The best British film I think I’ve seen was ‘Hell Drivers’ with a stellar cast from the nineteen fifities. McGoohan/Connery/Lom etc. clapped out ten ton Dodge tippers flying around the Home Counties…great stuff. I only recall one other film from that era about trucks and it was so memorable I’ve forgotten the title.
American offerings have included the daft ‘Convoy’ but ‘Breakdown’ with Kurt Russell was pretty good - a kidnap thriller, and more recently ‘Roadkill’ about a murderous driver who got narked because two young lads were winding him up on the 'ole c.b.
Duel of course, hwich didn’t show truckers in a very positive light, given that the unseen villain was a psycopathic maniac!
The telly gave us ‘Cannonball’ in the early days of black and white. Mike Malone and his mate Jerry. The ran out of Buffalo in NY state. An old MACK cherrypicker I think - superb vehicle and really whetted my appetite for American rigs as a young kid.
The Brits came up with ‘Truckers’ about ten years ago. A young Ohil Davies played an outrageous cowboy hatted numpty and to be honest I remember little else abou ■■■, except that it was bobbins!
I’v e probably missed out some obvious ones but I think the sharp end of the industry is screaming out for a really gritty drama. So long as they avoid ridiculous stereotyping when it comes to characters behind the wheel.
There was The Long Haul (1957) which starred Victure Mature, Diana Dors & Patrick Allen.
Then there was The Hijackers (1963) which starred Anthony Booth, Patrick Cargill and Arthur English.
I have a copy of The Long Haul, but so far I have drawn a blank with The Hijackers as of yet.
There have been documentaries and promotion videos such as:
Destination Doha (BBC2 World About Us)
A Run for the Money (BBC Inside Story)
Spaghetti No Junction (Eberspacher)
If you want to go back further than The Long Haul, there was also the British Transport Films collection which included Dodging The Column, For Every Vehicle, The Fish Run and Journey To The Sea
There was a feature film made in the old East Germany (DDR) about a lorry driving journey. This film was very popular in West Germany and was shown on TV there quite often. I can’t remember the name of it, though.
Thames trader:
What about Wages of Fear ? French film of the 50s about delivering
nitro-gycerine .
Thames Trader ! I say it Again Thames Trader…I fell in love with one of those when I was ten! What a great front end they had. I still see one now and again - from Oldham with a box on the back. Brilliant.
‘The wages of fear’ - yes! with a French guy (was it Yves Montand??) playing the lead. I have never seen it.
As for marky and the ‘Long Haul’ I remmeber seeing it late one night - loved it. I think a Leyland Octopus or similar might have been featured. I must look for it.
Funny. I had a book called ‘The Long Haul’ from the States I think and it has a couple of pages about ‘wages of fear’
I remember ‘They Drive by Night’ with George Raft and Bogey - but it was a small truck. They just don’t do it for me.
Nineteen years since Truckkers!! Blimey!! that is a shock.
Does anyone else remember ‘Cannonball’? If so, you too probably have aching joints LOL.
dennisw1:
Ice cold in Alex, well it was a small truck, an ambulance to be precise, but a Little Bedford truck all the same.
Aye. And wasn’t Sylvia Syms bonny back then eh?
One of my favourite British films that. A neighbour was doing his National Service in the desert and was roped in to pull the Ambulance up that hill by hand with a load of other soldiers.
Excellent movie, thanks for rmeinding me of it.
fox
Strange nobody has mentioned “Road Games” and “Black Dog” yet.
Both films I thought were great first time round. Meatloaf was good as the bad guy in Black Dog. Anyone else seen these? They air now and again on terrestiral TV, I don’t have sky, but I assume they will air on there to.
KarlM:
Strange nobody has mentioned “Road Games” and “Black Dog” yet.
Both films I thought were great first time round. Meatloaf was good as the bad guy in Black Dog. Anyone else seen these? They air now and again on terrestiral TV, I don’t have sky, but I assume they will air on there to.
Karl.
Oh aye. Roadgames. It was very good. And the lead character (Stacey Keach)
was a smart cookie - no stereotyping there, it was a cleverly scripted movie and he came out with some pearls I recall.
Thanks for reminding me of it.
fox
Thames trader:
What about Wages of Fear ? French film of the 50s about delivering
nitro-gycerine .
Thames Trader ! I say it Again Thames Trader…I fell in love with one of those when I was ten! What a great front end they had. I still see one now and again - from Oldham with a box on the back. Brilliant.
‘The wages of fear’ - yes! with a French guy (was it Yves Montand??) playing the lead. I have never seen it.
As for marky and the ‘Long Haul’ I remmeber seeing it late one night - loved it. I think a Leyland Octopus or similar might have been featured. I must look for it.
Funny. I had a book called ‘The Long Haul’ from the States I think and it has a couple of pages about ‘wages of fear’
I remember ‘They Drive by Night’ with George Raft and Bogey - but it was a small truck. They just don’t do it for me.
Nineteen years since Truckkers!! Blimey!! that is a shock.
Does anyone else remember ‘Cannonball’? If so, you too probably have aching joints LOL.
Oh well, thanks for the replies.
fox
It was indeed a works Octo in ‘The Long Haul’ - and Marky will be be able to tell you the rest of its life history (local to him) and, if I remember rightly, what became of the engine after the lorry was cut!!
articfox I thought Hell Drivers was set north of the border…? There was that one with DeNiro playing a longhaired ,scruffy truckdriver who drove very fast to scare his old Nam buddy out of some kind of trauma…?
You may be able to get Coronation Street on DVD, there were a couple of Trucking incidents on there. Bet Lynch had a truck driver stopping at the pub with her and Albert Tatlock was killed by a lorry load of timber
Charlie Cotton was a driver too, thats why Nick went off the rails
Then there was that episode of The Sopranos where the driver opens door of the cab & walks out as though he is walking down the steps of an hotel. I think his gun goes off & kills him…
Then Niel Diamond got a lift in a cabover . When the ride ended the driver gets out & opens the door for him !!! One thing wrong with that; Our Neil is sitting on the seat ready come out frontwards// but better still he was sitting on the drivers side !!! I think it was called The Jazz Singer.
Manager Maybe they re-shot that scene for GB audiences? Yeah, poor old Niel is sitting there sideways on the seat with his trusty banjo on his lap looking down at the road like a Para on his first jump. You never get to see him get out because they cut quickly to the next scene. The problem was that US cabovers never had proper steps & part of the front wheel was used to step on…
Anyone else seen these? They air now and again on terrestiral TV, I don’t have sky, but I assume they will air on there to.
One thing wrong with that; Our Neil is sitting on the seat ready come out frontwards// but better still he was sitting on the drivers side !!! I think it was called