Hell Drivers

This film is a remarkably unsentimental look at life for the less fortunate in post-war Britain. There are no tour-de-force performances, but this is not a film that demands them. A group of down on their luck men, finding work, love and friendship where they can, do what they have to do to earn enough money to keep them from crime (more or less), particularly when faced by venal employers who cheat and lie to them daily. There is no union for these men, no legal recourse, no Health and Safety Executive, they have nothing except themselves and the tenuous camaraderie they forge in the down and out bed and breakfasts they have to live in. Driving trucks to ferry gravel from a quarry to a building site, they cut every corner and take their own, and every other road user's, life in their hands as they struggle to get that one more run, that might get them one more pint in the pub. A veritable "who's going to be who" of British actors - Sean Connery, David McCallum, Herbert Lom (okay, Czech, but work with me...), William Hartnell (far from the lovable Dr Who), Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan and Sid James (in a rare straight role) all grimly play men on edge pushed to their limits - and sometimes beyond.

Oh yes - until 1965, there were no speed limits on British roads outside urban areas, which in some respects explains the lack of police.

A tautly directed and tight lipped B movie done in American 50's crime genre style. This was one British film that had actors playing tough guys properly instead of the usual feeble and artificial methods of acting tough that let down scores of British films of that time. In particular the fist fight scene looked convincing and dramatic for a change. All this was very refreshing for its time. A very watchable Patrick Mcgoohan excelled in the role as the main antagonist playing a believable hard b'stard. I wish he had done subsequent roles as a leading heavy he would have been good at that. A strong cast all round. The dour realism of working class England was captured well. The crazy driving was not too far from the truth either. During the Fifties there was a massive rebuilding programme going on following the war and the blitz and you would see these ballast lorries scurrying around everywhere breaking speed limits where they could. Many looked in a bad state of maintenance. For truck geeks they were Dodge Semi Forwards with mostly Perkins diesel engines.

Although the film belongs to Baker and mcgoohan there are plenty of other famous faces to spot. yes, sid james only ever played one character in all his films- that of sid james- but its an interesting romp nonetheless. I have it on good authority it was filmed around Stanwell moor, west London, and the trucks are "kew" dodges. something no-one has picked up on is that the sequences showing the trucks traveling at speed are obviously speeded up, these old motors were incapable of exceeding 45 mph, even more so carrying 10 tons o gravel (they were only 7 ton design weight) The plot is believable though, the practice of paying drivers "per trip" was and still is a common practice, especially in the tipper sector (obviously to encourage more runs) I know, I worked for a firm remarkably similar to Hawletts. someone has commented on the "coincidence" that all the drivers sleep at the same lodgings- this too was common in the 50's, before the advent of sleeper cabs, drivers would simply find "digs" for the night. also fewer people had their own car in those days, so wouldn't it make sense to sleep close to the job? Made on a small budget in an era where you would need to watch your Ps and Qs and also tone down any scenes of violence, its a classic in my opinion. In those days you'd actually probably be very grateful to be behind one of these wagons, the speed limit for trucks was only 20mph back then!

