The Hi-Jackers

Writer/director Jim O'Connolly should be well known for two films where the cult status went to someone else: In BERSERK, Joan Crawford gets credit while stop-motion guru Ray Harryhausen and his dinosaurs ruled THE VALLEY OF GWANGI. But O'Connolly's by himself in creating two really neat, tight and entertaining B&W post-noir crime flicks derived from the British b-picture company, Butcher's, in the early/mid 1960's...

The first being THE HI-JACKERS starring Anthony Booth as an independent truck/lorry driver: victim of the titular gang faking accident scenes on the rural roadside and then stealing the cargo: in his case, cases of Johnnie Walker Red...

The essential eye candy is cute-as-a-button ingenue Jacqueline Ellis as a rogue young lady, the likes the truckers deem "Mystery," who Booth picks up at a diner before getting robbed. Their chemistry has the kind of relaxing, lived-in coziness where you want them to hook up, but they're almost too perfectly suited to, too soon...

On the other side are THE HI-JACKERS themselves: you might initially think they're actually highly professional policemen, or even classy college professors on a field trip roadside picnic...

Led by non-violent sophisticated heavy Derek Francis with two thugs from O'Connolly's followup, SMOKESCREEN, Glynn Edwards and David Gregory, they're an eclectic lot, calling the boss "Gov" and, eventually holed up at a rural estate, seem to have all the time in the world... that is, until the ingenue riskily moves in, providing a burst of 11th hour suspense, though more serene than edgy...

This fine little curio is an involving jazz-scored crime flick that, no matter what side's being centered on, moves along with well-timed action sequences blanketed by more intelligent than pulpy bouts of page-turning dialogue.

Independent trucker Anthony Booth gives a lift to Jacqueline Ellis. Almost immediately, the truck is hit by some fellows who want the Johnny Walker he's carrying more than Booth does. They're led by Derek Francis, who learnedly lectures his crew on why they don't carry weapons - if someone dies accidentally, the police will have them for murder - and the tight fiscal leash he keeps his associates on - they'll spend it, and then the police will come around with hard-to-answer questions. No, he prefers to remain an ordinary, decent criminal, and live a long and pleasant life on the outside.

While Booth and Miss Ellis warily fall in together, Booth wonders how the criminals knew to hit him.... and that makes up the rest of this pleasant flick. It's nothing to win any critics' polls, but is a decent way to spend 66 minutes.

THE HI-JACKERS is an efficient and entertaining British B-picture which ticks most of the right boxes when it comes to film-making. As a film about truck drivers it's not a patch on the excellent HELL DRIVERS but as a low budget B-movie it's a pleasing timewaster with some good action and an incident-packed plot line to recommend it. Director Jim O'Connolly later helmed the excellent horror flick TOWER OF EVIL.

A youthful Anthony Booth stars as a trucker who finds himself the victim of a gang of hi-jackers who take his truck as well as his load. He swears vengeance on the crew, and the rest of the film is a back-and-forth game between the villains and everyone else pitted against them. The cast is populated by some pretty good character actors who give engaging performances, although the likable Booth gives the best turn. The inclusion of a love interest for the hero drags the pace down a little but for the most part this works well and proves a nice time capsule of the early '60s.

It works on about the level of a middle school creative writing lesson, with students assigned to produce their own crime story.

Cultured, cigar smoking, dome headed, gourmet wannabe Jack Carter (Derek Francis) is the mastermind behind a series of laughably gauche, but surprisingly successful lorry heists.

Likeable, do anything for anyone, anytime, Anthony Booth (prior to finding immortality as Alf Garnett's randy Scouse git son in law) along with passenger Jacqueline Ellis falls foul of the deftly planned...but still laughable hi-jack and his consignment of top quality Scotch soon becomes whiskey in the car, rather than whiskey in the jar!

Pompous, plum in the mouth detective, Patrick Cargill offers Booth little cheer in terms of recovering his vehicle, or its cargo, but is curious about the absence of his co-driver (Ronald Hines) on the day of the crime. Oddly, Hines bears a striking resemblance to Arthur Kennedy at his most devious and calculating, but minus the westerners gun slinging bravura.

Identified as the woman who knew too much, a couple of gang members attempt to put the frighteners on Ellis whilst she is taking a bath, in a predictably clumsy scene which succeeds only in putting the 'sigh' into Psycho. Responding with some of Grace Kelly's Rear Window resilience she takes matters into her own hands gathering information from ex-hubby and jailbird, Douglas Livingstone. The marriage having failed, due to his life of crime and his painfully boring insistence on including the word 'rich' in every sentence he utters.

Throw in plenty of interesting views of the transport from the early '60's and some modern big band jazz.....and you still have a pretty one dimensional cops 'n' robbers caper. Salvaged, however by its unabashed, unpretentious period charm, 'The Hi-Jackers' is a victory for simplicity, a wholly enjoyable experience.....always assuming that Ronald Hines enjoyed being repeatedly punched.

Strictly run-of-the-mill British crime yarn which exerts its own modest charm. Booth is actually quite charismatic and gets across the world weary nature of the long distance lorry driver. We get intriguing glimpses of the lay-bys and cafes these men exist in but it is never really dealt with is any depth. The same is true of the underworld; there are indications that operations are run by an intelligent middle class men who employ no hope working class men to carry things out. The gang includes one black member whose race is never mentioned. We get a sequence where the girl visits her ex-husband in jail and asks him for information, which he provides, perhaps showing there is no honour among thieves, although the gang seem pretty loyal to their boss. There are hints of a network of criminals and indications that crime among the haulage industry is rife. The film makes good use of its locations and the film only begins to sag when the narrative shifts to Booth's flat where the obligatory love interest takes place.