Truck Busters

There's a boom in the trucking industry because of the War, and CEOs of the "Big Four" meet to collude. They agree to drive the independents out of the business and split the kitty, even though Richard Travis may be a problem. Indeed he may, especially when his brother, Charles Lang, is killed.

This high-speed Warner Brothers trucking movie has the level of gloss that Warner Brothers programmers afforded, but the dialogue direction stinks; at 58 minutes, with lots of plot exposition to get through, Travis takes a lot of time to get through his drawled sides, forcing the rest of the cast to hurry their lines. With the classic motormouths that made up the Warners stock company a decade earlier, this would not have been a problem. Now it is.

It's directed by B. Reeves Eason. 'Breezy' may have been the greatest Second Unit Director of all time, with BEN HUR, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, and MA AND PA KETTLE AT THE FAIR on his curriculum vitae, but his credits as the man with the megaphone range between "Watchable" and "Never heard of it". He died in 1956 at the age of 69.

I did not expect anything different from this Warner Studios piece of work. Short, sharp, fast paced little adventure thriller, full of action. I sometimes thought I was watching a serial. Typical of the Warner films. I won't repeat the topic, already told just above. But keep in mind that the director B Reeves Eason made himself some serials before. So he has the background to do so. I am surprised that this little gem has not been commented yet.

Many other movies talked about this very same subject: the mob syndicate influence among truck drivers companies and unions.

A wonderful time waster for any movie buff searching for rare items, especially from the foolish forties.

Truck Busters .. a war time Warner Brothers shortie. when the mob tries to take over the trucking industry, they try to fight back. but the government has stopped the sale of trucks during war time, and organized crime has taken over the bank which holds the title on everyone's truck. and then the violence begins. Richard Travis is one of the Dorgan brothers; he was Bert in "Man Who Came to Dinner". Truck Busters is kind of a re-hash of They Drive by Night, made in 1938 and 1940. The 1940 version was also Warner Brothers, but that time they had a real budget, so that one had Raft, Bogart, and Hale in it. The 1943 version was directed by Reeves Eason. this film was a "B" movie... not much story, not much budget. a whole lotta uncredited roles for extras. it's just so-so. goes exactly as expected.

During WWII, a huge number of films coming out of Hollywood had patriotic themes that were obviously meant as propaganda. A few, such as "Truck Busters", had less obvious patriotism in them...and this is why this made for a pretty good B-film.

The film begins with a group of scumbags who run some of the biggest trucking companies in the country. They come up with a scheme to allign themselves with racketeers in order to take control of the industry....and then, with a monopoly, they could charge whatever they want! But the thing in their way are the independent truckers--the little guys who could be competitive and keep prices lower. So, they roll out goons to rough up and even kill the independent truckers. What's going to come of this?

The story is solid and the Warner Brothers production values excellent. So, despite having few stars of any consequence in the story, the overall product is nice...well worth seeing. My only quibble are a few cliches...and one of the worst was when one guy was told by his wife she's pregnant...and you KNOW he'll soon be pushing up daisies!!