Hell Drivers (1957) User Reviews (93)

Hell Bent

[howdymax · 8/10 · 3 December 2002]

This movie shows us a side of the English that most Americans are unfamiliar with. Down, dirty, gritty, and nasty. We see these traits more in ourselves than in our friends across the pond.

As an old trucker, I was practically hypnotized by this movie. If I were still driving it would give me nightmares. A trucking crew, at odds with themselves as well as the owner, practically cut each others throats to become top driver. It is a daily grind consisting of hauling loads of gravel back and forth from a gravel pit to a construction site, rolling over each other as well as everyone else on the road in the process.

It isn't the story that makes this film - it's the cast, action, and direction - in any order you like. Stanley Baker plays the new guy. An ex-con trying to make a new start. Patrick McGoohan plays his antagonist in a truly evil fashion. I thought back and cannot remember seeing Patrick McGoohan in any standout role other than a Columbo re-run. But he really hit the mark here. Probably before he became convinced he was the world's greatest actor. The rest would fill out the Rank Organisation's register. Gordon Jackson (from The Great Escape), Herbert Lom (from the Pink Panther series) as an Italian!, and Sean Connery (pre James Bond) with real hair!

I found myself watching this movie with my mouth open and wondering WHERE WERE THE COPS!

Terrific Young Cast In Solid Fifties British Crime Thriller

[ShootingShark · 7/10 · 12 June 2005]

Tom, an ex-con, takes a job with a corrupt haulage firm driving ballast along treacherous country roads. The drivers, led by the crooked foreman Red, are given cash incentives to deliver more loads by driving dangerously. Tom aims to beat Red's times on the road, but hasn't reckoned on the lengths Red will go to to protect his lucrative setup.

This is a rare treat - a solid British action drama made in the fifties; exciting, tensely scripted and directed, and extremely well acted. It's a British equivalent of the numerous and enjoyable American drive-in movies of the fifties, with a rock-and-roll sensibility and a fine young cast. And what a cast - Baker is solid in the lead, Cummins makes a great sweater-girl, and Lom, the wonderfully nasty Hartnell, Ireland (who was only twenty-one) and McCallum are all terrific. McGoohan, as the thoroughly loathsome and twisted Red, is electrifying - his whole body seems stretched too tight and he spits out his dialogue like bile. This is one of the best villains in all British cinema and an absolute must-see performance. The other stars of the movie are the horrible ten-ton tipper trucks, roaring along the muddy roads in packs like angry supercharged elephants. Geoffrey Unsworth's Vistavision camera-work is sensational and I particularly love the way he uses so many rear shots, following actors into spaces and creating great depth to the photography. Well-scripted by John Krause and the talented Endfield - a South African who worked in Hollywood but got blacklisted and moved to the UK, and is billed here as C. Raker Endfield - this movie entertains from start to finish. And what other film has a supporting cast featuring Chief Inspector Dreyfus, The Prisoner, a Dr Who, a Man From Uncle and a James Bond !!

Taut and exciting...and a heck of a cast!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 19 April 2018]

In many ways, "Hell Drivers" reminds me of the French film "The Wages of Fear"...and that is indeed a compliment! Both involve evil trucking companies which seem more than willing to lose a few drivers along the way...all in the name of profits.

The film begins with an ex-con looking for work as a gravel truck driver. Considering he also doesn't have a license, there is no way he should get hired...but is. It seems that all the company cares about is having the drivers make as many runs as possible...and if a few get killed as a result, that's just fine. However, the more runs Tom (Stanley Baker) makes, the more his fellow employees work to sabotage him and keep Red (Patrick McGoohan) the guy with the best record. But there's far more to it than an uncaring employer and nasty co-workers....and Tom only learns the truth late in the film...and it makes for a very tense and exciting finale!

In addition to having an excellent script, this film is great to watch just to see a lot of British actors before they became famous. In addition to Baker and McGoohan, you'll see William Hartnell (the first Dr. Who), Sean Connery, David McCallum, Herbert Lom and Jill Ireland! That's an impressive cast indeed! Overall, a really good film that doesn't insult your intelligence. Well worth your time.

"Don't you characters ever say Please..?"

[mikec32001 · 22 January 2003]

An oddball movie, a hybrid of (would be) Hollywood tough-guy melodrama and UK kitchen sink sensibility. And yes, starring Dr Who, The Prisoner, 007, Man from UNCLE and many more. Certainly the greatest cast of cult actors ever to appear together, well, ever. This movie is terrible and magnificent in equal measure. To me it is staggeringly watchable. The premise is seriously skewered yet endearing all the same: 1950s English truckdrivers behaving like 1850s American outlaws in a Never Never Land where trucks are allowed to habitually run at 80mph down country lanes without so much a peep from the plod.

McGoohan is a star turn here and Peggy Cummins makes for a surprisingly un-frigid lead (look, the UK film industry in the 1950s didn't do sexy -what do you mean Diana Dors? - proves my point!!). But the film belongs to Baker - brooding, smouldering, moral, vengeful, utterly magnificent. We don't make them like him, or like this any more.

