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They Drive by Night (1938 film)

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1938 film by Arthur B. Woods For the 1940 American film, see They Drive by Night.

They Drive by Night
British lobby card
Directed byArthur B. Woods
Written byPaul Gangelin
Derek Twist
Screenplay byJames Curtis
Based onThey Drive by Night
1938 novel
by James Curtis
Produced byJerome Jackson
StarringEmlyn Williams
Ernest Thesiger
CinematographyBasil Emmott
Edited byLeslie Norman
Music byBretton Byrd
Production
company		Warner Bros. - First National Productions
Distributed byWarner Bros. (UK)
Release date
  • December 1938 (1938-12)
Running time84 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

They Drive by Night is a 1938 British black-and-white crime thriller film directed by Arthur B. Woods and starring Emlyn Williams and Ernest Thesiger. It was produced by Warner Bros. - First National Productions and based on the 1938 novel They Drive by Night by James Curtis.

The picture is not to be confused with the 1940 American film They Drive by Night, based on a different novel and featuring George Raft and Humphrey Bogart, and also a Warner Bros. film. This British film also has the alternative title, perhaps only in the United States, of Murder on the Run.

Plot

"Shorty" Matthews having recently been released from prison visits his girlfriend in London only to discover she has been murdered. Fearing he will be wrongly accused of being the culprit he disappears amongst the long-distance lorry driving community. Meanwhile, the real killer, unassuming ex-schoolteacher Walter Hoover, continues to prey on London women. As Shorty had feared he has become the main suspect. He returns to London with old flame Molly to prove his innocence.

Cast

Production

James Curtis adapted his own novel They Drive by Night to provide the screenplay for the film. The female victims of the book were prostitutes and to prevent censorship this aspect was watered down. Additionally, the book featured scenes of police brutality that were excised altogether. The film was made by Warner Brothers at the recently purchased Teddington Studios as a quota film under the Cinematograph Films Act 1927.

Release

While it gained a certificate to be released in the US the studio cited an inability to get a negative out of the UK. As such it did not receive a US theatrical release.

Reception

Box office

The film made a profit of £10,557.

Critical

On release in the UK it was well received critically with author Graham Greene being a notable fan. Of the film he cited how close it came to French cinema with its realism and lack of romanticism.

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This gripping and exciting thriller has been admirably produced and directed. Great care has been taken with the backgrounds, which are strikingly realistic. The strange night life on the trunk roads with the open all-night cafés (pronounced "caffs") is contrasted with the gay and flashy palais de danse. The cheap lodging-house is set over against Mr. Hoover's luxurious but eerie flat. The sinister opening – a group of people waiting outside a prison for the bell which tolls for the execution of a murderer – is repeated in the closing sequence, after a climax in the Grand Guignol tradition."

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "outstanding", writing: "Splendid, atmospheric black thriller: the sleeper of its year."

Leslie Halliwell's 1977 edition of The Filmgoer's Companion cites the picture as the director Arthur B. Woods' most notable film and also a film of note for Ernest Thesiger.

Home media

The film is currently unavailable on DVD. However, the novel was reissued by London Books with an introduction by Jonathan Meades in 2008.

References

  1. "They Drive by Night". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  2. "They Drive by Night (1939)". Archived from the original on 18 January 2009.
  3. ^ "London Books". www.london-books.co.uk.
  4. ^ "BFI Screenonline: They Drive By Night (1939)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  5. Chapman, Llewella. "'The highest salary ever paid to a human being': Creating a Database of Film Costs from the Bank of England". Journal of British cinema and television, 2022-10. Vol. 19, no. 4. Edinburgh University Press. p. 470-494 at 490.
  6. "They Drive by Night". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 6 (61): 2. 1 January 1939 – via ProQuest.
  7. Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 160. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
  8. Halliwell's The Filmgoer's Companion (1977), Leslie Halliwell (Hill & Wang)

External links

Films directed by Arthur B. Woods
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