Review of Hell Drivers (1957) by Matt T — 15 Sep 2010

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

The short haul lorry driving buisness is at the centre of this tale of masculinity and what it's like to be a real man. Stanley Baker has recently been released from prison and finds work as a driver for transporting gravel. As the drivers are are only hired and kept to do at least 12 runs a day, there is an emphasis to drive fast on dangerous country roads. Less than a dozen and you are out. There is a bonus for getting the most runs. Patrick McGoohan is both the foreman and number one driver who regularly reaches a whopping 18 runs a day. He is also a bully and nutter and the others have to let him pass by. Drivers who have come up against him in the past have ended up in fatal crashes. New lad Baker though see's himself as a challenger and a battle of wits and brawn is started.

Who will become the the alpha male?

A vampish Peggy Cummins is thrown into the equation as the girlfriend of Herbert Lom, Baker's only friend. She has eyes for the new boy.

The truck scenes are excitingly staged and are in a long tradition of similar films like They Drive By Night (1940)and The Wages Of Fear (1952). At times you feel you are in the driving seat bumping along the roads, almost being able to smell the petrol and burned rubber, with a throat full of gravel dust.

What is remarkable is the cast. An almost whose who of British acting talent circa 1957. As well as Baker (Zulu), McGoohan (The Prisoner), Cummins (Gun Crazy), and Lom (The Pink Panther) there is also Sean Connery (Bond), David McCallum (The Man From Uncle), William Hartnell (Dr Who), Gordan Jackson (The Great Escape) and Sid James (Carry On). All in the same film. Result!

By the late 1950s working class males were becoming more prevalent in British films. Welshman Baker (dubbed Manly Stanley at the time) represented this new type of male and brought in a tough masculine persona. Richard Burton being another. Up until then middle class actors like Jack Hawkins and Dirk Bogarde were stalwarts of the more conservative British films. Hell Drivers is an example of the new gritty dramas that would also inspire the Angry Young Men style of films like Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1960).

The film has been given the DVD treatment with lots of extras. I look forward to seeing them.

Overall a blistering, boistrous, bellowing, blokes blockbuster.

For the male viewers take note, Hell Driver's shows how to be a real hard man. (The ladies love a bit of rough).