I piloti dell'inferno

This movie shows us a side of the English that most Americans are unfamiliar with. Down, dirty, gritty, and nasty. We see these traits more in ourselves than in our friends across the pond.

As an old trucker, I was practically hypnotized by this movie. If I were still driving it would give me nightmares. A trucking crew, at odds with themselves as well as the owner, practically cut each others throats to become top driver. It is a daily grind consisting of hauling loads of gravel back and forth from a gravel pit to a construction site, rolling over each other as well as everyone else on the road in the process.

It isn't the story that makes this film - it's the cast, action, and direction - in any order you like. Stanley Baker plays the new guy. An ex-con trying to make a new start. Patrick McGoohan plays his antagonist in a truly evil fashion. I thought back and cannot remember seeing Patrick McGoohan in any standout role other than a Columbo re-run. But he really hit the mark here. Probably before he became convinced he was the world's greatest actor. The rest would fill out the Rank Organisation's register. Gordon Jackson (from The Great Escape), Herbert Lom (from the Pink Panther series) as an Italian!, and Sean Connery (pre James Bond) with real hair!

I found myself watching this movie with my mouth open and wondering WHERE WERE THE COPS!

An oddball movie, a hybrid of (would be) Hollywood tough-guy melodrama and UK kitchen sink sensibility. And yes, starring Dr Who, The Prisoner, 007, Man from UNCLE and many more. Certainly the greatest cast of cult actors ever to appear together, well, ever. This movie is terrible and magnificent in equal measure. To me it is staggeringly watchable. The premise is seriously skewered yet endearing all the same: 1950s English truckdrivers behaving like 1850s American outlaws in a Never Never Land where trucks are allowed to habitually run at 80mph down country lanes without so much a peep from the plod.

McGoohan is a star turn here and Peggy Cummins makes for a surprisingly un-frigid lead (look, the UK film industry in the 1950s didn't do sexy -what do you mean Diana Dors? - proves my point!!). But the film belongs to Baker - brooding, smouldering, moral, vengeful, utterly magnificent. We don't make them like him, or like this any more.

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.

The harsh life of a group of lorry drivers. Tension and excitement are the order of the day with this gritty British film.Most of the main players in this film went on to greater success: Stanley Baker is superb as ever. A very atmospheric film with a tense and dramatic end. If you like old British B&W thrillers, this is a must-see.

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.