Thieves' Highway (1949)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I'll tell you why so serious

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

THIEVES' HIGHWAY is one of the earliest road movies and, no two ways about it, one of the best. Jules Dassin surprises again with his own unique way of approaching a scene (the opening scene between Conte and his father, for example, or the scene where Conte lies pinned beneath his rig). Like WAGES OF FEAR, THIEVES' HIGHWAY never veers too far off course and we're along for the ride, riding shotgun- the best place to be in a road movie. Lee J. Cobb is on hand, warming up for his role in ON THE WATERFRONT, and my favorite scene in THIEVES' HIGHWAY is the barroom brawl, wherein Conte hammers Cobb senseless beneath a framed picture of Heavyweight Champion Bob Fitzsimmons. (Having earned a very meager living as a cab driver, I can relate to Conte's character's plight: when I collapsed in a service station parking lot one night- from a medical condition I didn't know I had, called "occult blood"- I had a guy try to pick my pocket quite literally while I was flat on my face. I stopped him by grabbing his wrist. He released my roll of bills- mostly ones- and kicked me in the head. There's ALWAYS somebody waiting to take advantage of a man when he's down...) (Prior to that, I'd written a three-day novel titled HACKS about cab-driving that could've served as the basis for a low budget independent feature itself.)

Turkish born (to Greek and Armenian parents) writer A.L. Bezzerides often wrote about experiences, he actually once drove trucks for a company his father started. Here, his story takes on the struggles of those 'little' trucking men to survive against BIG odds. The big odds being self seeking corruption amongst the soul-less fruit market wheeler dealers.This film is a wild ride in any mans language! and ace Director Jules Dassin, just months before being foolishly hunted out of Hollywood by the House of Un-American Activities, holds the pace with near relentless energy...endless set backs mount throughout. Dassin was a rare kind of American Director, perhaps because of his Russian parentage he possessed a uniquely European style. In fact, he must be the only American to direct a French crime classic ('Rififi' 55) and reel it in on par with, if not better than, the French themselves! Check out other dynamic mood pieces by Dassin: 'Night and the City' 51 ~ 'Naked City' 48 ~ 'Phaedra' 62 (with Theodorakis's magnificent score) In '57 he also had the rare award winner 'He who must Die', etc.... He could hardly have had a better Director of Photography for 'Highway', than veteran Norbert Bodine. Bodine brings his years of experience to grace this film with moody, spectacular visuals, in the style of 'Kiss of Death '47 ~ 'Of Mice and Men' 39 and the now rare 'Little Man What Now' 34.Performances are uniformly good, Conte the everyman, Cobb the evil thief, Cortese's first American film, (years later she would appear as the Mother in 1973's 'Brother Sun Sister Moon") there's also good support from several solid old reliables. This was not the first time writer Brezzerides had hit the highways, in 1940 he wrote that other road classic 'They Drive by Night'. He shows diversity with 'Beneath the 12 mile Reef' in '53. Fox's talented man of music, Alfred Newman added his familiar style with an exiting music score. Then along came Darrel F. Zanuck's interfering hand, apparently re-writing, and re-shooting the ending...adding a silly tacked-on, overly 'sunny' closing. Why interfere when something is working as well as this...? The DVD I bought is the Fox Studio Classics release, it's OK, but the copy I have, has some disappointing digital pixels in the image. I've heard the Criterion disc is superior (the Criterion cover is better also). Who knows, they may even come up with the original ending...? Excellent story and overall film, pity about the ending.

Jules Dassin's last American production would be this adaption of A.I. Bezzerides novel about the slimy dealings in the wholesale produce market. After Thieves Highway, Dassin would do Night And The City in London and then be subject to the blacklist. As it is Thieves Highway is a remarkable film with a couple of interesting subplots.Returning home from the war Richard Conte finds his father Morris Carnovsky crippled, the result of a trucking accident and robbed of the money for recently delivered produce to Lee J. Cobb the man in charge of San Francisco's wholesale market. Conte decides to take some vengeance out and get the money his father was robbed of. In order to do this Conte goes into partnership with Millard Mitchell an old time trucker who now has Carnovsky's truck which has seen better days. When Conte arrives with a delivery of needed apples for the market, Cobb pays him off all right, but gives him the same kind of treatment he gave dad. A little something extra with femme fatal Valentina Cortese.The main plot involves Conte and Cobb, but woven into the story is that of Conte's engagement to Barbara Lawrence which takes a jolt when she meets Cortese. Also Jack Oakie and Joseph Pevney play a pair of scavenger drivers who follow Mitchell in his beat up truck waiting for something to befall him.Trucking wholesale fruit and vegetables is shown to be a dog eat dog business and top dog is Lee J. Cobb. His part here is almost a dress rehearsal for the waterfront racketeer he played in On The Waterfront. In a cast of good performances Cobb is also top dog.Thieves Highway is a wonderful film that dates not one bit because things you see here still go on.

Include a few interesting character actors as well,and you have an interesting mix.Overall,a noir film with a few unexpected twists.Not as much violence,but psychological intrigue and underhanded deeds,Richard Conte is believable as over the road produce trucker,attempting to avenge his father's misfortune.The trucking trade in Northern California at this time was extremely competitive and cutthroat,and Lee J.Cobb excels as the shady vendor who grafts and scams the truckers,at any cost necessary. Indeed,the catastrophic death of one trucker is directly caused by him,as he considers this to be mere collateral damage necessary for profit.Valentina Cortese also has an interesting part as a woman living on the fringe,surviving by default.An interesting period piece worth viewing. 9/10.