'I Committed Murder to Get You! Understand, MURDER!!'

Some films are simply greater than the sum of their parts. Ingrid Bergman went on record several times that no one on the CASABLANCA shoot had any clue that they were making a film that would rival the likes of CITIZEN KANE for the title of "Greatest American Film."

One suspects the same "business as usual" atmosphere prevailed on the set of THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, a noir melodrama directed by Raoul Walsh for Warner Bros in 1940. A partial reworking of an earlier film titled BORDERTOWN, this film follows the ups and downs of the Fabrini brothers, long-haul truckers trying to move up from dodging poverty and the bill collectors at every turn to sufficient success to allow one brother to marry and the other, already married, to start a family.

Good enough setup for noir melodrama, but it deviates wildly right in the middle of the picture into a crime drama. The crime in question is murder and the criminal case dominates the second half of the film. Somehow the transition from one kind of story to another works remarkably well, so well that I would consider it a classic of the noir genre.

All the more remarkable when you realize that this was a B picture. Shot on a budget of $400,000.00, a modest sum even in 1940, with a cast of Warner Bros stalwarts, none of whom were great stars at the time.

Joe Fabrini, the older, unmarried brother, is played by George Raft. Raft was never much of an actor, and never quite made it out of the B pictures, but the part makes few demands on what talents he had; his performance as a result works perfectly for what is required of it.

Brother Paul is played by Humphrey Bogart, who in 1940 was still a couple of years away from his eventual superstardom. Bogart displays a gentleness and sensitivity that he seldom got to show once he became a big star.

The rest of the men in the cast are Warner's contract players, solid character actors all. It's the women who really elevate the piece to near A status.

Ann Sheridan plays Cassie Hartley, a wise-cracking, down-on-her-luck waitress with whom Joe falls in love almost against his will, focused as he is on the trucking business. Sheridan brings her usual "oomph" to the role and gets most of the best smartass lines.

Paul's wife Pearl is played by Gale Page, an actress of decent ability whose career was pretty much spent in B pictures, probably because she excelled neither in dramatics or in beauty. But Page is just right here; putting someone with bigger acting chops or greater beauty in this role would have thrown the picture badly off balance.

Then there's Ida Lupino as Lana Carlsen, the wife of a friend of Joe's who owns his own trucking company and who secretly lusts after Joe despite his repeated curt rejections; he admits she's attractive, but he's a man of honor: he will not betray his friend by sleeping with his wife. Ever.

Lana's passion for Joe is ultimately her undoing. She does not love her husband, and probably only married him for his money, so one night after a party at which he gets sloppy drunk, she puts the car in the garage, leaving it running, and closes the doors. Her husband, dead drunk, dies of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The DA rules it an accident, so Lana cons Joe into coming into her late husband's business as her "partner," though it is clear that her use of that word implies more than just business. Joe reluctantly agrees, mainly so that he can give a job to Paul, who in the middle of the film loses an arm in a wreck after falling asleep at the wheel.

Lana thinks she's got him. But he still wants nothing to do with her, partly because her late husband was his friend but because by this time he has decided to ask Cassie to marry him. Driven to desperation, Lana confesses her crime to Joe in a misguided attempt to show proof of her love for him. Appalled, Joe makes tracks, and Lana, not about to be outdone, decides to tell the DA that yes, she killed her husband, but she did it because Joe Fabrini told her to.

The trial that follows is pretty standard stuff for a noir melodrama, until Lana takes the stand. What happens in these few minutes should have garnered Lupino an Oscar nomination, but she was still a B actress being groomed as a possible foil for Bette Davis. In fact, watching this film, I thought what a great part Lana would have been for Davis. I don't know if it was ever offered to her, but if it was and she turned it down, it was a happy mistake, because as much as I love Bette Davis, Ida Lupino is so perfect, so compelling, and at the end so utterly chilling in the part that she OWNS it. And then some.

Not bad legs for a B picture, it was a huge hit that propelled Bogart toward full stardom. Unfortunately it did not do the same for Lupino, a brilliant and gifted actress whom the studio cruelly misused; with her titanic talents, she could have given even La Davis a run for her money if the studio had only allowed her to.

This is one of those movies that I always simply MUST sit down and watch whenever it comes on. It is a great demonstration that it is not always necessary to break the bank to make great entertainment.

Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
roflol ><