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Global thing: Hell Drivers (1957)



 
created on: 24/03/2017
by: CinemasFringes (219)
Globalises the following things :
S
T
 
 

Movies properties

Displayed (non textual) :
Person : Patrick McGoohan
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Person : Peggy Cummins
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Person : Stanley Baker
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Displayed (written) info :
THEY FIGHT
TO THE
DEATH -
AND THE
WEAPONS
ARE
TEN-TON
TRUCKS!

THE RANK
ORGANISATION
PRESENTS
HELL DRIVERS

STANLEY BAKER PATRICK MCGOOHAN
Movie Genre :
Action
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
,
Thriller
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Color & sound :
Black & White (With Sound)
Originally released :
1957
Language - Spoken :
English
Rating :
BBFC (UK) 12 (UK)
Running time :
108
Movie credits (on artwork) :
Actor : Alfie Bass
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Actor : David McCallum
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Actor : Gordon Jackson
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Actor : Herbert Lom
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Actor : Jill Ireland
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Actor : Peggy Cummins
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Actor : Sean Connery
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Actor : Sid James
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Actor : Stanley Baker
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Actor : Wilfrid Lawson
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Art Director : Ernest Archer
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Directed By : Cy Endfield
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Director Of Photography : Geoffrey Unsworth
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Executive Producer : Earl St. John
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Music By : Hubert Clifford
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Producer : S. Benjamin Fisz
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Screenplay By : Cy Endfield
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
Screenplay By : John Kruse
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
A Production From : Aqua Film Ltd.
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
This endpoint is approved in the database from previous submissions.
End credits (not on artwork) :
:
Description (by producer & GT in English only) :
This tremendous hard-boiled action thriller from Zulu director Cy Endfield features memorable performances from Stanley Baker and Patrick McGoohan as rival truckers for a ruthless road haulage company. An outstanding cast includes Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, William Hartnell, Sid James, Gordon Jackson and Wilfrid Lawson, with early appearances from Sean Connery and David McCallum. Hell Drivers is featured here in a stunning new High Definition restoration from the original elements, in its as-exhibited aspect ratio.

When ex-con Tom Yately signs up as a driver for Hawlett's, he uncovers shady dealings between the manager and the viciously ambitious head driver - the drivers are paid per trip, with a bonus system encouraging them to drive at reckless speeds and take dangerous risks. The stakes are raised when a fatal accident claims the life of Tom's only workplace ally, and he vows to take revenge.
Comments & Reviews :
Posted by CinemasFringes (219) on maart 26, 2017
Stanley Baker plays Tom Yately, a man just out of prison who approaches Hawlett’s Trucking Company to get work as a driver. He has a quick meeting with the company’s snippy boss Cartley (William Hartnell) who runs through the rather harsh terms and conditions which basically amount to forcing his employees to break the speed limit to meet daily targets; fail to meet them and you’re out.

After a rather hair-raising driving test with Ed (Wilfrid Lawson), Tom gets his job and is assigned truck number 13 “for luck” - or so says the company’s secretary Lucy (Peggy Cummins). He starts to get to know the other drivers, who gather each night at a cafe called “The Pull-Inn”. He soon befriends an Italian immigrant co-worker named Gino (Herbert Lom) who is dating Lucy. The latter however takes a clear fancy to our handsome protagonist, as does the cafe-owner’s daughter Jill (Jill Ireland). Unfortunately the other drivers, ring-led by the facially-scarred, cutthroat foreman “Red” (Patrick McGoohan) adopt a rather less cordial attitude. Red is the fastest of all of the drivers, regularly managing 18 runs per day. Since nobody can beat him he challenges them all by offering a gold cigarette case to whoever manages to do so.

When Tom starts his job proper he begins to learn about the underhanded tactics that Red uses to guard his position at the top of the leagues. With Gino’s help he tries a few underhanded tactics of his own so as to win that coveted gold case, with the intention of selling it and moving on somewhere better. However Red isn’t someone who concedes easily, and has a few other dirty tricks up his sleeve, as well as the support of most of the other men.

