They Drive by Night

{{short description|1940 film by Raoul Walsh}} {{about||the 1938 British film|They Drive by Night (1938 film)|the James Curtis novel|They Drive by Night (novel)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = They Drive by Night | image = They Drive by Night.JPG | alt = | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Raoul Walsh Hugh MacMullen ''(dialogue)'' | producer = Mark Hellinger | screenplay = Jerry Wald Richard Macaulay | based_on = {{based on|''Long Haul'' 1938 novel|A. I. Bezzerides}} | starring = George Raft Ann Sheridan Ida Lupino Humphrey Bogart | music = Adolph Deutsch | cinematography = Arthur Edeson | editing = Thomas Richards | studio = Warner Bros. Pictures | distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures | released = {{Film date|1940|7|27|New York City|1940|08|03|U.S.|ref2=<ref name=afi>{{AFI film|4635}}</ref>}} | runtime = 93 minutes<ref name=afi /> | country = United States | language = English | budget = $539,000<ref name="warners">Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 20 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551</ref> | gross = $1,596,000<ref name="warners"/> }}

'''''They Drive by Night''''' is a 1940 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh and starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, and Humphrey Bogart, and featuring Gale Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, John Litel and George Tobias. The picture involves a pair of embattled truck drivers and was released in the UK under the title '''''The Road to Frisco'''''. The film was based on A. I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel ''Long Haul'', which was later reprinted under the title ''They Drive by Night'' to capitalize on the success of the film.

Part of the film's plot – that of Ida Lupino's character murdering her husband by carbon monoxide poisoning – was borrowed from another Warner Bros. film, ''Bordertown'' (1935) with Paul Muni and Bette Davis.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

==Plot== Brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini are independent truck drivers who make a meager living transporting goods. Joe convinces Paul to start their own small, one-truck business, staying one step ahead of loan shark Farnsworth, who is trying to repossess their truck.

At a diner, Joe is attracted to waitress Cassie Hartley. Later, on their way to Los Angeles, the brothers pick up a hitchhiker; Joe is pleased when it turns out to be Cassie, who quit after her boss tried to get a bit too friendly with her. They park at a diner for a meal and chat with a trucker acquaintance, McNamara, who is extremely overworked and tired; later, back on the road, the brothers and Cassie find themselves driving behind McNamara and soon become aware that he must be asleep at the wheel. They put themselves in danger trying to awaken him, but McNamara's truck goes off the road and explodes in flames.

At his home just outside of Los Angeles, Paul is reunited with his patient though worried wife, Pearl, who would rather have Paul settle down in a safer, more regular job. Paul is troubled about his future, too, but will not leave his brother "out on a limb as long as he thinks we have a chance in this business". In the city, Joe finds Cassie a place to stay. They talk and begin to establish a relationship.

The next morning, from a window overlooking the market, Joe's good friend Ed Carlsen watches Joe get into a brief fistfight. Ed is a trucking business owner and former driver; he calls Joe up to his office and offers him a job. Joe insists on remaining independent. Ed's wife, Lana Carlsen, has wanted Joe for years, but he has always rebuffed her advances.

Ed gives Joe a tip on a load which results in the brothers earning enough money to finally pay off Farnsworth. On the return trip, Paul falls asleep at the wheel, causing an accident which costs him his right arm and wrecks the truck. Joe feels guilty on account of how his brother had wanted to take a break, but Joe had convinced him to keep going in order to finish the job.

When Ed hires Joe as a driver, Lana persuades her husband to make him the traffic manager instead; she starts dropping by the office frequently. Joe continues to spurn her advances. One night, when Lana drives a drunk, unconscious Ed home from a party, she murders him on impulse by leaving him in the garage with the car motor still idling. When the police investigate, it appears to be an accident. She later gives Joe a half-interest as a partner in the business in a subsequent attempt to attract him.

Paul has been bitter over his inability to land a proper job in order to support his wife and plan a family. He returns to work as a dispatcher for Joe. Joe does a fine job managing the business, but when Lana learns he plans to marry Cassie, she becomes so enraged she reveals to him that she killed Ed so that she could have him. She then goes to the police, accusing Joe of forcing her to help commit murder. Joe is tried based on no evidence except Lana's accusation. During the trial, a guilt-ridden Lana breaks down on the witness stand, laughing hysterically and claiming the electric garage doors made her do it. After Lana is determined to be insane, the case is dismissed.

Joe considers going back to the road, but Cassie, Paul - who happily announces that Pearl and he are having a baby - and the boys manage to convince him otherwise. He thus returns to the trucking business that he had dreamed of owning, with his brother as traffic manager and Cassie as his bride-to-be.

