Train d'enfer

source: Hell Drivers

Trailer—Hell Drivers

Hell Drivers

I've got a weakness for this movie. It is the story of a firm that employs lorry drivers to deliver on a short round trip and then pays the drivers for the number of trips per day, which creates strong competition and mad driving. The plot itself is perhaps a bit like a Western: honest driver vs mad and bad driver, which a love interest thrown in. But don't ignore it, its a good watch. 1950's lorry and bus spotters will enjoy it.

I've seen this film twice. I'd like to see it again. The look of the film-quality is that of many other British films around the same time period. It's dark and grainy (think "Frankenstein"). It makes for pleasant viewing, because of the tenseness provided the whole way. The story is convoluted (and as someone else mentioned, where are the police?) and the film is sped up sometimes when they are driving, but you won't care - as the film is tense and there is a lot of action prevailing. The film is loaded with stars-to-be. Sean Connery and Patrick McGoohan just to name two. Come on, you HAVE to watch this! It seems the film is available in Region 2 on DVD, but it's not available in the US. Well it will be someday I hope.

I saw this film when it had a rerun in my local cinema in the 1960.s. I think it is great, more realistic than many British thrillers of the period, except perhaps film like "The Long Haul" and possibly "Highjacked", (but the fight scene at the end of that is a bit sloppy to say the least!) I thought the final scene were McGoohan and Hartnell go over the cliff and the camera cuts back to them in the cab bracing themselves for the impact was horrible! The scene, I think, still has the ability to shock. Films up to that point would not have cut back to the baddies in mid-air like that, waiting for their inevitable end. Ma is also the only person who can keep the drivers under control. This film also has some memorable quotes: "I'm the foreman"......"and that's not all you are" "Suppose we meet something coming the other way?"...."look on the bright side, suppose we don't?" "No I can't drive, they took my licence away"

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.

The trucking crew reads like a who's who of male British-based acting talent. Baker, Connery, Sid James (who was a superb straight actor), Lom, Gordon Jackson, etc, under the foremanship of Patrick McGoohan. Back home minding the shop we have David McCallum and in the office, ripping them all off is William Hartnell. I love the road scenes be they shot at normal speed or otherwise. The language had to be toned down for censorship reasons, otherwise you would find McGoohan calling Baker something a little stronger than yellow belly. With a cast like that you would expect to see some great performances; and you do. But since Patrick McGoohan has the best role, he stands head and shoulders above the rest as the mad Irishman who swigs Guiness at the wheel, and who can lose a fight and still have his cigarette sticking out of his mouth. I love this film.