Ida Goes Mad

Joe (George Raft) and Paul Fabrini (Humphrey Bogart) are trying to beat the odds by running their own trucking service.  With their one truck, They Drive by Night (1940) moving produce from one city to another. It's an exhausting and dangerous job, as they try to acquire enough money to pay off their truck and build a successful business.

This is a well-acted film with an engaging storyline that will keep you interested throughout.  It's got an impressive cast, but frankly, it's Ida Lupino (Lana Carlsen) who steals the entire film.  More on her later.

George Raft is convincing as the determined trucker who's trying to beat the odds in building his own business. While I'm generally not a fan of Mr. Raft, he does a good job in this film, primarily because of the actors he plays against. Raft and Humphrey Bogart make convincing brothers; there is a subtle intimacy between the two. While we witness the strain between the brothers - Paul wants to be home more with his wife, while Joe is convinced they can beat the system - there is affection and understanding too.

Humphrey Bogart's role in the film is relatively small. As Joe's brother, he is constantly complaining about the stress of their work and his ongoing reluctance to leave his wife alone yet again.  Gale Page (Pearl Fabrini) is in much the same situation - she's there to represent the wives who fear for their husbands' safety. She's a much better actress than the whining Pearl allows her to be.

Alan Hale (Ed Carlsen) fairs much better as the jovial, if hard drinking, owner of a major trucking company.  Ed came up through the ranks and built a thriving business.  He's a loyal friend, who's been trying to convince Joe to join his company. The fly in the ointment is Ed's wife Lana - unbeknownst to Ed, Lana has been pursuing Joe, who is having none of it.  Mr. Hale is awfully good in the part, and his loss is felt.

Ann Sheridan (Cassie Hartley) gets to wisecrack in her early scenes in the film but as she becomes more involved with Joe, she becomes more subdued.  By the end, we know who is going to be in charge in their marriage; Cassie is a strong and loyal woman who will always support her man. We particularly enjoyed the scene when Joe collapses on her bed in exhaustion, and Cassie spends the night on the sofa.

It was George Raft who recommended Ida Lupino for the role of Lana (TCM article), and as we mentioned previously, she steals the film.  She's crafty and scheming; disgusted by her husband but eager to spend his money. She dominates every scene in which she appears, but it is the last part of the picture where she rules. Her desire to get Joe into her bed, her growing guilt over her husband's death, and her resentment of Cassie all lead to a perfect storm in the film's conclusion. 

They Drive by Night is also blessed with a number of Warner Brothers contract players, including Roscoe Karns (as pinball addict Irish McGurn), George Tobias (as fruit seller George Rondolos), and William Bendix (as another truck driver).  All combine to make a very well-rounded film.

The story is loosely based on the 1935 film Bordertown (AFI Catalog).  It was aired by Lux Radio Theatre  in June of 1941 with George Raft, Lana Turner, and Lucille Ball.

New York Times review by Bosley Crowther was positive, calling it "an entertaining ride".  We concur; if you are a fan of Ms. Lupino, you must see this. And if not, there is still plenty of good acting to catch your eye. We'll leave you with the film's trailer:

Well, Nobody's Perfect

TCM Presents for June was a real treat - a big screen presentation of Some Like it Hot (1959).  #1 on AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs, this film is among director Billy Wilder's masterworks.  The story focuses on two musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) who inadvertently witness the murder of seven gangsters in Jazz Age Chicago. On the lam from kingpin "Spats" Colombo (George Raft) who ordered the massacre, Joe and Jerry don dresses, become Josephine and Daphne, and join and all-girl's band headed to Florida. Intending to get a free ride south and then head on to Mexico, Joe and Jerry instead are trapped with entanglements. Joe assumes the disguise of millionaire Shell Oil Junior at first to seduce girl singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), but finds himself falling in love with her instead. Jerry, however, is being pursued by actual millionaire Osgood Fielding, III (Joe E. Brown), who is unaware of "Daphne's" actual genter. Added to this, there is the meeting of the Convention of Italian Opera Lovers Association in their hotel, headed by Little Bonaparte (Nehemiah Persoff) and attended by "Spats" and his cronies.

One of the nice things about seeing this film in a theatre is listening to people actually laughing at the jokes in a 58 year old movie. The story is timeless, and so is the dialogue. Jack Lemmon is especially funny - his switches back and forth from "I'm a girl" to "I'm a boy" are the icing on this gender-switching farce. His interactions with the unappreciated Joe E. Brown are also priceless bits of comedy.

It's also fun to watch Billy Wilder incorporate references to old gangster films of the 1930s. Witness Edward G. Robinson, Jr. (as Johnny Paradise) mimic George Raft's Guino Rinaldo in Scarface with his coin-tossing antics. "Where did you pick up that cheap trick?" Raft asks.  According to the AFI Catalog, Wilder wanted Edward G. Robinson to appear in the film, but Robinson declined. He despised George Raft, and had vowed never to work with him again. One wonders if he enjoyed watching his son gun down Robinson late in the film!

Another visitor from the land of the 1930s gangster picture is Pat O'Brien, who often played a good guy in those early films. Here he is again on the side of law and order as Mulligan, the police detective investigating the massacre. He's got some nice repartee with both Raft and Nehemiah Persoff, making his relatively small role memorable.

Tony Curtis had some troubles with doing a falsetto (his lines as Josephine are partially dubbed by Paul Frees), but he had no problems doing his Cary Grant imitation (Grant would later jokingly tell Billy Wilder "I don't talk like that!!!" (The Guardian)). Curtis came up with the idea of doing Shell Oil Junior as Mr. Grant, rather than just talk like Joe. Wilder, who had always wanted to work with Mr. Grant, was amused. Curtis, who later did a tribute to Mr. Grant for TCM, stated that he wanted to imitate Mr. Grant because it implied culture, and because he had always wanted to work with Cary Grant.

The film was originally to be shot in color, but the makeup that the men wore was just too outlandish in color. Though Marilyn Monroe had expected (and wanted) to appear in a color film, Billy Wilder showed her the color rushes - she agreed to the switch to black and white.

When you watch this film today, you wonder how Mr. Wilder and Mr. Diamond were able to pull of this very daring film (the film was condemned by the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency). Yet, despite its edginess, audiences embraced it when it opened (see this TCM Article for more on the film's release). Very loosely based on a German film (Fanfaren Der Liebe) in which two musicians cross-dress (among their many wardrobe changes) to get jobs, Wilder and Diamond added the 1930s gangster angle. Frank Sinatra and Mitzi Gaynor were considered for the parts of Jerry/Daphne and Sugar. At one point, Wilder wanted Danny Kaye and Bob Hope for Jerry and Joe, but ultimately decided on Curtis and Lemmon.

For all those Star Trek fans out there, watch for Grace Lee Whitney (in the unbilled role, Rosella). She's very obvious in the party scene on the train to Florida. 

Though it did well at the box office, it didn't garner all that many awards - Golden Globe Awards for both Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe (the Globe has awards for acting in comedies, which surely helped against the juggernaut of Ben Hur). History has been kinder the to the film, and besides being first on the AFI comedy list, it is also #22 on the AFI's 100 Years, 100 Films, 10th Edition, as well as #48 on AFI's 100 Greatest Quotes of All Time. I'm going to leave you with that quote.  Quite frankly, the line IS perfect!