THIEVES' HIGHWAY (1949)

This film is based on A. I. Bezzerides novel, Thieves' Market. Who better to write the screenplay. Directed by Jules Dassin and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it includes stunning cinematography by Norbert Brodine in and around San Francisco. Without a doubt, the most enduring element of the film is Dassin's directing, capturing the wholesale produce world. I had no idea fruit delivery could be so cut-throat. He also subjects the viewer to the realism of an unreliable delivery truck with a drive-train held together by sweat and blood from the owner's knuckles. Not far behind on the enduring scale is the cast of Richard Conte, Millard Mitchell, Lee J. Cobb, Valentina Cortese, and Barbara Lawrence.

Fans could not get enough of Conte, yet he is nearly typecast as another optimistic WWII veteran returning home to disappointment. The role is tailor-made for him as he seeks justice and revenge—not necessarily in that order—for his father's debilitating trucking accident. Conte spends the film trying to settle the score with Lee J. Cobb in a "plastic toupée." He is a swindling produce racketeer responsible for the “accident” and stealing his father's shipment. His trademarked angry frown is enough to sell his character. He is the classic bully who lacks any real courage and is ultimately downsized by Conte's tenacious pursuit—speaking of bleeding knuckles.

The aforementioned rickety, decades-old delivery truck owned by Conte's father is now in the greasy hands of his partner, Millard Mitchell, who consistently comes across as the most average soul one could encounter. The viewer is never aware he is acting. A character not loaded with book learning but is in command of an abundance of common sense. He is so genuine here, that one believes he really can repair the heap of abuse he is driving. On Conte's first meeting with him, they bump heads about money owed his father but Mitchell stands his ground on principle. This appeals to Conte's ethics. Mitchell is all too familiar with Cobb's tactics, and after their verbal sparring, they agree to exact revenge on him.

The partners cross paths with two wholesale scavengers competing for a profit, a rotund Jack Oakie—aka Slob—and his driver. Oakie provides subtle comic relief with a jolly nature but a shady approach whose primary purpose is to finagle a way to deliver produce with as little work as possible. Noting the heap Mitchell is piloting, it becomes routine to follow the truck in the hope it will die a quick death, inherit his load, then split the profits. But Oakie's underlying good nature grows on his competition.

Cobb's deeds continue by crippling a tire on Conte's truck. After the blowout, he pulls over onto the roadside bank of sand or loose dirt, his truck listing to one side. Why anyone would try to jack up a truck under these dangerous conditions makes little sense, nor is it a surprise something bad will probably happen. When the ancient jack collapses under the sandy soil, it provides the film with its first tense moment. But you cannot crush a lead actor at this point in a movie. Following not far behind is his lifesaver, Mitchell, who later discovers way too late about his cut brake lines during a clichéd downhill mountainous route. The scavengers witnessed the crash and the sabotage is all too familiar to Conte. To keep him at a distance, Cobb arranges a “girl for hire,” Valentina Cortese, to distract him. Her sensitive performance relaxes the film's middle and she is wise beyond his understanding, even suggesting his fiancée, Barbara Lawrence, is not as true to him as he thinks.

Thieves' Highway is a film noir that has plenty of content to pace it yet its ninety minutes plus seems a tad long. It is a satisfying film for the most part, yet not the first film noir that comes to mind about truck drivers. Except for the fruit angle, this melodrama seems all too familiar. Still, given the competent cast with Conte in another signature role, I imagine moviegoers were not disappointed.

Note: Considering Conte's cool projection of warmth, it is difficult to picture either Dana Andrews or Victor Mature in the lead role. Both were bandied around as the lead during the film's development. Mature had his own decent trucking film eight years later, The Long Haul.

Lippert Pictures Series

Robert L. Lippert controlled a successful low-budget American film production and distribution company from 1948 to 1956, producing short, fast-paced westerns and crime films with a penchant for obligatory humor, and the occasional jarring edits. This is my third of eight Lippert films.

UNKNOWN WORLD (1951)

This seventy-four-minute science fiction weakling, distributed by Lippert Pictures, was directed by Terrell Morse and written by Millard Kaufman. The latter carries the brunt of the blame. The film was produced by Irving Block and Jack Rabin, both involved in the special effects side of movie-making. Supporting all the endless technical jargon and suspense-like developments is a forgotten music score by Ernest Gold, generating fame nine years later for his score for the film, Exodus. Arguably, Otto Waldis and Victor Kilian are the most recognized faces in the project.

Sounding more like a Wild West sheriff than a doctoral scientist, loony Kilian is so panicked by an imminent nuclear war, he suggests everyone cram into the center of the Earth to survive the inevitable holocaust. Never mind the small molten core which had been confirmed centuries before. He thinks that is fake news. Facts are merely opinions. I am not sure many 1950 adults bought into this wacky premise. Science and fiction in their most preposterous form. Jules Verne might have given it one star for the fairly believable filming of the rock-boring scale model tank, appearing to be designed by Raymond Loewy. It is not the only boring thing in the film.

To give the basement-budgeted film a sense of journalistic gravitas, a narrator walks the audience through the "logical" steps leading up to an expedition of scientists. The only expedition member without a doctoral degree is played by Jim Bannon. This makes his character quite expendable. After government funding falls through, the team is bailed out by a private kook, newspaper heir Bruce Kellogg, who would be tickled to go along. Part-time narrator and scientist, Marilyn Nash, is the film's ardent feminist—so says the opening narration. They will enter the Earth through a volcano in Alaska, then follow the “Earth Core” historical markers. With no time allowed for research and development, someone constructs an enormous atomic-powered tank, the Cyclotram, capable of drilling deep enough to get where they are headed.

The team's endless philosophizing and doubts about their success make the viewer stop and think: surely I have better things to do. They finally reach a utopia where every element needed for survival is present—except for sunshine and testing reveals that any life form is born sterile. [descending music cue: Dah-dah-dah-dah!] The dangerous journey ultimately claims the lives of two expedition members. They are soon forgotten once the eruption of the underground lake pushes the Cyclotram and its three survivors back to Earth's surface near a small tropical island named, Gilligan.