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Thieves' Highway (1949); Criterion Marathon #3
Topic Started: Mar 22 2011, 08:57 AM (211 Views)
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Director Jules Dassin was in the midst of a personal crisis (political backlash) but making a series of important, excellent films (Brute Force, The Naked City, Night and the City, Rififi) when he gave us this one, a searing and rather pessimistic view of "long-haul boys", truckers who speed to bring fresh fruit to American city markets. A.I. Bezzerides, who wrote the screenplay based on his novel Thieves' Market, also contributed novels or scripts to They Drive By Night, On Dangerous Ground, and the 1955 Kiss Me, Deadly.

Richard Conte returns home from the Army with presents for everyone and a lingering smooch for his sweetheart, but he's chagrined to discover that his father, a wildcat trucker of fruit, has been crippled by the thugs of Lee J. Cobb, an unscrupulous fruit-buyer in San Francisco. Conte picks up a partner in his father's old truck, buys an Army surplus vehicle for himself, and sets off to deliver a load of Golden Delicious apples to market. After a harrowing 36-hour ride (one of the most tense and suspenseful few minutes you'll see in any film), Conte arrives at market, and butts heads with Mr. Cobb, whose unscrupulous methods include a scheming hooker (Valentina Cortese) as well as the usual strong-arm tactics.

As I said, very pessimistic film, as the "good guys" don't get all that much good happening to them in the course of the film. I loved how Conte's fiance is framed from the get-go as a real skank, turning up her nose at the doll he's brought her back from overseas. The hooker is a much better choice for this guy. The film is surprisingly violent and sexy, and kudos to Zanuck for not pulling any punches at a time when the Code was still very much enforced. I loved the location shooting in SF, too. Millard Mitchell, remembered as the studio head in Singin' in the Rain, is phenomenal here as a fellow trucker, by the way. Excellent film.

(This is the third installment in my Criterion marathon, where I'm watching one film from each of the Balcony film categories. Next: a detective film!)
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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