A wonderful period piece

[Frobnitz · 7/10 · 17 March 2007]

This film is a remarkably unsentimental look at life for the less fortunate in post-war Britain. There are no tour-de-force performances, but this is not a film that demands them. A group of down on their luck men, finding work, love and friendship where they can, do what they have to do to earn enough money to keep them from crime (more or less), particularly when faced by venal employers who cheat and lie to them daily. There is no union for these men, no legal recourse, no Health and Safety Executive, they have nothing except themselves and the tenuous camaraderie they forge in the down and out bed and breakfasts they have to live in. Driving trucks to ferry gravel from a quarry to a building site, they cut every corner and take their own, and every other road user's, life in their hands as they struggle to get that one more run, that might get them one more pint in the pub. A veritable "who's going to be who" of British actors - Sean Connery, David McCallum, Herbert Lom (okay, Czech, but work with me...), William Hartnell (far from the lovable Dr Who), Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan and Sid James (in a rare straight role) all grimly play men on edge pushed to their limits - and sometimes beyond.

Oh yes - until 1965, there were no speed limits on British roads outside urban areas, which in some respects explains the lack of police.

star studded and eminently watchable

[herbertanchovy · 10/10 · 20 November 2004]

Although the film belongs to Baker and mcgoohan there are plenty of other famous faces to spot. yes, sid james only ever played one character in all his films- that of sid james- but its an interesting romp nonetheless. I have it on good authority it was filmed around Stanwell moor, west London, and the trucks are "kew" dodges. something no-one has picked up on is that the sequences showing the trucks traveling at speed are obviously speeded up, these old motors were incapable of exceeding 45 mph, even more so carrying 10 tons o gravel (they were only 7 ton design weight) The plot is believable though, the practice of paying drivers "per trip" was and still is a common practice, especially in the tipper sector (obviously to encourage more runs) I know, I worked for a firm remarkably similar to Hawletts. someone has commented on the "coincidence" that all the drivers sleep at the same lodgings- this too was common in the 50's, before the advent of sleeper cabs, drivers would simply find "digs" for the night. also fewer people had their own car in those days, so wouldn't it make sense to sleep close to the job? Made on a small budget in an era where you would need to watch your Ps and Qs and also tone down any scenes of violence, its a classic in my opinion. In those days you'd actually probably be very grateful to be behind one of these wagons, the speed limit for trucks was only 20mph back then!

Thrilling film about daredevil drivers face among them to get a fortune in their high-speed lorries

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 6 June 2014]

Strong and no emotional barred tale dealing with roaring down the world's deadliest roads . As an ex-convict called Tom (Stanley Baker) attempting to leave his past behind , as he decides to start working for the Hawlett Trucking company (Hawletts' Yard was actually built on the Pinewood Studios back lot, just to the north of 'H' Stage , this is approximately where the massive '007' Stage stands today) , which transports gravel . It's an aggressive company, where speed is everything in which the drivers seem scarcely to stop for breath in their stakes to make fame and richness . 'Red' Redman (Patrick McGoohan as a cruelly villain) is the most experienced and veteran trucker ; he can do 18 runs in a day . Tom soon befriends Lucy, the secretary (Peggy Cummings) , and Gino (Herbert Lom, cast for once a likable role as Italian man) , an amiable driver who is Lucy's boyfriend . Then , there takes place a loving triangle . And the ex-con trucker tries to expose his boss's rackets .

This exciting film contains intense drama , action , violence , brawls , and truck races in their high-speed vehicles . The picture centers on the conflicts that occur when an honest driver for a lorry company confronts corruption in the organization and takes on the criminal ring leader ; it was regarded as a "B" movie in its day, but has developed a cult following that appreciates its intelligent script and fine cast . Crude as well as rough flick of daredevil lorry drivers confronting among them and with no pause for breath between the final of a fight and the start of another in their bid to make a fortune . This uncompromisingly tough working-class melodrama featured Stanley Baker, with whom Endfield formed a production company in the 1960s . Baker eventually starred in six of Endfield's films, including the routinely scripted drama Sea Fury (1958) about tugboat sailors and the rather over-the-top Sands of the Kalahari (1965) . Very good acting by Stanley Baker , he has a tremendous time as 'Tom' Yateley , an ex-convict who become involved into problems . The love scenes between Stanley Baker and Peggy Cummings have more bite than in most English movies of the time . Excellent support cast plenty of great British actors who will make a splendid career as cinema as TV , such as William Hartnell as Cartley , Wilfrid Lawson as Ed ,Sidney James ad Dusty , Alfie Bass as Tinker and Gordon Jackson as Scottie . David McCallum met his first wife, Jill Ireland during filming in the autumn of 1956 , Jill subsequently married to Charles Bronson . Most actors who play supporting roles in this film became well known in the 1950s , 1960s for their roles in film and television : Sean Connery (Agent 007 (1962)), Patrick McGoohan (Danger Man (1960), and The prisoner (1967)), William Hartnell (Doctor Who (1963)), David McCallum (CIPOL) (1964) , Peggy Cummings (Night of the demon), (Gun crazy) and Sidney James (the "Carry On" films). Some of them would all shoot to stardom in the next decade playing legendary cinematic spies .

