Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This interesting Warner crime drama is partly based upon A.I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel "Long Haul", while the last half is a reworking of the last portion of Warner's 1935 film "Bordertown", in which George Raft takes the place of Paul Muni, Alan Hale replaces Eugene Pallette, and Ida Lupino does Betty Davis's role. The first half introduces most of the main characters and consists of a drama about the financial and practical hardships of independent truckers during the depression era. Several spectacular truck accidents are staged, often caused by a driver falling asleep from driving too many hours. We are introduced to Ann Sheridan's character: Cassie, a wisecracking cynical waitress in a coffee shop , and her budding romance with George Raft's character: Joe Febrini. We are also introduced to Joe's truck-driving brother, Paul(Humphrey Bogart), and his long suffering wife Pearl(Gale Page), who would like to have a child, but can't afford one. ..... The second half begins with Joe accepting the offer of Ed(Alan Hale) to join his trucking company, after Joe and Paul lost their truck in a fiery accident, in which Paul lost his right arm. We are introduced to Ed's beautiful, sophisticated, wife , Lana(Ida Lupino). Although Ed is an extrovert: friendly and always joking, he is too oafish for Lana's liking, and frequently gets drunk at parties. She would much prefer Joe as a lover. Apparently, they had a brief prior relationship. She was obsessed with resuming their secrete relationship, but Joe turned her down, saying that Ed is his friend, as well as employer, and that he hoped to marry Cassie as soon as he can afford to. Lana is quite jealous of Cassie. When they meet, she sizes her up as an inferior woman to herself. To hopefully make herself more available to Joe, in his mind, Lana took advantage of a situation to indirectly murder her husband(Ed). She made it look like an accident, which it was initially reported to be. But in her hysterical confrontation with Joe, she yelled that she had murdered her husband so she could have Joe, and that she would claim that he made her do it, if he didn't cooperate.....In court, it was proven that Joe had nothing to do with the murder. When Lana took the stand, she was as if in a trance, repeating that "The door made me do it". She was concluded to be insane, thus not responsible for her actions. Although many reviews consider Lana's testimony the climax of the film, to me , the climax occurred previously during her hysterical pleading with Joe..... To my knowledge, this was Bogart's last film in which he played a supporting actor. In his next film: "High Sierra", he would be paired with Ida Lupino as the lead actors. In that film, Ida's character wasn't nearly as interesting as in the present film, but she still served well as eye candy. Now 22, Ida had been starring in minor films since age 14! Her performance here was good enough to earn her a contract with Warner. In addition to his movie career, George Raft was a well established dancer, and danced in some of his early films : quite different from his later slick gangster persona. When he moved to Warner in 1939, he tended to be cast in roles that Bogey would be an alternative for. In fact, he was offered the lead roles in "High Sierra", and "The Maltese Falcon" : roles that Bogey picked up and added to his popularity.

Four of Warner's best toughies from the studio's golden period are on display here. The first half is one heckuva gem of snappy dialogue and blue-collar atmosphere. The Fabrini brothers (Raft and Bogart) are trying to make it as independent truckers just one step ahead of the loan shark and drowsing off at the wheel. It's a rough go, especially for Paul (Bogart) who's got a wife at home (Page) but no money for kids. Meanwhile, Joe (Raft) manages to work in time as a ladies man, especially when he meets up with seen-it-all drifter (Sheridan). Trouble is big shot trucking operator Ed's (Hale) fancy wife (Lupino) has taken a shine to Joe and won't take no for an answer. It gets complicated but director Walsh shows why he was one of the best.Bogie's definitely second fiddle to Raft here, still the often deadpan Raft loosens up enough for a good performance. Of course, Hale spreads on his jovial manner for some amusing comedy relief. Note also how cleverly the script plays footsie with Cassie's morals as a penniless drifter. The second half, however, is turned over to Lupino's jealous wife and the atmosphere abruptly changes, and not for the better. Now, Hollywood had no better actress than the versatile Lupino, yet her hysteria on the witness stand is pretty much over the top for the movie as a whole. The biggest loser in the latter half, however, is the snappy dialogue as the screenplay turns darkly melodramatic. Nonetheless, there's enough carry-over in casting and blue-collar bravado to mark this as one of Warner's best showcases of the period.(In passing—for a noir treatment of highway trucking to fruit market, catch the gritty Thieves Highway {1949}; and for the hazards of staying awake at the wheel, catch Death in Small Doses {1957}.)

I get more respect for director Raoul Walsh with every film of his I see. In this one for Warner Brothers he does an excellent job with a strong cast telling a story about California Long Haul Truckers in the late 1930's. The realism is there all the way through.This is one of George Rafts better performances, and Ida Lupino is excellent as the woman he scorns. Ann Sheridan is very good as the woman he loves. Humphrey Bogart in a supporting role is very good as Rafts brother. Alan Hale Sr. does a fine job as Lupinos husband.The film gives the viewer a very strong flavor for what the early long haul trucking was like before World War 2. With the roads the way they were in that era, Long Haul in this is shorter than today & trucks were really just getting started, the railroads still dominated freight then in the US.The story while more predictable than Dark Command which Walsh had just finished, still does a good job of pulling in the viewer with Raft & Bogarts characters flying on the edge of failure early in the film. The accident sequences are done crudely but this was in a day when the special effects were still developing. The main action in this film is truck accidents & a couple of fist fights.This is a very fundamentally sound film as Raol Walsh always seems to deliver. In this case, the truckers deliver a good story.

Wow! Ida Luppino gives a memorable performance in this Humphrey Bogart, George Raft film.Ida was such an under-rated actress. What did she have to do to win an Oscar yet alone be nominated? That's right, Ida Luppino was never nominated for an Oscar even though she would win the New York City Film Critics award in 1942 for "The Hard Way." Unbelievable!In this film she plays the frustrated wife of truck owner Alan Hale. Trapped in a bad marriage, she desires for lust but certainly can't get that from the happy-go-lucky Hale. When the Bogart-Raft brothers come to work for Hale, Luppino thinks she has found romance with one of the brothers. She decides to end her marriage by killing Hale with gas fumes from his car.When spurned by her suitor, she allows him to be blamed for Hale's death.Her crack-up scene in court at film's end must be one of the greatest scenes filmed on screen. Hysterically shouting that the doors made her do it, Luppino proved one again that she was one of Hollywood's greatest femme fatales.Ann Sheridan proved her mettle in the film as well. This picture was sort of a warm up for two years later for Sheridan, when she made a hit as Ronald Reagan's girl friend in the 1942 memorable "King's Row."