They Drive By Night

A good example of Warner Brothers' social 'realism', adapted from AI Bezzerides' novel Long Haul: Raft and Bogart as truck-driving brothers trying to set up their own business, directed in typically gutsy style by Walsh. It degenerates into a courtroom murder melodrama about halfway through, with Ida Lupino (bored wife of their boss, trying to involve Raft in a little Postman Always Rings Twice malarkey) losing her marbles in the witness box in what Hollywood likes to think of as an acting tour de force. Still, the first half has pace, and the wisecracking wit is often laid on thick and fast by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay's script, particularly in a scene with Ann Sheridan as a roadside café waitress. All the performances are good.