The motion picture was well directed by Cy Endfield and being shot mostly at Pinewood Studios . Underrated Cy Endfield, resident of England after he was blacklisted realized this fascinating , propulsive film . Cy also directed good flicks such as ¨Child in the house¨, ¨Mysterious Island¨ , ¨Try and get me¨, ¨Hide and seek¨, ¨De Sade¨and ¨Sands of the Kalahari¨. Certainly the most visually impressive and successful of Endfield's films is Zulú (1964), the epic story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879 between a small contingent of British troops and a vastly superior force of Zulu tribesmen. Endfield lost interest in filmmaking after shooting the anti-war movie Universal Soldier (1971) , his last movie .

Trucking Hell

[loza-1 · 10/10 · 24 May 2005]

The trucking crew reads like a who's who of male British-based acting talent. Baker, Connery, Sid James (who was a superb straight actor), Lom, Gordon Jackson, etc, under the foremanship of Patrick McGoohan. Back home minding the shop we have David McCallum and in the office, ripping them all off is William Hartnell.

I love the road scenes be they shot at normal speed or otherwise. The language had to be toned down for censorship reasons, otherwise you would find McGoohan calling Baker something a little stronger than yellow belly.

With a cast like that you would expect to see some great performances; and you do. But since Patrick McGoohan has the best role, he stands head and shoulders above the rest as the mad Irishman who swigs Guiness at the wheel, and who can lose a fight and still have his cigarette sticking out of his mouth.

I love this film.

Entertaining British Melodrama

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 24 July 2009]

In many ways HELL DRIVERS resembles the great American western SHANE . A stranger with a past walks in to town and finds that getting on with his life is not going to be possible due to outside dynamics . It lacks the colour and feel good factor of George Stevens genre masterpiece and possibly the internal conflicts but as a piece of gritty melodrama the film delivers

The plot revolves around ex-con Tom signing up for a road haulage firm and blacklisted American director Cy Endfield shoots the movie in a combination of film noir and British realist drama style . The scenes involving lorries zooming along English country roads with intrusive music does seem somewhat melodramatic but rightly Endfield concentrates on the character driven plot . Most of the drama centres around Tom's place within the firm's hierarchy where he's at the very bottom of the food chain and is singled out for the attention of violent bully " Red " Redman . Tom's lack of popularity nosedives further when he decides to walk away from a punch up at a dance hall

This is a very well acted film . Stanley Baker isn't an obvious choice for a mild mannered everyman but he pulls the role off very well . There's a host of faces who'd be well known in 1957 like Hartnell , Lom , James and Jackson alongside lesser known faces such as Connery and McCallum . Best performance is by Patrick McGoohan as Red the workmate from hell who is the stuff nightmares are made from . He also has a strangely prophetic line where he states he's not a prison warder !

If there's a problem with HELL DRIVERS it's that the story has too much melodramatic roots and is tied up a little too easily . Being a firm that is breaking the law Tom knows too much for his own good so the bad guys of the firm have to silence him which leads to an ending that seems at odds with the film's social grittiness . If the firm was law abiding Tom would still have found himself with the same problems from his workmates but Tom leaving the firm to work for a new company would have been very anti-climatic

Fast paced, hard edged working-class thriller

[Slime-3 · 9/10 · 3 June 2002]

Stanley Baker heads a remarkable cast of high quality British based actors in a rattleing good yarn of corruption and grim macho rivalry. The towering Welsh actor looks and acts every inch the quiet spoken smouldering tough guy character(Tom Yately),a role that he was seemingly born to play, a combination of working class hard-man, reluctant/accidental criminal and passionate lover. A role too that he played in slightly differing forms in several other classic British crime flicks of the 1950's such as ONLY THE GOD DIE YOUNG but in HELL DRIVERS he has distilled the persona to perfection. Tom Yately an itinerant ex con, taking the only job he can find with his dubious background. This leads him to a trucking firm who deliver ballast (gravel/stone)and insist on their drivers (all apparently similar, down at heel ex cons and drifters) running insane risks at illegal speeds in order to earn enough bonus pay to survive and with the promise that if any of them can deliver more loads in a day than the obnoxious foreman, Red, the prize is a solid silver cigarette case worth a small fortune. Tom lands a room in a rough boarding house where most of his workmates also live and so work and it's pressures and rivalries are with him constantly.The landlady is a tough old bird and well capable of dishing out whatever is required to keep order.And she needs to! The other drivers are prone to constant fighting and low-brow practical jokes, one of which lands Tom in a classic confrontation with Red (played by Patrick "The Prisoner" McGoohan)which gives the film one of it's truly great moments of cinematic fury. As the story developes Tom ducks out of a dance hall brawl rather than risk his parole and becomes ostracized by the other drivers who have all been involved and who resent him for his apparent cowardice. Only his the rather more reasonable Italian ex POW, Gino (Herbert"Pink Panther" Lom) remains loyal. There is however the complication of Gino's "girl" (Peggy Cummings)who works at the truck yard. Unlike Gino,she sees herself as a free agent and makes a pitch for Baker.I won't spoil the plot which does have some good twists and turns but I will say that it all ends in rather dramatic, satisfying, if not unexpected violence. McGoohan, as Red, gives a superb performances , one of psychotic, cigar chewing , glowering animal menace. He makes Red the kind of foreman from hell that No-one would argue with. His acid-spitting delivery of lines, boxer-like stance and unkempt appearance simply ooze evil. Its a raw edged version of the rather more sophisticated "No.6" he later made famous in "The Prisoner" . Red could easily be "No.6"s mentally unstable cousin!

