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Bookmark this pageThieves' Highway (1949)
Director: Jules Dassin
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Jules Dassin's trendy reputation (and an awful lot of money) was made with Rififi, Never on Sunday and Topkapi - triumphant European success for a blacklisted Hollywood talent. But cultists groaned, for the 'real' Dassin was surely to be found in the baroque and electrifying Brute Force, the grotesquely Dickensian Night and the City, and - a personal favourite - Thieves' Highway. AI Bezzerides' script (from his own novel Thieves' Market) and the performances of Conte, Cobb, and Cortese (in her American debut) help restrain Dassin's feverish artistic ambitions in this tale of racketeering in the California fruit markets. The result slots sleazy eroticism and rigorous action seamlessly together into a high-grade trucking melo. Nothing more, but nothing less, which in the '40s was the most triumphant kind of American success.Author: CW
User reviews of this film
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- donna d said...
- Posted on Feb 14 2010 04:06 this was noir-ish, but much more fun. i saw a blurb about it from david denby in the new yorker and i'm glad i did, otherwise i would never have thought to watch it on my own...and it's great that you can watch it instantly on netflix. they don't make movies like this anymore.
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Cast & crew
Director: Jules Dassin
Producer: Robert Bassler
Cast: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph Pevney, Morris Carnovsky full cast
Genre(s): Film Noir
Duration: 94 mins
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