An easy misunderstanding about They Drive by Night is that Humphrey Bogart is the star of the film...but alas, Bogart was still mired in his indentured servitude to Warner Brothers as a contract player. Bogart was unhappy during his period from The Petrified Forest to The Maltese Falcon (1936 to 1941) generally playing second banana (or even third!) to more established stars as James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and of course, as in TDBN, to George Raft. Bogart usually was the bullet fodder who got gunned down in the third reel by the star...but good things still lay in the future for the future super star.Actually Raft could sympathize with Bogart to a certain extent....both were type cast as wiseguys in several Warner gangster films. Warner's was a bit notorious in recycling gangster stories, but had hit the gold mine with their on the cheap crime films that were drawing well from Depression era audiences.
So They Drive By Night was a departure for both...the story of two brothers trying to make it as independent truckers in an often corrupt and dangerous industry. After a crash that destroys their truck and takes off Bogie's right arm...the brothers have to work for a trucking company run by The Skipper's dad...Alan Hale Sr. In the wings waits smoky Ida Lupino, the wife of Hale with an eye for Raft and Hale's bucks. All in all, a nice and boiling pot of a noir film that does not involve detectives but does involve murder.
Raoul Walsh, veteran director of silent films and some of the best action adventure films around...not to mention a few of Warner's gangster films, does good work here. But Bogart, even in his limited screen time, shows why no one remembers George Raft but adores Bogie. Bogart does so much with little...a gesture or tick to his face...a particularly fine scene involves Bogart breaking down about his lost arm and disability at the dinner table. Raft was a minimalist kind of actor like Bogart, but as the hero, seems a little wooden even when faced with the guilt of his brother's injury or romancing yummy Ann Sheridan.
Which leaves the mystery of Ida Lupino. She does well at first as the femme fatale wife of Hale...but her descent into murderous mania seems a bit cheesy to the 21st century eye...especially her fortuitous breakdown in the courtroom scene. Lupino was well regarded at this time, but she seems to be
munching the scenery a bit in this turn. Better things were ahead for her as well.Lupino, Walsh, and Bogart would get to team up on the film that would finally catapult Bogart to his early forties classics The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. It would be High Sierra and it would be the last true Warner's gangster film for Bogie...but finally he would be in a starring role which he would make the most of, becoming arguably, the greatest star of the Classic Hollywood era!
As for They Drive, it is a nice, little dark confection....a nice break from the usual Warner's fare, but fairly predictable...the bad guy(girl) gets theirs, Raft gets his girl, and Bogart gets the shaft, but not for much longer....3.8 stars out of five!