Stanley Baker heads a remarkable cast of high quality British based actors in a rattleing good yarn of corruption and grim macho rivalry. The towering Welsh actor looks and acts every inch the quiet spoken smouldering tough guy character(Tom Yately),a role that he was seemingly born to play, a combination of working class hard-man, reluctant/accidental criminal and passionate lover. A role too that he played in slightly differing forms in several other classic British crime flicks of the 1950's such as ONLY THE GOD DIE YOUNG but in HELL DRIVERS he has distilled the persona to perfection. Tom Yately an itinerant ex con, taking the only job he can find with his dubious background. This leads him to a trucking firm who deliver ballast (gravel/stone)and insist on their drivers (all apparently similar, down at heel ex cons and drifters) running insane risks at illegal speeds in order to earn enough bonus pay to survive and with the promise that if any of them can deliver more loads in a day than the obnoxious foreman, Red, the prize is a solid silver cigarette case worth a small fortune. Tom lands a room in a rough boarding house where most of his workmates also live and so work and it's pressures and rivalries are with him constantly.The landlady is a tough old bird and well capable of dishing out whatever is required to keep order.And she needs to! The other drivers are prone to constant fighting and low-brow practical jokes, one of which lands Tom in a classic confrontation with Red (played by Patrick "The Prisoner" McGoohan)which gives the film one of it's truly great moments of cinematic fury. As the story developes Tom ducks out of a dance hall brawl rather than risk his parole and becomes ostracized by the other drivers who have all been involved and who resent him for his apparent cowardice. Only his the rather more reasonable Italian ex POW, Gino (Herbert"Pink Panther" Lom) remains loyal. There is however the complication of Gino's "girl" (Peggy Cummings)who works at the truck yard. Unlike Gino,she sees herself as a free agent and makes a pitch for Baker.I won't spoil the plot which does have some good twists and turns but I will say that it all ends in rather dramatic, satisfying, if not unexpected violence. McGoohan, as Red, gives a superb performances , one of psychotic, cigar chewing , glowering animal menace. He makes Red the kind of foreman from hell that No-one would argue with. His acid-spitting delivery of lines, boxer-like stance and unkempt appearance simply ooze evil. Its a raw edged version of the rather more sophisticated "No.6" he later made famous in "The Prisoner" . Red could easily be "No.6"s mentally unstable cousin!

Gino is played with warmth and sensitivity by Lom, who's truly a class act, so much more so than his most famous Role of Inspector Dreyfuss in the PINK PANTHER films would have us believe. Peggy Cummings as Lucy, his girlfriend, is also superb; bright, quick, sassy and very attractive. Something of a teaser and everything of a femme fatale full of barely suppressed passion. Her love scenes with Tom are unusually sparky for a 50's British film.

Of the others, where do you start? Sean Connery is there in his pre-007 days. He's good but not yet great, but he looks the part, as in fact do every one of the cast, who were all chosen with great success. Carry-On star Sid James clowns about in some scenes but has a raw edge that reminds us what a damn good straight actor he could be when given the role while Gordon Jackson puts in a similarly gritty performance long before his lasting TV fame of THE PROFESSIONALS. The yard boss, played by the original DR WHO, William Hartnell is another fine piece of casting in what must rank as one of the best British films of the 50's. The story is unusual, a change from the whodunnit's, kitchen sink dramas and Ealing Comedies that were standard fare at the time. The script isn't too peppered with cliches and fairly crackles with tension at times. The action scenes both with the actors and with the trucks are sharply directed (aside from the old trick of speeding up the film at times which was common pactice untill quite recently and always, always looks false!)and every scene is well photographed to portray a grim, earthy working-class world. The characters are real and the performances are superb. It's a fine ensemble piece with a strong but not overpowering star role. Baker is in command but the others do not wither in his shadow and it can't have been by accident that the same star and director later worked together with major international success on ZULU.

This underrated film, directed by Cy Endfield (Zulu) is a dour, realistic drama about an ex-con (Stanley Baker) who goes to work as a lorry driver for a crooked haulage company, only to discover that the ruthless boss and his foreman are cheating the drivers of huge amounts of money, and forcing them to work in dangerous conditions, resulting in the death of several drivers.

It benefits from a taut, BAFTA nominated screenplay by Endfield and John Kruse (better known as a documentary film maker), which pulls no punches in its realistic depiction of the genuinely life-threatening conditions that these lorry drivers had to endure.

Its chief asset, however, is the remarkably strong cast. Stanley Baker, as the ex-con determined to expose his corrupt bosses, brings a quiet strength and sincerity to his role as a basically decent guy who makes the wrong choices. It is interesting to compare Baker's performance here with his acclaimed portrayal of the ruthless, hardened gangster in Joseph Losey's 'The Criminal', made three years later.

Patrick McGoohan shines in an early role as the psychopathic lead driver, exuding genuine menace. And as for the priceless supporting cast: Herbert Lom, Sid James, Gordon Jackson, and Sean Connery in one of his earliest roles..need I say more. To sum up, Hell Drivers is a minor classic of post-war British cinema, and deserves more recognition than it has formerly feceived.