Gino is played with warmth and sensitivity by Lom, who's truly a class act, so much more so than his most famous Role of Inspector Dreyfuss in the PINK PANTHER films would have us believe. Peggy Cummings as Lucy, his girlfriend, is also superb; bright, quick, sassy and very attractive. Something of a teaser and everything of a femme fatale full of barely suppressed passion. Her love scenes with Tom are unusually sparky for a 50's British film.

Of the others, where do you start? Sean Connery is there in his pre-007 days. He's good but not yet great, but he looks the part, as in fact do every one of the cast, who were all chosen with great success. Carry-On star Sid James clowns about in some scenes but has a raw edge that reminds us what a damn good straight actor he could be when given the role while Gordon Jackson puts in a similarly gritty performance long before his lasting TV fame of THE PROFESSIONALS. The yard boss, played by the original DR WHO, William Hartnell is another fine piece of casting in what must rank as one of the best British films of the 50's. The story is unusual, a change from the whodunnit's, kitchen sink dramas and Ealing Comedies that were standard fare at the time. The script isn't too peppered with cliches and fairly crackles with tension at times. The action scenes both with the actors and with the trucks are sharply directed (aside from the old trick of speeding up the film at times which was common pactice untill quite recently and always, always looks false!)and every scene is well photographed to portray a grim, earthy working-class world. The characters are real and the performances are superb. It's a fine ensemble piece with a strong but not overpowering star role. Baker is in command but the others do not wither in his shadow and it can't have been by accident that the same star and director later worked together with major international success on ZULU.

Rough & Tough Drivers

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 31 August 2007]

Great classic film from England starring Stanley Baker,(Tom Yately) and Peggy Cummins, (Lucey). Tom Yately had a criminal record and found it very hard to find work, but he did find himself a job as a truck driver for Hawlett Trucking. This trucking firm hauled gravel from place to place and it was like a contest every week just who would be able to haul the most to their dump sites. All these truck drivers were rough and tough guys and they all got very upset with Tom being paid the most money for his work. It was not very long before all the guys picked on him for fights and he even came to blows with the head foreman. Lucy was the secretary for the Hawlett Company and took a liking to Tom, however, another guy named Gino Rossi, (Herbert Lom) took a liking to her also and gave her an engagement ring. There is plenty of action and suspense and unbelievable fist fights. This film also has a great suspenseful ending.

What do you want to know? I was there!!

[keith_g · 10/10 · 5 September 2006]

When this film was made I was 10 years old and my father was a truck driver in a small (by today's standards) Bedford truck almost identical to the Dodge trucks used in the film and was operating in the very area the film was made. He and his colleagues witnessed much of the film making and apparently had quite a laugh at some of the antics of the actors trying to move the trucks about! (If they had realised what the actors' pay was in relation to their own and what the future held for the likes of Sean Connery and Patrick McGoohan perhaps they would have laughed a little less!!)

As a lad my greatest delight was to accompany my father for the day and on odd occasions I got to drive the truck about in pits and quarries just like in the film and we would occasionally stop off in one of the numerous transport 'caffs' that existed in those days - with biscuits in glass jars, menus written in chalk, Coca Cola and jukeboxes in every one!! What I can tell you is that, disregarding the 'storyline' with its necessarily exaggerated drama and the near-psychotic behaviour of some of the characters, the atmosphere, scenery and setting of the story is spot on.

The film picks up nicely on the period that I witnessed myself at the time in the UK, when the bleak, post-war drabness was gradually being turned round by hard work and long hours put in by just the sort of drifting, diverse workforce (including ex-POWs) that was portrayed with some pretty fine character studies. The grittiness of their existence and the way they coped with the pressures of the day was depicted very well - pubs sold a lot more ale and a lot less 'chicken in the basket' in those days! It was a time when 'black & white' Britain was becoming 'Technicolour' and little black cars (like the Austin 7 in the film that keeps popping all over the place) were slowly being eased out by the arrival of smart new models which could even be had in *different colours*!! (Ten years from the time this film was made colour was everywhere and Britain had become 'psychedelic'!!)

