"They Drive By Night" is really two separate stories. The first, has Joe Fabrini (George Raft) and his brother Paul (Humphrey Bogart) struggling to make a living as independent truckers in California hauling fruit. They are just making ends meet and staying one step ahead of money lender Farnsworth (Charles Halton) who is trying to re-possess their truck. At a truck stop Joe meets sharp tongued waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan). Later the boys pick her up along the road and Joe strikes up a romance with her.
When they finally make enough to pay off their truck, tragedy strikes. While driving along, Paul falls asleep at the wheel and the truck crashes. Paul loses his right arm in the accident and the boys lose their truck.
Joe decides (in story #2) to go to work for ex-trucker Ed Carlson (Alan Hale) whose amitious young wife Lana (Ida Lupino) sets her sights on Joe. But Joe repels her advances professing his love for Cassie. In a plot to sway Joe, Lana murders her oafish husband and forms a partnership with Joe hoping that this will bring him around.
When Joe continues to reject her, Lana's conscience begins to bother her over her husband's murder and she slowly begins to lose her mind. She tries to have Joe blamed for Carlson's murder but becomes unbalanced on the stand.
This picture was designed as a vehicle for George Raft, however it is newcomer Lupino who steals the show. Her descent into madness is riveting, especially her breakdown in court. Bogart virtually disappears in the second half of the movie. Sheridan provides her customary ooomph as Raft's love interest. Hale is way over the top as the loud-mouthed Carlson. Roscoe Karns is along for comedy relief and George Tobias appears as a fruit wholesaler.
Raft in the following year would turn down two films that would catapult Bogey into stardom. The films: High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon.
When they finally make enough to pay off their truck, tragedy strikes. While driving along, Paul falls asleep at the wheel and the truck crashes. Paul loses his right arm in the accident and the boys lose their truck.
Joe decides (in story #2) to go to work for ex-trucker Ed Carlson (Alan Hale) whose amitious young wife Lana (Ida Lupino) sets her sights on Joe. But Joe repels her advances professing his love for Cassie. In a plot to sway Joe, Lana murders her oafish husband and forms a partnership with Joe hoping that this will bring him around.
When Joe continues to reject her, Lana's conscience begins to bother her over her husband's murder and she slowly begins to lose her mind. She tries to have Joe blamed for Carlson's murder but becomes unbalanced on the stand.
This picture was designed as a vehicle for George Raft, however it is newcomer Lupino who steals the show. Her descent into madness is riveting, especially her breakdown in court. Bogart virtually disappears in the second half of the movie. Sheridan provides her customary ooomph as Raft's love interest. Hale is way over the top as the loud-mouthed Carlson. Roscoe Karns is along for comedy relief and George Tobias appears as a fruit wholesaler.
Raft in the following year would turn down two films that would catapult Bogey into stardom. The films: High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon.