Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fine British Drama, 8 Feb 2007
Stanley Baker plays an ex con struggling to find work. He is eventually employed as a driver for a haulage firm which isnt quite what it seems. He soon realises that the drivers are badly underpaid despite the numerous loads which they have to deliver during their respective shifts.
Many of the action sequences are quite funny at times, showing lorries being driven at tremendous speeds around hairpin bends. Obviously speeded up to look dramatic. What holds the film together however, is the superb cast. Apart from Stanley Baker, there is Herbert Lom, Sean Connery (before he became better known as THE James Bond) Sidney James, William Hartnell and Patrick McGoohan as the villain of the piece. The romantic interest is left to Peggy Cummins and the then unknown Jill Ireland.
Despite its low budget, its superbly directed by Cy Endfield (who went on to direct the superb Zulu) and filmed by Geoffrey Unsworth. Not a bad picture, and reasonable sound.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bring on the trucks!, 2 Aug 2007
This is a great film, one of my all time favourits. Being a fan of classic cars, WW2 military vehicles, Sid James and Bill Hartnell this film is a treasure trove of Willys Jeeps, flying jackets and artillary men leather waistcoats! The cast has already been touched upon in other reviews and is full of top notch people but I feel I must mention Red, the drunken, bullying time setter and foreman of Bill Hartnell's boss, played to perfection with as much menace and sometimes comedy by Patrick McGoohan. The grin that hints of many pub brawls and of a broken jaw, the eternal presence of the roll up fag, the air of a ticking time bomb of violence waiting to explode in a second, a man who is king of his own jungle. What a character he was.
Little bit of info here, my Grandfarther used to be a builder for 50 years of his life, he did this kind of life style in the time the movie is set. We watched this film one saturday afternoon, he loved it but pointed out two things as follows.
1. The trucks use in this film, obviously speeded up, could only muster around 40 45 an hour unloaded and were prone to gear box death if driven to hard.
2. He also told me that Red was quiet a common character back then, he also said that McGoohan's performance was quite tame compared to his old work mates and foremen! Imagine Red magnified ten fold!
In short, buy it, watch it, enjoy the characters, the motor's, the wagons, the clothes and the great cliff hanger of an ending!!!
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Christ,what a cast!, 16 Aug 2007
The best bit of this is that very few of the stellar cast were known to cinema viewers when this came out in 1957. It didn't end there, though.
We should face facts-every cliche in the book is in here, the special effects consist of repeated speeded-up film of stunt driven lorries hurtling round the same corners and country roads, meeting nothing more than pre-war Ford cars en route and Irish-American Patrick McGoohan's Irish accent is almost as unconvincing as Lithuian Herbert Lom's comic Italiano.
Who cares??
It's a rip-roaring film, moves along fast, has a supporting cast, apart from Herbert Lom, of William Hartnell, Jill Ireland,Sean Connery, Alfie Bass, Sid James & Gordon Jackson, and is only missing a loveable Cockney rogue amongst the lorry drivers, plus David MacCallum looking about 16!!
Yeh, it's violent and downright nasty at times, but so is life occasionally, as it was back then, too. You'll forgive it for all the above, plus the battle between ex-crim new Driver Stanley Baker, slowly smouldering beneath the bloody great chips on either shoulder that made him such a well-balanced individual, and top driver Red, Mr McGoohan, who is an even more combustible method-acting psychopath, who resembles dear old Robert Newton when he really gets aflame AND manages to have a thundering all-Gaelic punch-up with Stanley & STILL keep a lit fag in his mouth for most of the time!!
This really is one to savour-sometimes for the right, sometimes for the wrong reasons. But definitely one to savour!
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