Obviously the events depicted in the film would not have been allowed to go on long before they attracted the attention of the police but it may interest you to know that, for a brief while, some of the ex-military, petrol-engined trucks that were in use just after the war could be made to run faster than the police cars of the day and if you could get away from them, they couldn't 'nick' you!! Also, one small thing that doesn't seem to be picked up on by any of the comments I have read is that the trucks seemed to be running an awful lot of material into a building site that would have struggled to use it all!!

I have been delighted to read through some of the favourable comments here and agree that this film is an underrated gem - it obviously touched me as it was all like yesterday for me, but it also stands in its own right as a superb 'modern melodrama' with a star-studded cast, action, humour, a love angle, violence, death, road chases and the bad guys *getting it* in the end!!

(And it's now almost *50* years old...!!)

Ten out of ten - for a lot of reasons.....

Dueling Dump Trucks

[theognis-80821 · 7/10 · 24 May 2022]

Talented Cy Endfield ("Zulu," 1964) made this working class crime melodrama, starring hard-boiled, unsentimental Stanley Baker. The excellent cast included many new actors who became stars later. The plot is unique and suspenseful, a good job by all involved.

I was disappointed by this one...

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 24 December 2021]

... because Eddie Muller had praised it highly, and after watching it I just don't get its allure.

This little British film is oddly centered on a group of drivers working for an unscrupulous short haul trucking company. The truckers have to drive at a dangerously high speed on rather poorly maintained country roads to make their quota or get fired. The motive to put up with this is that the pay is very good for a bunch of guys who probably don't have the skills to do anything else. You see them almost plowing into "civilian" autos and having near misses all of the time with the locals. That and their rowdy entries into public dance halls that break out into free for all fights would have you think that the British, who pride themselves on order, would have the law shut this place down. But that subject never comes up. Instead it is like a 1950s version of Fury Road without the interesting costumes that turns out to have an anti capitalist message.

What's fun about it? The road scenes are suspenseful, although I thought they got somewhat repetitive. There is also the opportunity to see a who's who of 60s and 70s entertainment before anybody knew who they were. And it is a rare chance to see Herbert Lom play not only a normal person, but a likeable one at that.

Brilliant, underrated piece of British 50s social realism

[sayesele · 20 July 2003]

This underrated film, directed by Cy Endfield (Zulu) is a dour, realistic drama about an ex-con (Stanley Baker) who goes to work as a lorry driver for a crooked haulage company, only to discover that the ruthless boss and his foreman are cheating the drivers of huge amounts of money, and forcing them to work in dangerous conditions, resulting in the death of several drivers.

It benefits from a taut, BAFTA nominated screenplay by Endfield and John Kruse (better known as a documentary film maker), which pulls no punches in its realistic depiction of the genuinely life-threatening conditions that these lorry drivers had to endure.

Its chief asset, however, is the remarkably strong cast. Stanley Baker, as the ex-con determined to expose his corrupt bosses, brings a quiet strength and sincerity to his role as a basically decent guy who makes the wrong choices. It is interesting to compare Baker's performance here with his acclaimed portrayal of the ruthless, hardened gangster in Joseph Losey's 'The Criminal', made three years later.

Patrick McGoohan shines in an early role as the psychopathic lead driver, exuding genuine menace. And as for the priceless supporting cast: Herbert Lom, Sid James, Gordon Jackson, and Sean Connery in one of his earliest roles..need I say more. To sum up, Hell Drivers is a minor classic of post-war British cinema, and deserves more recognition than it has formerly feceived.

Hell Drivers

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 12 November 2022]

Stanley Baker is at the top of his game in this drama. Recently released from prison, "Tom" struggles to find decent work until he alights on an haulage company run by "Cartley" (William Hartnell) who doesn't care so much about formalities and history, just about deliveries - the more and quicker the merrier. He joins a disparate group of colleagues where he befriends "Gino' (Herbert Lom) and antagonises the head honcho "Red" (Patrick McGoohan). As the story develops, he and the latter man become more and more competitive with increasingly perilous consequences. Cy Endfield and Geoffrey Unsworth work well together to create an intense and well photographed story of a rivalry that is lively and mobile for most of the film. Whilst some of that is a little repetitive, we are still moving at what seemed like break-neck speed, with a solid cast of regulars, until a conclusion that was both fitting and quite exciting. Gritty and well worth a watch.

Unless I'm pushed that is.

[hitchcockthelegend · 9/10 · 9 July 2010]

Ex-convict Tom Yately snags himself a job driving for haulage company Hawletts. The drivers are paid per trip, something that spurs the men on to drive faster and be more reckless than your average employee. Making few friends at Hawletts, Tom uncovers shifty dealings between brutal foreman, Red, and Hawletts manager, Cartley. Something that ups the stakes considerably more as Tom and Red clash on and off the road.

