Director: Cy Endfield
Starring: Stanley Baker, Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan, Herbert Lom, Sid James, Sean Connery
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Hell Drivers
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The film that should have been called True Grit...Difficult Film Pitches #47: It's a thriller about driving gravel-laden trucks around the British countryside. In the greater scheme of things the concept of an exhilarating film about people driving ballast to building sites doesn't sound lik,e the most riveting of ideas, but from the opening adrenaline burst of speed Hell Drivers engages both as drama and action. Joe (Stanley Baker) is the unlikely hero, straight out of the slammer and desperate for cash to try and make amends for his past mistakes. The only place he can get a job is in the employ of hard bastard Bill Hartnell, driving gravel for the construction industry. It's a tough haul where you're paid by the number of loads carried in a day - fall below 12 and you're out on the streets, beat bona fide nutcase foreman Red's total and you get a gold cigarette case. And most likely a damn good beating. A good few years prior to the kitchen sink boom, Hell Drivers demonstrated that you could have a socially conscious drama whilst providing enough thrills and spills to satisfy any action cravings. The trucks race around at hair-raising speeds, sometimes hitting the magic 50 mph mark around the twisting lanes. What sets Hell Drivers apart is the eclectic cast of misfits - from love-struck Italian Gino (Herbert Lom) to lecherous Sid James, all hard drinking, quick fisted workers who are kept in line by "Ma", the local landlady. Top of the bunch (no mean feat in this galaxy of UK film favourites, including an early turn from Sean Connery, a truly chilling William Hartnell and an on-form David McCallum) is Patrick McGoohan as the deranged Red, a violent conniving driver who runs his competitors off the road, sabotages trucks and maintains his top dog position by any means. There's plenty on show: romance, unrequited love, local resentment, brawls, a mother spurning her own son, murder and intrigue. And despite this it never feels as contrived as it clearly is. This is sterling stuff, a fast, tough, romp that hardly puts a foot wrong and the sort of film that leads inevitably to moans about the decline of the British film industry. That they made a film that is culturally relevant without being a soap opera dry-run or a lazily directed comedy about male strippers is entirely to its credit. The dialogue is suitably tough and there's little in the way of escape for the characters. Even Joe's (or Tom as he inexplicably likes to be known) shopkeeper mother harshly castigates her son with the words "To you it was just one year in gaol, for Jim and me it's a life sentence." Carlton's DVD does credit to the Vistavision black and white cinematography, although it is slightly cropped at the sides. For the main it is crisply sourced, but of chief delight are two (basically) contemporaneous extras - a 'making of' featurette showing the social and cinematic background of the film and an interview with Stanley Baker during the making of Sea Fury. This is fascinating, although some of the questioning is unintentionally hilarious: "So Stanley, why aren't you mining in Wales?"...
Reviewed by Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc
Reader comments about Hell Drivers
John Mottram (jmottram@squareworld.ndo.co..uk) writes:
'Hell Drivers' has long been a favourite because it collects together every 'tough guy' actor in fifties England. In the 'anyone for tennis' era there just weren't that many of them. Sid James, for instance, came all the way from South Africa.
The sheer pace of the movie can be attributed to director Cy Endfield's background in Hollywood B movies. He was a victim of the blacklist and came to England to keep on working in movies, as did more distinguished film-makers such as Joseph Losey.
The film is also notable as the first meeting of Stanley Baker and Endfield, who formed a production company and went on to make the epic "Zulu".
matt thomas (JuGriffiths@Cardiff.gov.uk) writes:
i was so taken by the film i went on to accidentally reanact it. I got a temporary job driving a tipper out of a quarry in South Wales ,payed by the number of loads it was furious ,i had the donkey jacket with the leather belt braced around it and even reenacted the fight scene ,taking Patrick Mc Goohans part unfortunatly.
slim (elwyn6@aol.com) writes:
i wish to know what trucks was used on the film
Dragon Breath (Email address withheld) writes:
Argh!! not "was", it's "were" moron!
Incidentally, the trucks used are Leyland Comets.
Joe Yeatly (Email address withheld) writes:
Argh!! Before you attack the grammar of others - who may or may not use English as their first language - you should research your "answer"
The trucks used in Hell Drivers were made by Dodge - they were certainly *not* Leyland Comets! They are sometimes called "Kew" Dodges; due to the fact they were made at the Dodge UK factory based at Kew.
John UK (Email address withheld) writes:
Excellent film (I love the sped-up footage of the trucks!)
Thanks for confirming that the trucks were Dodges Joe.
Chris ( hansoph@blueyonder.co.uk) writes:
i would just like to add that the lorries were infact known as parrot nosed Dodges made at Kew in s.w. london. and had Perkins engines, the cabs were known as the LAD cabs this stood for Leyland Albion Dodge, but also Ford used this cab in the 4D the differance being the grills. I was also told that the quarry scenes was filmed in Godstone road in Croydon and the cafe shots was at the Riverside cafe on the Colnbrook by pass on the old A4.
phil rigby (Email address withheld) writes:
drove a tipper for dg roberts out of redlands quarry llanarmon yn al just outside of mold north wales,limestone 10mm and tarmac carried in 20 ton loads. mon to fri and sat morn's till 12. shite job shite people and even worse lorries. dusty as hell a 250bhp f plate roadtrain that wouldn't pull a nonce of your daughter. £220 take home,only thing you get on the tippers is a wreath when you retire coz they all die of emphysema.good film though if a bit pie in the sky.
paul dunstall(not the bike one) (Email address withheld) writes:
trucks in hell drivers were leyland comets, run by janes transport slough, now defunct, location filming stoke poges fulmer iver gerrards x
Keith Fontaine (cottagegarden@isot.com) writes:
Yes, those Dodge Kew's ran either the Perkins diesel, or the flathead 'six'
malc281 (malc.sutton@btopenworld.com) writes:
The trucks used were Dodge 'Kew's powered by 6 cylinder perkins Diesel engines. does any one know what the colour of these trucks were please???
Andy Robertson (robertson0233@btinternet.com) writes:
Hello "Hell Drivers" Fans, Everywhere!
I'm doing some basic research on this film and would like to hear from anyone who could confirm locations used for filming.
I'd especially like to hear from Paul Dunstall (which bike one?) if he can give more details of the connection with Janes Transport of Slough (actually, Paul, they WERE Dodge 123s - says so on the bonnets). Perhaps Paul could solve the nagging query about the colour of the trucks. Personally, I'd go for bottle-green or scarlet bodywork with black wings, and maybe gold sign-writing - but until anyone can tell me different ... ???
I'd be glad to forward what bits of info I've gleaned on locations, etc, to anyone who asks. Thank you.
Pete More (Email address withheld) writes:
The Kew Dodges were bottle green and were hired from Drinkwaters in Willesden,NW London. Some locations were the road up to and on Truleigh Hill, Nr Shoreham, West Sussex and the surrounding lanes, Fulmar in Bucks and the opening shots (speeded up film) were shot on the road between Langley and Iver (which has been altered over the years). I was told by a local that the tipper that went over the cliff and exploded was a Ford ET6 and the quarry scene was by the Upper Beeding cement works.
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