Trailer
Plot summary
Joe and Paul Fabrini are independent truckers, hauling fruit from California farms to the markets of Los Angeles in the one rig they own. The rig is not fully theirs: a loan shark named Farnsworth hounds them for the money owed and threatens to take the truck back. Joe hustles for their own loads and refuses to sign on with anyone else; Paul, married to Pearl, would rather take steady work and be home more. Joe meets Cassie Hartley, a diner waitress who rides with them. A trucker they know, McNamara, falls asleep at the wheel ahead of them and his truck leaves the road. Ed Carlsen, a former independent driver who now runs his own freight company, offers Joe a job; Joe turns him down. Ed's wife, Lana, has pursued Joe for years, and he has always refused her.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about They Drive by Night (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
They Drive by Night borrowed part of its plot, Ida Lupino's character murdering her husband with carbon monoxide poisoning, from another Warner Bros. film, Bordertown (1935), which starred Paul Muni and Bette Davis.- A. I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel Long Haul was later reprinted under the title They Drive by Night to capitalize on the success of the film.