A true British hard boiler is Hell Drivers, a pic that is chocked full of machismo. Who would have thought that a film about lorry drivers transporting gravel could be so exciting? Directed by Cy Endfield (Zulu), Hell Drivers has something of the quintessential working class about it, which is good to see and is no bad thing at all. Gritty in texture, piece, although a crime film in essence, has good character substance. Tom, played by the criminally undervalued Stanley Baker, is a guy trying to move on with his life, his past misdemeanours hang heavy with him, courtesy of a nice family thread that exists within the picture. But here he is trying to earn a hard days pay, only to find that crime, through no fault of his own, wont leave him be. There's also a crucial thread of bullying, essayed by the hulking and fabulous Patrick McGoohan. And of course there's the women caught up in this macho world, observers to daily recklessness, coming to terms with affairs of the heart as much as the daily grind.

Set to a back drop of cafés, boarding houses, village dances, disused quarries and tight winding roads, Endfield and his crew have the working class atmosphere spot on. For sure it's the roaring trucks that bring the excitement, but it's the working class everyman (and woman) heart that drives Hell Drivers along. Be that as it may mind, it's the trucks, and the men behind the wheels, that Hell Drivers is most remembered for. Endfield shoots the road beasts from front and rear, which really puts us out on the road with them. That we are involved with the characters and their surroundings, for better or worse, really aids the experience, such is the authentic feel that Endfield has crafted.

A roll call of Great British talent lines up alongside McGoohan, who may have been born in America, but was an honorary Brit due to his work on TV show The Prisoner. Into the Baker led beef stew comes Sean Connery, Sid James, William Hartnel, Alfie Bass, Wilfrid Lawson, David McCallum and Gordon Jackson. With Herbert Lom adding a continental aspect as the crucial, and emotionally driven Gino Rossi. The girls are played by Peggy Cummins, Jill Ireland and Marjorie Rhodes, with Cummins particularly standing out in amongst this hairy knuckled world.

On release the film garnered mixed reviews, but with each passing decade Hell Drivers has broken free of its cult only status. To which it now stands tall as a true British classic, one that thankfully got a DVD treatment in 2007 to finally do it justice. 9/10

"I am No. 1"

[m.p. · 6/10 · 4 September 2002]

As a long time "The Prisoner" and McGoohan fan, my mouth dropped open when the theme of "Who is No. 1?" popped up in this movie. At some point, McGoohan as "Red" even says, "I am No. 1..." Talk about recycling an idea! The most interesting thing about this movie may be the cast of actors - 3 of the most famous fictional spies of the 1960's (Connery, McGoohan and McCallum - and Connery is almost unrecognizable with that shock of bushy black hair); Jill Ireland as a brunette, barely 21 when this movie was made; Gordon Jackson, known best in the US for his role as Mr. Hudson, the quintessential British butler in "Upstairs, Downstairs." Great for the curiosity value, if nothing else.

Bought this on DVD as not in video libraries

[gogadget · 10/10 · 3 August 2004]

I have watched Hell Drivers twice on television and unfortunately the VCR was not going.

It is a fantastic movie with heaps of action and drama and that very 50's UK feel. The actors then were not well known as they are today or even in the 80's and 90's.

All the time I was wandering "what if someone was driving in the opposite direction and they met head on"??

And, where were the Police? Oh well, when you want a cop they are never around!

Not finding this film at video libraries I purchased a DVD from the UK and have watched it another two times already, well worth a look.

Dr Who, The Prisoner and the Bond films

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 6 December 2017]

Hard hitting, gritty and well known for having so many young British actors who would go on to greater things. In particular there are the future stars of Dr Who, The Prisoner and the Bond films all leaping in and out of lorries. Indeed, it is most noticeable that while the very fine Stanley Baker stars, the bit part player, Sean Connery would be about to leapfrog to mega stardom. The film is fine but there are just a few too many speeded up shots of many lorries speeding through the English countryside and maybe a sub-plot would have been helpful. But 'drive' this certainly has and there is a relentlessness to it, whilst giving just enough colour to the various participants. Herbert Lom's character is perhaps a bit too maudlin and didn't really contribute positively, perhaps the role should have been that of a young lad, son of one of the bosses maybe, just take away that sentimental element the film, surely did not need. Peggy Cummins seems a bit posh for the role but has to be forgiven as she would play in the wondrous Night of the Demon the same year.

Fantastic Classic B&W British Film

[Tomschk · 10/10 · 17 July 2001]

What can I say! This is my favourite all time film. Every one of the all star cast put in great performances, most notably Stanley Baker pitting his wits against the perfect bad guy in Patrick McGoohan. The speeded up film of the trucks skidding round corners set to a frantic score may not win any special effects oscars but is genuinely exciting. The plot is not very complex but the fantastic characters portrayed in this film bring it to life. With a plethora of top class supporting actors in Sid James, Alfie Bass, David McCallum, not to mention a young Sean Connery, and many others, this film has 'classic' written all over it. The film is full of lines that you will find yourself saying long after you watch it. So if you see this film coming up on TV: watch it, video it, and watch it again!

