Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-08-17

do with the luSty wooings, woes ant
engaged in heavy hauling on the
novel material for the emotional ex
capped by the obvious indecision of
the authors as to the best way to
handle their load of drama Ac-
cordingly, after starting out with a
story about two good guys trying
to break into a hauling monopoly,
they end up with one good guy try
ing to get out Of the clutches of a
beautiful, mad female. Customers
who can stand the shock of quick
turns like that will live to recall
with pleasure some other aspects
of "They Drive by Night"
AS usual in a film which assemblies
the skills of George Raft Miss
Sheridan, Miss Lupino, Humphrey
Bogart and fleet of gigantic
motor vehicles, the customers can
expect a succession Of lusty, earthly
touches. They get them from the
opening sequence in which Rats
lotion monster is splattered over
the highway by a rival hauling
outfit, until next to closing one
in which Miss Lupino winds up mad
because Raft won't use the tele-
phone number she gave him.
The elements of They Drive by
Night" most likely to be remem-
bered are its dialogue and Miss
Lupino's performance as a neurotic
beauty. In conversation, its people
are simple, direct and to the point
and the point is always plain and
fully visible Sometimes it has to
do with the fact that truck drivers
are literally about to die tin grue-
some accidents) from a lack of
sleep, again it has to do with their
susceptibility to counter girls in
wayside coffee and doughnut joints.
The latter gives Miss Sheridan some
sterling opportunities for some
sultry exchanges, some of which
must have been disguised as nursery
rhymes when the Hays Office saw
the script.
AS for Miss Lupino's performance,
her neurosis over Raft never is ex-
planned but that does not keep it
from being an interesting thing to
watch. Vocally, it carries all those
infections made famous by Mae
West. The attention 1t attracts
probably is due to the fact that
the infections never before ended
in such violent Illustration on the
screen. It's one defect was that
Raft, kind of muscular, ambitious
dope, never seemed worth all the
terrible trouble which Miss Lupino
created for herself.
Before it settles down to being
love duel "They Drive by Night
has some refreshing thrills involv-
ing trucks driving over cliffs, burst
ing into flames, being wrecked by
bad. bad gangsters, etc. Just how
the trucking industry may feel about
this is not the concern of a re-
viewer, but it is something one
wonders about during the unfold
ment of the plot of the picture.
Against the thrills of what hap
pens to the trucks in the early part
of the film and the Chills over what
happens to Miss Lupino in it's later
phases the script writer's have
edy. One of them is represented
by an Irish truck driver who never
can lose on a pin-ball machine,
the other by a love-blinded dope
of q husband who thinks everything
his wife says is scream and pro-
ceeds to scream at it.
The characters which the various
people involved interpret in They
Drive by Night" are pretty much
their usual ones. Miss Sheridan is
the wisecracking waitress with the
heart of gold and the form of Venus;
Raft. the dark, glowering guy. who
wants only to get ahead in the
world; Bogart. his shiftless brother,
who doesn't like the trucking bust
ness, etc.
The others are quite as routine.
X II
There is q note of violence about
the Earle's stage show. too, though
the antic knockabout tomfoolery of
Ames and Arno is not quite so
strenuous as truck crashes. And
their madness is much lighter in
vein than Ida Lupino's. Musical
headliner of the revue, the fellow
who contributes some sanity, is
Gene Austin, come to town to sing
as pleasantly as ever a number of
the songs he wrote and popularized.
New. at least new to the local
vaudeville scene, are the Music Mas
tiers, who are not what you would
expect from that name at all, but
rather are three zany lads who en-
ploy kazoos to initiate any one from
John Philip Sousa to Wayne King
with stopoyers at places like Henry
Busse). The Roxyettes have a
rhythm number to start things Oh.
then relax to decorate the scene or