Thieves' Highway - Criterion Collection
|
List Price: Our Price: $28.15 You Save: $11.80 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $20.99 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Thieves' Highway - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: "Jip me and I'll cut your heart out."
Summary: 5 Stars
Returning home after a stint in the military Nico learns that his father has been paralyzed by a scumbag produce wholesaler by the name of Figlia. Out for revenge Nico gets his father's truck and with a load of apples heads out to settle the score with Figlia. Nico is in way over his head.
The screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides based on his own novel, "Thieves' Market", is riveting. I loved the barely subdued hatred between Nico and Figlia. But what really makes this film a minor masterpiece, besides all the wonderful performances, is the outstanding direction by Jules Dassin. Every scene is impressive, it's kinda like watching a Kurosawa film in the way each shot seems so purposeful, detailed and beautiful. The apples rolling down the hill and the man zipping up his jacket, despite the heat, as he watches the truck driver burn to death. Haunting.
I read in a interview with A. I. Bezzerides in Lee Server's "Screenwriter" that Shelley Winters was originally slated to play the role of Rica, but Jules Dassin didn't want her! That would have rocked, she was magnificent in A PLACE IN THE SUN.
D: Jules Dassin (NIGHT AND THE CITY, RIFIFI)
Nico Garcos - Richard Conte (A WALK IN THE SUN, THE GODFATHER)
Mike Figlia - Lee J. Cobb (12 ANGRY MEN, ON THE WATERFRONT)
Rica - Valentina Cortese (WHEN TIME RAN OUT..., DAY FOR NIGHT)
Ed Prentiss - Millard Mitchell ( SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, KISS OF DEATH)
Slob - Jack Oakie (THE GREAT DICTATOR, TIN PAN ALLEY)
Pete - Joseph Pevney (BODY AND SOUL, THE STREET WITH NO NAME)
Movie Review: Great movie ....
Summary: 5 Stars
How anyone could rate this movie story less than 5 stars is beyond me. The story never drags. Holds your interest all the way through. As good as "On The Waterfront" within its own story. Also the DVD has exceptional picture quality.Movie Review: Somebody's going to get hurt
Summary: 5 Stars
Included on the special features for THIEVES' HIGHWAY is a short - 5 minutes or so - excerpt from a proposed documentary on writer A. I. Bezzerides, novelist and screenwriter. Bezzerides wrote the novel (Thieves' Market) and the script for this one, as well as the earlier novel Long Haul, which was filmed as the George Raft/Humphrey Bogart vehicle `They Drive by Night.' Both, I guess, can be called proletariat crime thrillers. THIEVES' HIGHWAY stars Richard Conte - the underrated Richard Conte - as Nick Garcos, a young man who returns home from the sea to discover that his father was crippled while hauling produce and selling it to the unscrupulous Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb.) Nick believes Figlia was directly responsible for his father's injuries, and so THIEVES' HIGHWAY is, to a great extent, an odyssey of revenge.
The documentary clip tells us Bezzerides worked as a trucker for a while, and I believe it. This one feels like it was written from the inside. Nick, along with veteran trucker Ed Prentiss (Millard Mitchell) buys a load, a first-of-the-season load, of golden delicious apples and points his truck towards San Francisco and an appointment with Figlia. Trailing them is a couple of mercenary truckers played by Jack Oakie and Joseph Pevney. In San Francisco Nick will meet the good bad-girl Rica (Valentina Cortesa,) who will play a pivotal role in the fight between Nick and Figlia.
This is Jules Dassin's last American film, and it's a beauty. There are some great shots - Rica being chased through a dark alley, a loaded truck rolling over and spilling its load over a wide-angle hillside - and more than a few outstanding performances. What sets this one apart, and above, most of its competitors is the realistic treatment it applies to the characters. Save for Figlia, who is pure evil, the people in this one grow and change and shift allegiances. Film historian Alain Silver provides a pertinent and informative commentary.