Ah the life of a Gravel Truck Drivin' Man

[nomoons11 · 6/10 · 5 March 2012]

I had no idea what I was getting into when I popped this in to watch it. What a strange concept for a film.

I thought maybe I was gonna see a "Pre Mad Max" typa film by the title alone but what I got was a bunch of ruffians who drive gravel trucks for a living. Basic premise is, guy fresh outta prison applies and gets a job to drive a gravel truck. To drive one, and keep the job, you have to drive fast and the roads where they drive it's very unsafe. The paymaster and head driver guy(played my Patrick Mcgoohan) is a semi-psycho fella who doesn't take kindly to anyone taking his place as the fastest driver. He lets everyone know, any chance he gets, that he's the best driver etc. From there the film meanders from scenario to scenario about how to get the loads of gravel to their target faster and such.

There were a few little things that got to me. First off, regardless of the state of the roads Post WWII, wouldn't you think that people that lived in the area these guys drove would have had many many complaints against this gravel company about the unsafe driving of these guys? I'm quite sure there would have been more than one citizen who complained about these gravel nuts insane driving habits and the police would have easily been in the area patrolling to make sure these hell drivers woulda been put to a stop.

Second. I found the funniest part of the film to be the trucks themselves. Can you imagine trucks at full load taking corners at 50mph? Totally ridiculous. Of course to get past this they obviously sped up the film to make them look like they were taking the corners faster than they were. Watch out for some of the corners these nuts take and you'll see, no way on earth would these trucks take, at full load, the corners they do at 50mph.

Third. The real secret of the film doesn't pop up until the very end. We find out that the boss of the garage and the head driver, Patrick Mcgoohan, cut short actual drivers by 5 and keep the money for themselves. Basically, the company needs 15 drivers but these 2 guys only hire 10 and pocket the money for the other 5 themselves. My problem? Don't you think at company headquarters from time to time they would come and take a look at the books and see that the drivers are 5 short? The scenario these 2 guys concoct is kinda improbable. These guys are risking their lives and wouldn't have to if they had 5 extra drivers. Then they could drive at a normal pace without risking their lives.

Not a bad film but just a lotta "yeah right" typa stuff. What I got most outta it was seeing a lot of future stars in it. Look out for the best performance in the film by Herbert Lom. Sean Connery is in it for a bit also. A decent film that was obviously made for a small sum. It has some good points for sure but don't expect a treasure when your done.

Red in Tooth and Claw

[Moor-Larkin · 8/10 · 16 May 2006]

I recall seeing this film on TV - must have been in the late 60's, early 70's. I remember enjoying it but feeling immensely betrayed because my TV hero, John Drake/Number Six, had become a bad guy. And not just bad, but pathological!

Patrick McGoohan made his movie name playing villains and they don't come more psychotic than this one. As the premier driver and the foreman, his character cuts a lonely figure. His company uses him to pressurise its workers, his colleagues hate his guts but are too frightened of him to do anything about it. His supervisor has made him complicit in a wages fraud that has turned him into a thief as well. By the end of the movie he has been driven to attempt murder. Poor Red (his initial is G. but we never get to know his Christian name) Redmond.

The only time poor Red finds happiness is at the Village dance. He has no interest in the girls. He drinks deeply of alcoholic solace and in due course finds release in a saloon-bar brawl. In physical communion with his fellow-men, Red briefly finds popularity because his nemesis, Tom (Stanley Baker), flees the fighting and so is thought to be a physical coward. Tom's apparent shame leads to the rest of the men supporting Red. This stasis cannot persist for very long and it doesn't; by the end of the film Red is dead.

Watching Patrick McGoohan, in such a full role, at such an early stage of his career left me with a small self-revelation. I never tire of watching him. There are many who seem to find him over-powering, his acting 'over-the-top'. Something about watching Red, after all these years, made me feel that I could see what Patrick McGoohan does.

He takes a role as scripted and finds a way to 'be' that person. Red was written to be a raving, uncomplicated madman...so that is how he is presented.

I think that must be why I always enjoy watching McGoohan. He has created that separation, so that you are not watching Patrick McGoohan 'as' Red. You are watching Red. This is what Red is. I wonder if that is why, all those years ago, I felt so betrayed. John Drake and Number Six were 'my' Patrick McGoohan (to a greater or lesser degree). When I watched Hell Drivers the first time, I expected 'my' Patrick McGoohan and got Red.

Nowadays I watch Patrick McGoohan movies because he never plays Patrick McGoohan, he plays whoever he is meant to be. That is interesting. When I feel the need to see 'my' Patrick again, I can always watch Danger Man or The Prisoner.

