Road rage… Hell Drivers (1957)

I haven’t seen this film since a black and white Saturday in the seventies and it deserves its reputation as one of the best dramas of the period. Yes, the film is sped up to make some of the truck driving look even more dangerous than it probably was but on the bigger modern screen this is still a white knuckle ride as your foot reflexively pushes down hard on the imaginary brake at the base of your living room chair with every manic swing round an impossible corner or reckless overtake into on-coming traffic. 

Cy Endfield’s cutting is masterful of course and the editing of John D. Guthridge, pulling back and forth from the road, the monstrous trucks and the sweated reactions of one of the finest ensembles of actors you’ll find. Indeed, it’s not so much the speed of vehicles that scare you but the display of desperation and mad determination on the brows of Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan and Herbert Lom. This is Britain’s answer to Clouzot’s Wages of Fear with the dynamite being in men’s hearts and minds, post-war austerity of the soul.

Stanley Baker

 

Baker is brilliant as Tom Yately, just out of prison for an unspecified crime but aiming to follow the straight and narrow if he can only get a chance. He has the right mix of quite shame in his past with a modest, yet fierce belief in his own worth; such a likeable actor and one of the icons of post-War British cinema. None of the characters in Hell Drivers is entirely innocent and it’s a tough film with a dark heart. Tom finds his way to Hawletts, a haulage contractor ruthlessly run by Mr Cartley (William Hartnell), which makes money by moving as much gravel across from quarry to building site as possible with the mathematics of the daily deliveries being unrelenting: each driver needs to make at least twelve ten-ton, twenty-mile round trips a day or lose his job. The trucks are parrot-nosed Dodge 100 "Kew" vehicles not designed for comfort or even safety at the speeds the top drivers take them. 

Cartley's secretary Lucy (Prestatyn’s finest Peggy Cummins in jeans!) has an instant spark with Joe who’s heard from a pal about a vacancy – caused, as we learn, by the death of a driver – and he soon learns the ropes after a near miss on his first trip out in truck no. 13, with head mechanic Ed (the excellent Wilfrid Lawson). It doesn’t get any easier as Joe soon comes up against the driver’s top dog, "Red" Redman (Patrick McGoohan), the fastest and most reckless who has truck no. 1. McGoohan has screen presence to match Baker’s and is at his most febrile here, as out of control as the Dodge’s with a performance that veers towards the barrier of believability but stays just inside the double yellow line of sincerity.

Peggy Cummins

Herbert Lom’s Gino, driver of truck no. 3, provides a counterbalance, an Italian who remained after the war and who is both religious and honest. Gino loves Lucy, and sweetly calls her his “girl” even though we suspect she is only marking time with him as she soon proves with her advances to Tom; see, no-one is innocent.

The rest of the team is a roll-call of character-acting excellence, everyone of whom would have long careers; Dusty, no. 22 (Sid James), Tinker, truck 11 (Alfie Bass), Scottie, no. 7 (Gordon Jackson) and, sorry mate but the Scottie nickname was already taken, Johnny, no. 19 (someone called Sean Connery). We also have the stunningly stunning Jill Ireland as a waitress in the Pull Inn café where the boys congregate for breakfast and after a hard day’s truck. 

Tom soon gets with the flow and sets himself the target of beating Red’s record and winning the gold cigarette case for anyone who can better his 18 runs in a day. But the game is rigged as Red cheats by cutting across country and does everything he can to hamper the competition by fair means or foul. This is a tough film and you know not everyone will make it through…

What a carry on Mr Bond?

Tom goes to see his mother (Beatrice Varley) and brother Jimmy (David McCallum) to give them some of his hard-earned cash, but he’s still in disgrace with her not just for his crime but the fact he involved Jimmy who is now permanently on crutches as a result. It leaves you thinking what would have made the otherwise decent Tom so desperate for money that he’d risk both her sons in the crime. There’s something in this film that touches on working class choices and also exploitation as Hawletts turns out to be a crooked enterprise, with Cartley and Red colluding to cream off the pay for more drivers than they actually employ. They’re driving the men into the ground to make up for the missing headcount. 

The mood changes after a scrap at the local dance when Tom, wary of breaking his parole, makes a getaway before ethe police arrive to settle matters. The other drivers now start to call him coward and to undermine him at every turn, encouraged by Red. Gino swaps trucks with Tom to give him a chance at the record and pays the price… things are getting personal and Tom determines to risk everything to prove himself and to expose the con.

Parrot-nosed Dodge 100 "Kew" trucks

Dusty verdict: Hell Drivers is a classic late-period Brit Noir that manages to entertain whilst making you feel uneasy throughout. Even the lead character has been driven to such extremes that his brother is crippled and his mother won’t forgive him, whilst the rest, even those such as Sid and Alfie, are happy to join in with Tom’s victimisation, following Red’s miss directions.  

All of which gives the film the winning edge of a reality that remains, survival of the fittest against all the odds of a rigged system.  

It’s available on BFI Blu-ray with ten ton of extras and frankly, I wouldn’t hesitate to snap it up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pool of life… Violent Playground (1958)

In Mathew Street, just past The White Star pub and before you come to The Grapes, Eric’s , the rebuilt Cavern and that statue of Cilla, there’s a quote from psychologist Carl Gustav Jung underneath a small bust saying that Liverpool was the “Pool of Life”. Jung had never been to the city and yet he had a vivid dream about it in 1927 which stuck, like so many other myths and legends, largely because the locals wanted it to and, as it turns out, it was true. This is a city where all is possible if unlikely.

