Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
They Drive By Night (1938)
Director: Arthur Woods
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Warner Brothers churned out hundreds of 'quota quickies' from their small British studio in Teddington, most of which are no doubt best left in the dustbin of history. Occasionally, though, the fusion of quirky British realism and slick Hollywood melodramatics produced a real gem. Here the revelation of '30s British society as a world of spivs and cardsharps, lecherous lorry drivers and sybaritic sex maniacs, is worth discovering in itself. But director Woods, soon to die in the war, takes the workmanlike story of a petty criminal (Williams) hunted for a murder he didn't do, and invests it with an atmosphere of unrelenting wind, rain and gloom which makes the average American film noir look bright and breezy by comparison.Author: RMy
Cast & crew
Director: Arthur Woods
Producer: Jerome Jackson
Cast: Emlyn Williams, Ernest Thesiger, Allan Jeayes, Anna Konstam, Ronald Shiner full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 84 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now