Hell Drivers was one of numerous films that American director Cy Endfield made in Britain following his exile during the McCarthy era. As an action flick it certainly entertains, but is undeniably rather dated. The central truck “races” as they cluster dangerously close together amid the precariously-weaving British rural “B” road network make good use of POV and low angle shots, but are filmed in an obviously under-cranked manner (making them look sped-up). The occasional fist fights are similarly “of their time” as they feature some rather obviously pulled punches.

On the other hand, the social commentary that looks at the dog-eat-dog world of work that pervades the British underclass - as enforced by the inherently corrupt persons higher up in society’s food chain - is just as relevant in today’s world of zero hours contracts and aggressively timed and quota’d work shifts. It’s a working class world portrayed in a resolutely rough-and-ready, unromantic, classically British Social Realist manner. It’s violent and gritty stuff, where its main characters end up steeped in grime and even having to wipe a little blood from their lips on occasion. The dialogue scenes and interactions between the characters are coarse and believable with a mixture of boorish camaraderie and bitter, seething rivalry.

At the centre of this maelstrom are the great performances and vividly-drawn characterisations of Stanley Baker’s Tom and Patrick McGoohan’s Red. Baker plays an archetypal “decent man whose life has taken a wrong turn” kind of character, but does so with a certain modest everyman likability and rugged charm. His character Tom is tough all right, but does have a certain vulnerability and a genuine wish to redeem himself in the eyes of others following his prison stretch. There are some small moments of poignancy that anchor the drama with a sense of emotional depth, such as when he uses a table that doubles as Gino’s Catholic altar to block the door so as to keep out a bunch of soused truckers who are spoiling for a fight; when some objects on it fall over he is seen gently rectifying their position. An even more dramatically weighty moment comes later on when he visits his brother and mother while they are working in a corner shop - highlighting the heartbreaking difficulty he has in reconciling with his devastated family. Red is a rather more basic sociopathic thug, but is played with an undeniably intimidating air of malice by McGoohan. He’s a classical bully who rules through fear, and his scenes with Baker (whose character initially struggles to even look him in those permanently steely eyes) are all-too-believably edgy.

Hell Drivers is also notable for featuring an uncanny number of actors who went onto considerable fame afterwards. The film turned Welshman Stanley Baker from an up-and-coming actor into a fully-fledged star, and he remained one until his premature death from lung cancer in 1976, at the age of 48 (just shortly after he was awarded a knighthood). Herbert Lom became best known for playing Inspector Clouseau’s long-suffering boss Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, and remained a prolific character actor working internationally in both big and small budget films (including numerous horror flicks) until the early 1990s. Patrick McGoohan became famous for playing the main protagonists in the popular 1960s TV serials Danger Man and The Prisoner, before going on to a range of prominent roles in big-screen successes such as Silver Streak (1976), Scanners (1981) and Braveheart (1995). William Hartnell went on to become the first incarnation of Doctor Who from 1963 to 1966. Sidney James turned towards more comedic roles and became a regular fixture in the cast of the innuendo-laden Carry On film series (his first name was abbreviated to Sid during these later appearances). Jill Ireland found her fame as the real-life Mrs. Charles Bronson from 1968 until her death in 1990, and also regularly played the onscreen love interest in his films. Her previous husband was David McCallum (playing Tom’s crippled younger brother here), who became best known for playing Illya Kuryakin in the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E during the 1960s. Gordon Jackson’s career hit its heights during the 1970s with major recurring roles in two British TV series: Upstairs, Downstairs and The Professionals. Last but not least is Sean Connery, here in a peripheral part as one of the truckers. You are probably aware that his iconic role as James Bond made him into a star, but you might not know that both Stanley Baker and Patrick McGoohan were amongst the actors who had turned it down.

Despite its somewhat dated action filming and depictions of women, Hell Drivers stands as an intelligent and energetic piece of British cinema.

Rating:

8,00

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Item number : 15568

Submitted by : CinemasFringes (219)
on : 24/03/2017