Top truck movies

[Redstar]

Having watched the utterly brilliant "Wages of Fear" last night (the original version) set me thinking as to make a list of the most watchable truck movies.

I would make "Wages of Fear" the best with "Ice cold in Alex" "Hell Drivers" "Smokey and the Bandit" up there as well.

[batman]

Off the top of my head ...



Wages Of Fear - non-stop excitement from Europe's other Master of Suspense, Clouzot

Thieves Highway - one of Dassin's best films, up there with Night and the City and Rififi

Hell Drivers - need I say more

The Long Haul - exciting crime drama with Victor Mature and Diana Dors

They Drive By Night (UK) - trucks and Ernest Thesiger

They Drive By Night (US) - trucks, Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino

[DB7]

They Drive by Night (Emlyn Williams), I just love the old trucks, the roadside cafe and the rain sheeting down as he heads up the Great North Road. Very atmospheric.

[batman]

name='DB7']They Drive by Night (Emlyn Williams), I just love the old trucks, the roadside cafe and the rain sheeting down as he heads up the Great North Road. Very atmospheric.

.... and Ernest Thesiger. He is great in that film!

[dremble wedge]

I seem to remember that there were some getting-trucks-over-impassable-mountains caperings in Cast A Giant Shadow.



Although that wasn't really a truck film, more a birth of Israel flick...

[kezzy]

Duel probably resulted in me being more polite to lorry drivers on the M6 than any other film

[GRAEME]

Smokey and the Bandit II anybody?

[Nick Dando]

The Gentle Sex features a group of ATS conscripts and their training in how to drive lorries. There's a nice long convoy, which even includes some night driving scenes. Highly recommended.



Nick

[Redstar]

I know it has nothing to do with a truck or lorry movie, but I just love the scene in Hitchcock's "Frenzy" when Barry Foster gets stuck in a lorry full of potatoes with the corpse of his latest victim, driving up the Great North road, he cannot get the tie pin that could identify him out of her hand. He cracks open her fingers with a nail file.

Later potatoes fall all over the road from the back of the lorry into the path of a following police car and they spot the gruesome corpse. It was so beautifully filmed and brings back memories of the lorries leaving Covent garden, (I remember it well as I spent a few weeks there very early in the morning having super sausage sandwiches in a local cafe before the traders opened, great atmosphere) Great film.

[homeguard]

But a small foul-up. As the car goes to overtake the Commer 2-stroke lorry to warn the driver his load is falling off, the shot through the windscreen shows the tail-board UP! Continuity eh!

Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely...

Regards,

HG

[Amethyst_Isle]

Monster Man (2003)



While driving in a highway to the wedding of his beloved Betty-Ann, Adam is surprised by his former schoolmate Harley on the backseat of his car. Adam has broken off with the inconvenient and moron Harley because of Betty-Ann. Along their road trip, Harley makes fun of some rednecks in a bar and later their car is chased by a giant monster truck on the road. After some incidents, they give a lift to the hitchhiker Sarah and sooner the trio is terrorized by a scary monster driving the monster truck.



Monster Man (2003) - Plot summary



Also slighly off/ontopic has to be the best Truck theme and that would surely go to Eddie Kendricks's Keep On trucking.

[Captain Casper]

Convoy!



The film that launched a million FM Amstrad CB Radio's

[batman]

name='Captain Casper']Convoy!



The film that launched a million FM Amstrad CB Radio's

10-4 Rubber Duck!

[Captain Casper]

name='batman']10-4 Rubber Duck!

Theres a taxi outside, beeping its horn. Shall I fetch your jacket?

[DB7]

name='Captain Casper']Convoy!



The film that launched a million FM Amstrad CB Radio's

Ah yes, many late nights with my Cobra 148 and a lot of angry neighbours hearing "CQDX" across their tellies.



Back to trucks. Have their been any British truck movies over the last three decades? Or road movies in general?

[Nick Dando]

Something very nasty involving a truck happens in the Rutger Hauer film The Hitcher.



The Chain involved lorries, in particular removal lorries or pantechnicons.



Does the Kenneth More version of the 39 Steps count? It does feature a nice vignette from Sid James.



Nick

[DB7]

I seem to recall a randy ERF driver in Deadly Strangers? Which is maybe close to a 'road movie'.

[homeguard]

Or a randy Sydney Tafler in "Georgie Girl".

Regards,

HG