Movie Review: Everybody's Out to Make a Buck...Selling Produce in SoCal.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Thieves' Highway" is based on A.I. "Buzz" Bezzerides' novel "Thieves' Market", inspired by the authors' experiences as a long-haul trucker. The novel was released the same year as the movie, and Bezzerides wrote the screenplay as well, which deftly adapts the novel for an hour-and-a-half Production Code-compliant film. Bezzerides' most noted contribution to film noir was probably his screenplay for the 1955 film "Kiss Me Deadly", which masterfully undermined its source material -Mickey Spillane's novel- to memorable effect. "Thieves' Highway" was director Jules Dessin's last Hollywood film, before he fell victim to the blacklist. Stunning documentary-style cinematography lends realism and beauty to the working-class environment of rural California and the San Francisco produce market. The composition and mise en scene of some shots are perfection. Exquisite cinematography, together with a great cast and characters, make it one of Dessin's greatest. Producer Darryl Zanuck tacked an implausible ending onto the film without Dessin's knowledge, and that is the film's weak point.
Nick Garcos (Richard Conte) returns to his family after traveling the world as a sailor, bearing gifts from abroad for everyone, including an engagement ring for his girlfriend Polly (Barbara Lawrence). But he finds that his father was crippled in an accident shortly after a San Francisco wholesaler, Mike Figlia (Lee. J. Cobb), got him drunk and neglected to pay him for a load of tomatoes. Determined to avenge his father's injuries, Nick visits Ed Kinney (Millard Mitchell), who now owns his father's truck. Ed proposes that Nick go in with him in purchasing 2 loads of the first crop of golden delicious apples, which they can truck to the city and sell at great profit. Nick agrees, as long as the city is San Francisco. Nick arrives in San Francisco several hours before Ed, and finds out quickly that Figlia plays dirty.
Lee J. Cobb and Richard Conte both turn in charismatic, emotionally energetic performances. Conte, something of a sex symbol of the day, plays Nick as a determined, tough, and angry proletarian hero, whose determination almost turns to mania. Lee J. Cobb is really something to see. He embraces Figlia's villainy and seems to be having a great time being a liar and a crook. Figlia's unhesitant corruption is captivating. The female characters are to some extent plot devices, but they're not easily forgotten. Italian actress Valentina Cortesa plays Rica, a woman employed by Figlia. Rica initially has all the markings of a femme fatale. She is very forward, mocking, world-weary, but somehow sympathetic as we get the impression she is used to being treated badly and expects nothing else. The audience is clearly supposed to dislike Nick's fianc?e Polly. But she is only looking out for her interests, and Barbara Lawrence was so good at playing self-possessed but unlikable women.
The DVD (Criterion Collection 2005): This is a digitally restored print of the film. Bonus features include 2 featurettes, a theatrical trailer (2 minutes), and an audio commentary. "Dessin Interview" (10 minutes) is a recent interview with Jules Dessin in which he talks about story, cast, and making the film. "The Long Haul of A.I. Bezzerides" (4 minutes) is a trailer for an as yet unfinished documentary about Bezzerides. It includes some interview footage with the author. The audio commentary is by author and film noir theorist Alain Silver, who delivers a nonstop scene-by-scene analysis of the film's style, themes, characters, and comparisons to the book. The commentary is packed with information, and there is a scene index for the commentary as well as the film.
Movie Review: Disappointingly average
Summary: 3 Stars
Despite getting the Criterion treatment, 'Thieves Highway' is really just an average noir that gets off to a terrible start with a phoney-baloney scene of family reunion and suffers from a weak crime-does-not-pay ending shot behind Dassin's back, but the stuff inbetween is pretty good but not outstanding. There's a good feel for the vibrant nocturnal market location and the driving montages are well-handled, with Millard Mitchell, Jack Oakie and a barnstorming Lee J. Cobb offering good support, but it's not up there with 'Wages of Fear' or 'Hell Drivers.'