RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Noelle The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

mark.waltz When happy-go-lucky war veteran Richard Conte comes home, he is upset to find out that his aging father has lost his legs as a result of a trucking accident he had while attempting to make a delivery to San Francisco. He decides to confront the big boss (Lee J. Cobb) and buys his own truck so with the help of his father's old partner (Millard Mitchell), he can go there on the pretense of delivering apples. Trucking requires a lot of energy to prevent the driver from falling asleep, and getting to San Francisco is half the battle. Two men (Joseph Pevney and Jack Oakie), double-crossed by Mitchell, stalk him, while up at the Embarcadero, Conte finds Cobb more than ready to challenge him. But Cobb underestimates him, especially when he tries to use an obvious street walker (Valentina Cortese) in his efforts to get Conte out of his hair.This is a realistic and gritty drama that doesn't leave any stone unturned in exposing the rackets involved in a tough occupation. There's enough violence here to expose the seemingly innocent businessmen for being the mobsters they really are, and how the little man always suffer under the hands of these crooks. Conte is excellent, with Cortese memorable as a femme fatal who has more up her sleeve than the man paying her off realizes. Some of the violence is very shocking, and there's a very brutal ending for one of the major characters, as well as a confrontation with a horrifying pay-off for a certain villain. Barbara Lawrence is memorable as Conte's fiancée, while future "Caged" matron Hope Emerson has a nice small role as one of Cobb's no-nonsense customers. Morris Carnovsky gives vulnerability to the part of Conte's handicapped father. Don't let the happy opening fool you. There's little to be happy about throughout 95 percent of the movie, yet something about the way it was written, directed and filmed shows a minor masterpiece that you might not put at the top of your list to watch over and over, but you'll certainly never forget it.

chaos-rampant This is rich and wonderful, one of the most atmospheric noir. With it, Dassin takes his place next to Welles as a master of that form. Whereas Welles emphasized the fictional embroidery being woven with stories inside stories, Dassin commits himself to a single dynamic brushstroke of life. Welles fused a narrating eye into the places it dictates, Dassin fuses place (which he essayed in Naked city) with character, masterfully so.The idea is that a man has come back from the sea to the waking world of strife and deceit, a sailor. He's a stand-up guy who wants to do what's good, right wrongs. All through the film, he is a voice for reason and justice. He is Greek, perhaps to emphasize this struggle for order and light mixed with proud violence that defines the Greek experience through time. We could make the case that the Odyssey is an early noir text, all about a schmuck tossed by amused gods in seas of cosmic mishap.Our guy has come back to this noir world of mishap and machinations. The entire film is that ironic laughter of the gods that snuffs the light. Everywhere he goes some seemingly divine joke is already at play, anticipating him; seeking him as the victim of fate. Right from the first scene where the frolicking of his return is suddenly silenced by the revelation of his father's accident; notice too the ritual mask he's brought back and scares his girlfriend with it, foreshadowing deceit and ritual games.Something has masked itself from him, from his point of view, to the world of accident and human evil. Trucks are always about to give out. Flat tires obstruct him. The truck collapses on him crushing his neck. The whole world is conspiring against him, a definitive attribute of noir but seldom done with such clarity and penetrating force. Exhausted by the long journey, he's always on the verge of sleep. He passes out half a dozen times, entries to the hallucinative night where some other machine cranks out the world.In San Francisco, he has his tire slashed, a prostitute seduces him out of the street so the insidious fruit peddler can sell off his valuable cargo of apples. In the fruit market, everyone is trying to strike bargains, to outwit the other as if to snuff him from existence. His trucker partner who is the one hope of light in all this is continuously obstructed on the road. His money, won with so much bravado, is stolen in a minute. Worst of all; he has no way of knowing that the prostitute that he's grown fond of wasn't in on the theft. He has to go on faith alone. The film should have made a big deal of this, a question of faith as what sets the world back on its orbit.In the end we have clean resolutions. In a more abstract rendition, we'd never know just who stole his money, remember moments earlier he was yelling it on the phone in a roomful of drunk strangers. We'd never truly know if she was in on it, having to go on faith ourselves.Either way, this is masterful stuff folks, up there with Out of the Past and Lady from Shanghai in the ecstatic thrust of self.Noir Meter: 4/4

blanche-2 Richard Conte travels on "Thieves Highway," a 1949 film also starring Lee J. Cobb, Valentina Cortese, and Barbara Lawrence. Directed by Jules Dassin, it's the story of Nick Garcos (Conte), who returns from the war to find his father has lost his legs in a car accident. It wasn't just any car accident. His father, Yanko (Morris Carnovsky) had dealings with a corrupt dealer, Mike Figlia (Cobb), when he delivered a truckload of tomatoes. Figlia claimed that he paid Yanko, but on the way home, Yanko was in a terrible accident, and Figlia says that Yanko just doesn't remember. In truth, the accident was rigged by Figlia's thugs to avoid paying him.Yanko has sold his truck and wasn't paid for that either, so Nick goes to the new owner, Ed (Millard Mitchell) to retrieve it so that he can confront Figlia. Ed instead proposes that Nick accompany him in another truck to deliver a shipment of apples. Nick takes the money he was planning to use to start his life with Polly (Lawrence) and gets another truck. They have to drive nonstop to San Francisco to keep the fruit fresh.Nick arrives first, and Figlia arranges for a hooker (Cortese) to distract him so that he can steal the merchandise.In a strange way, this film reminded me of "The Wages of Fear" in that it's about danger on the road - in this case, a different kind of danger - but danger nonetheless. It's about growing up fast, holding onto what you have, and realizing what you want, and those two may not be the same; and about fighting for what's right.Terrific performances abound here - the angry Conte, the ruthless Cobb, and the conflicted Cortese. This is an excellent post-war noir, gritty and realistic, that shows the hard life of the working man trying to hold onto what little is his. Another winner from Dassin.

Claudio Carvalho The soldier Nick Garcos (Richard Conte) returns back home from the war very happy with gifts for his parents Yanko (Morris Carnovsky) and Parthena Garcos (Tamara Shayne) and money in his pocket to open a business and get married with his girlfriend Polly Faber (Barbara Lawrence). Out of blue, Nick realizes that his father lost both legs and Yanko, who was a truck driver, tells that he was cheated by the dealer Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb) in the San Francisco's market when he delivered a truckload of tomatoes and was not paid. He believes that his accident was provoked by Figlia's gangsters. He also tells that he sold the truck to a driver named Ed Kinney (Millard Mitchell) that has not paid him.Nick meets Ed and tells that he will bring the truck back, but Ed proposes a deal with apples, where they may earn a great amount. Nick invests his savings in another truck and buys apples from a Polish farmer. They need to drive directly to the market in San Francisco without sleeping to keep the fruits fresh, but Ed's truck has problem on its axle and Nick arrives first. Mike Figlia hires the Italian whore Rica (Valentina Cortesa) to distract Nick but she falls for him and tells that Mike is robbing his cargo. Mike is forced to share his selling with Nick and her earns a large amount. Then he calls Polly and asks her to meet him to get married, and Rica tells to Nick that Polly is only interested in his money. When Nick is robbed by Mike's gangsters, he learns who really loves him. But Nick still has to settle the score with Mike."Thieves' Highway" is another great film-noir by Jules Dassin in a period of the post-war ruled by gangsters and corruption. Nick Garcos begins the story happy and expecting to get married with his girlfriend and ends a dark character in love with a prostitute with a heart of gold. The direction and performances are top-notch and the story is realistic. The sequence with the uncontrolled truck without brake in the highway is impressive. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Mercado de Ladrões" ("Thieves' Market")