HELL DRIVERS (Cy Endfield, 1957) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 23 January 2009]

The career of American film director Cy Endfield is similar to that of his contemporary Joseph Losey in that, despite having made some highly-regarded movies in Hollywood, these where so overshadowed by their later, bigger successes in England (to where they both relocated following the McCarthy scourge) that they could well be mistaken for genuine Englishmen! This rugged action film about short-haul truck drivers was the second of 6 collaborations with star Stanley Baker which peaked with the celebrated epic ZULU (1964) which is also Endfield's best-known work. Although probably inspired by the recent international success of Henri-Georges Clouzot's THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953), Endfield's film stands on its own two feet by virtue of its remarkable cast, generally stylish handling and a handful of powerful sequences. Stanley Baker (in his own first starring role as an ex-con) is abetted by Peggy Cummins (as the sultry secretary of the firm), Herbert Lom (as her Italian boyfriend), Patrick McGoohan (in so vivid a characterization as the mean-spirited foreman that he's virtually unrecognizable), Sean Connery, David McCallum (as Baker's crippled brother), Gordon Jackson, Sidney James, Alfie Bass, William Hartnell, Wilfred Lawson (in a notable bit as Baker's cynical trainer) and Jill Ireland (as the local barmaid). Reckless truck driving along perilous roads (where truckers are awarded for the greater number of trips undertaken in a day – with McGoohan's dishonest, and occasionally dangerous, tactics ensuring his superiority every time, until Baker's arrival) take up the bulk of the terrific action scenes but there is also a big brawl between the townspeople and the truckers, a bloody fistfight between Baker and McGoohan (shot for real since they had both been amateur boxers!) and the climactic truck chase leading to a fateful leap off a clifftop. Ironically, given Endfield's origins, the film was trimmed from its original British running time of 108 minutes to 91 when released in the U.S. but, obviously, Network's 2-Disc Set on Region 2 presents the film in its complete form.

LOOKING IN ON "HELL DRIVERS" (Bill Morton, 1957) **1/2

It's indeed rare that a featurette from the time of the original release exists for a movie of this vintage. The so-called "Location Report" has a personality from British TV interviewing cast and crew members at work on the grueling actioner HELL DRIVERS (1957) – a few choice scenes from which are presented here for our benefit – including scriptwriter John Kruse (also author of the source material), director Cy Endfield and lead Stanley Baker. However, we also get the viewpoint of real-life short-haul drivers on the precarious nature of their job – which is appropriate since the film would be noted for its realism.

THE STANLEY BAKER STORY (N/A, 1958) **1/2

This 16-minute piece finds the sturdy Welsh actor at 30 discussing his (up to that point) already considerable 16-year acting career. In films, he had started out in small parts or villains but would slowly graduate to men-of-action and/or romantic leads. He proves an affable guest and erudite speaker, belying the rebellious working-class types he often played; during the course of the featurette, whose source is not credited on Network's "Special Edition" release of HELL DRIVERS (1957) – one of the star's more notable efforts from this era – we're treated to scenes from that film and two more of Baker's actioners, namely VIOLENT PLAYGROUND and Cy Endfield's SEA FURY (both 1958). His subsequent filmography (including work for auteurs like Joseph Losey, not to mention turning producer) would only further elevate his stature; sadly, he would die in 1976 at only 49 years of age.

RETURN TO THE RHONDDA (Colin Voisey, 1965) **

The Rhondda Valley is synonymous with Wales' coal-mining industry; this 37-minute documentary, hosted by countryman Donald Houston, is a valediction to the place and its people. Though it certainly makes for a decent educational piece, unfortunately, the end product is rather dull – despite the brief amicable participation of fellow Welshman Stanley Baker; an interesting sideline here is the fact that the only escape for young men from the grime of the coal-pits was either boxing or acting: Baker, in fact, would try both but obviously settled for the latter. Of course, equally redolent of the country are the pubs and the heartfelt singing (which we get plenty of here); still, perhaps the best moments in the short are devoted to the long-running miners' strikes (naturally over better working conditions) which often saw them clashing violently with the police.

20/20 hindsight has turned a potboiler into a masterpiece.................

[ianlouisiana · 5/10 · 2 February 2012]

The reputation of "Hell Drivers" has grown with the telling - as it were.Back in 1957 when I saw it at "The Essoldo" cinema in Brighton,neither I nor my mates considered it as anything other than a cheap rather preposterous if enjoyable film that we forgot as soon as we got on the bus home. Without the gift of prophecy who could tell that many of the actors involved would become virtual cult figures to lovers of British Cinema? We certainly couldn't. Over half a century later,it is spoken of almost in awe by people to whom 1957 is as far off as the Regency. But believe me,in the coffee bars of Brightom where the Grammar school boys gathered to discuss the latest Chris Barber or MJQ L.P.,"Hell Drivers" was dismissed with a scornful snort as we lauded the merits of "The Man with the Golden Arm". The speeded up action,the scenery - chewing,the shoddy production values all added up to a clunker in our book. If you'd have told me as I sipped my oh - so - sophisticated frothy coffee that one day it would be regarded as a classic I would have politely laughed and privately doubted your sanity.