey Bogart) are trying to make a living as independent truckers but struggle to make payments and find loads. Paul is married. Joe meets truck-stop waitress Cassie (Ann Sheridan) and falls in love. When Paul falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the truck, Joe goes to work as manager for a trucking firm run by Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale). Carlsen's wife, Lana (Ida Lupino) has a thing for Joe, but Joe keeps refusing her advances. Tired of her marriage to the kind, but loud and drunk Ed, Lana kills him by leaving him sleeping in the garage with the motor running. She offers Joe a partnership in the trucking firm, assuming that he'll take her along with the deal. But instead he decides to marry Cassie. Lana gets angry and claims that Joe helped her kill Ed. But when she takes the witness stand at the trial, she goes insane with guilt for killing Ed and the case is thrown out. Lana ends up in an asylum, and Joe ends up with the business and Lana. Paul works as his manager.
My Rating:6

Reviews for They Drive by Night

Review - They Drive by Night

As many reviewers mentioned, the plot seems to switch movies halfway through. From being a story about two brothers struggling to make it in the trucking business, it becomes a weird movie about a woman who kills her husband to be with a man who has never shown any interest in her. Even the characters change. Bogart's character goes from gritty to angry to docile and happy. Sheridan's goes from being a smart-mouth waitress to being a faithful, domestic woman. Both movies had their moments — it was just odd to have them shoehorned together like this.
Back to the list