==Cast==  {{Cast listing| * George Raft as Joe Fabrini * Ann Sheridan as Cassie Hartley * Ida Lupino as Lana Carlsen * Humphrey Bogart as Paul Fabrini<ref name="BogeyFilms">{{cite book |last1=McCarty |first1=Clifford |title=Bogey: The Films of Humphrey Bogart |date=1965 |publisher=Cadillac Publishing|location=New York|pages=87 }}</ref> * Gale Page as Pearl Fabrini * Alan Hale Sr. as Ed J. Carlsen * Roscoe Karns as "Irish" McGurn * John Litel as Harry McNamara * George Tobias as George Rondolos}}

;Uncredited thumb|Left to right: Bogart, Raft, and Sheridan. {{Cast listing| * Henry O'Neill as District Attorney{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * Charles Haltom as Farnsworth, the loan shark{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * John Ridgely as Hank Dawson{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * George Lloyd as Barney{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * Joyce Compton as Sue Carter{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * Charles C. Wilson as Mike Williams{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * Pedro Regas as McNamara's Helper{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * Joe Devlin as Fatso{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * William Haade as Driver{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * Vera Lewis as Landlady{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * John Hamilton as Defense Attorney{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} * Lillian Yarbo as Chloe{{nbsp}}{{Citation needed|date=January 2026|reason="Uncredited" - "All [Role] names should be referred to as Credited, or...supported by a Reliable Source" as per MOS:FILMCAST & WP:FILMOGRAPHY}} }}

==Production== Production on ''They Drive by Night'' began in late April 1940.<ref name=afi />

Walsh said Raft's acting "had improved" since they worked together on ''The Bowery'' (1933). "He was better at memorizing dialogue and he was careful about the way he dressed."<ref name="walsh">{{cite book|first=Raoul|last=Walsh|author-link=Raoul Walsh|title=Each Man in His Time: The Life Story of a Director|year=1974 |publisher= Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York| page=349|isbn=9780374145538}}</ref>

==Home media== ''They Drive by Night'' was first released on DVD by Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment (then-Warner Home Video) on November 4, 2003. It was then re-released for the same format on June 27, 2017, as part of the Warner Archive Collection. The film was released on Blu-ray on March 26, 2024, as part of Warner Archive.

==Reception==

===Box office=== The film was a big box office success.<ref name="raft"/> According to Warner Bros., it earned $1,092,000 domestically and $504,000 foreign in its initial run.<ref name="warners"/> Raft's biographer claims the film eventually earned $4 million.<ref name="raft">Aaker, Everett (2013) ''George Raft: The Films''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. {{isbn|9780786466467}} p.93</ref>

===Critical response=== When the film was released, ''The New York Times'' film critic, Bosley Crowther, gave the film a positive review, writing, "But for fanciers of hard-boiled cinema, ''They Drive By Night'' still offers an entertaining ride. As Mr. Raft modestly remarks of his breed, 'We're tougher than any truck ever come off an assembly line.' That goes for the picture, too."<ref>Crowther, Bosley (July 27, 1940) [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0DEFDB1E3CE73ABC4F51DFB166838B659EDE "'They Drive by Night' Is Tough Stuff at the Strand-- In Lighter Vein Is 'Turnabout' at the Roxy"] ''The New York Times''. Accessed: February 27, 2011.</ref>

''Filmink'' magazine called it "a sensationally entertaining flick that was a solid box office success and should have convinced Raft that his new employers knew what they were doing, but his judgement continued to get worse. "<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/stars-stop-stars-george-raft/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Why Stars Stop Being Stars: George Raft|date=February 9, 2020}}</ref>

The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 94% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 17 reviews.<ref>[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021214-they_drive_by_night/ ''They Drive by Night''] at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: February 27, 2011.</ref>

==Adaptations== ''Lux Radio Theatre'' presented a radio adaptation of the film in 1941 starring Raft, Lana Turner and Lucille Ball.<ref name=afi />

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category}} * {{AFI film|4635}} * {{IMDb title|0033149}} * {{TCMDb title|720}} * [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/they-drive-by-night-am21652 ''They Drive by Night''] at AllMovie * {{YouTube|cdM5gW2LTAc|''They Drive by Night'' film trailer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:They Drive By Night}} Category:1940 films Category:1940 crime films Category:American crime films Category:American black-and-white films Category:1940 English-language films Category:Film noir Category:Films based on American novels Category:Trucker films Category:Films directed by Raoul Walsh Category:Films scored by Adolph Deutsch Category:Warner Bros. films Category:1940 American films Category:English-language crime films