Back in the late 1950’s Liverpool was on the turn, still carrying the scars of World War Two and starting the nosedive that would see it’s population halve in my lifetime. By the time of this film my Dad was still a policeman there and I couldn’t help thinking of how he’d deal with some of the situations Stanley Baker encounters as Juvenile Liaison Officer, Sergeant Truman. Probably, and I can’t be certain on this, but I’m pretty sure that David McCallum’s delinquent Johnny Murphy would have dealt with a little more direct and tougher love.

My Dad’s no longer around but I can see him wince at some of the situations and dialogue in Violent Playground, especially those Baker has to say. He’s a well-regarded bobby who, for some reason, is sent to work in youth liaison, and then proceeds to go a little quiet and thoughtful. I’m not arguing for a tougher stance but for whatever reason, Baker seems to have his hands tied by the role and just lets too much go, not that he doesn't deliver his usual high-quality of performance.

Stanley Baker just ahead of the 27 on Stanley Road

Clearly the main objective for the film was to highlight social issues rather than to necessarily offer solutions and I supposed Baker’s cop can’t very well stand in the way of this by solving the situation through the usually-expected mix of moral certainty and physical bravery, but there are ways and ways.

Another issue is with McCallum’s part, his Johnnie is a mix of rebel without a cause and yet still an intelligent young man who seems determined to deny himself the escape route his athletic abilities might allow as well as the consolations of faith and the support of his family's priest, played by Peter Cushing . He’s cock of the thirties council block where he lives but he can’t seem to convert this into a successful "business" enterprise in spite of the loyalty of young Tommy played by Freddie Starr, just about the only one authentic of accent and attitude! Still, Melvyn Hayes is in the gang, what are you gonna do?!

Melvyn and the gang get told to lay off Primrose and Alexander

Liverpool was and is a hard city but even in the playground in the middle of Gerard Gardens does indeed look violent, as Johnnies' boys hang around and a heirarchy built through delivering on threats is maintained. Gerard Gardens is just off Scotland Road, near where my mum first lived and where my Grandad used to cycle up and down collecting the insurance pennies when times got tougher pre-war.

Stanley Baker’s Detective Sergeant Jack Truman is clearly a good policeman beginning to intuitively piece together a pattern for the Firefly arson attacks in the city, when he’s inexplicably placed into crime prevention with the Juvenile Liaison team. His first “case” is to intervene when two young scallywags get caught robbing from Lipton’s’, a minor incident but he walks them back to where they live at Gerrard Gardens only to find their older sister is disarmingly attractive Catherine 'Cathie' Murphy (Anne Heywood) whilst their older brother is the cool nihilistic Johnny (McCallum).

Stanley Baker and the rather nice Anne Heywood

As Jack leaves the estate, he sees Johnnie’s power over the other youths and two Chinese youngsters do anything to avoid conflict as the boys push people around (yes, even Mr Hayes!). The theory of crime prevention is to catch them young, as with Johnny’s sister and brother, but with the future all sown up by a choice of low-paid drudgery or unemployment and crime, it’s a tough cycle to crack. Cathie is the moral centre of the household and is a good catholic girl who also wants to protect her family, which leads her to be suspicious of Jack who is simply spellbound…

It’s a situation we’ve seen many times since and so perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on the film. Johnny has the choice of keeping his ill-gotten social standing or trying to go straight. He’s torn and his residual faith has him almost convinced by Peter Cushing’s Priest, but in a superbly visceral performance, McCallum convinces in his inability to escape the fate marked out for him. One moment he's showing his talent as a runner for sports teacher Mr Heaven (Clifford Evans) and a few hours later he and Jack return to his flat to find the gang all there, making a mess. Johnny decides to revert to type and leads them into a threatening dance towards Jack.

The impressive Freddie Starr aka Fred Fowell

As Jack tries to help his siblings he starts to fall for Chrissie and this perhaps alienates Johnny even more, he starts to think big and looks for a way to really make his mark. But the danger here is what if his febrile plans fail, what will he do then. Baker even though subdued, is playing a quitter man than usual and one who is trying to find a way into trust. This will be sorely tested.

No spoilers, but whatever happens at the end the film does hold up hope, if not for all the characters but certainly some and even Jack and Chrissie: both win our sympathy in the end and deserve a break!

Keep on runnin' Johnnie!

Dusty Verdict: Over-mannered and predictable perhaps but there are some good performances here and this is a tale which has only got more relevant. Freddie Starr’s loyal teen is a sign of things to come once drugs turned city centres into even harsher environments for violence and destitution.

BFI Screen online wrote that, "it's hard to deny its rousing effectiveness as a high-powered melodrama…” whilst TV Guide noted, "A tautly scripted effort is given a realistic bent through the atmospheric photography and the subtle handling of the children."

There’s some good support from John Slater (later to star in Z-Cars) as Detective Sergeant Willie Walker; a street smart copper, Vincent Price is superb as usual and  it’s worth noting the presence and performances of Michael Chow as Alexander and Tsai Chin as Primrose. Liverpool has Europe’s oldest Chinese community and so it is good to see this being represented in 1958.

Butter wouldn't melt: Fergal and Brona Boland

The kids are great too: Brona and Fergal Boland playing Mary and Patrick Murphy, Johnny, and Chrissie’s younger siblings.

There are some fascinating location shots in the city and I especially liked one shot of the kids running down from Lime Street Station as well as the genuinely tense van and car chase through town, down to the Pier Head, the Three Graces and the gone and much missed overhead railway. Some of these buildings have now gone and Liverpool, after years of progress, now stands at a crossroads after the Covid pandemic, it’s to be hoped we are ready for what will follow.

You can order the DVD of Violent Playground from Amazon.