Themes: Criminal's Revenge, One Against the Mob, Flight of the Innocent
Main Cast: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
Plot
Thieves' Highway is set in San Francisco and the surrounding countryside. Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos, an American GI who returns from WWII to find that his father Yanko (Morris Carnovsky), a produce trucker, has lost the use of both legs because of a fight with crooked truck driver Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Nick is a clean-cut guy who was set on marrying his sweetheart Polly Faber (Barbara Lawrence). Instead, Nick gets embroiled in his father's feud with Mike, buying a truck and falling deeper into racketeering. He delivers a truckload of apples to Mike as part of a scheme to expose his cheating. A prostitute, Rica (Valentina Cortesa), tells Nick that Mike has his own plot to trap him. Nick and Rica help Mike's henchmen learn that Mike has also been cheating them, and Nick eventually gets his revenge. But Nick has permanently lost Polly because of his involvement with the gangsters and his change in personality from a good guy to a more sinister businessman. Director Jules Dassin was blacklisted from Hollywood for supposed communist sympathies after making this 1949 picture, but he went on to have success with more caper movies while in exile in France. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Chester Gore - Art Director, Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Kay Nelson - Costume Designer, Jules Dassin - Director, Nick De Maggio - Editor, Alfred Newman - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup, Norbert F. Brodin - Cinematographer, Robert Bassler - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Fred J. Rode - Set Designer, Fred Sersen - Special Effects, Alfred Bruzlin - Sound/Sound Designer, Harry M. Leonard - Sound/Sound Designer, A.I. Bezzerides - Screenwriter, A.I. Bezzerides - Book Author
A war-veteran-turned-truck driver Nico "Nick" Garcos (Richard Conte) arrives at home to find his foreign-born father, who is a farmer, crippled. He learns that his father was crippled at the hands of an amoral produce dealer in San Francisco, Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Garcos vows revenge.
Garcos drives a truckload of apples to San Francisco, where he runs into Figlia. With the help of other drivers and a streetwalker (Valentina Cortese), he defeats Figlia and restores his family honor.
Background
The film was shot on location in San Francisco, California and is noted for its accurate depiction of the vibrant fruit and produce market in that city (and the use of extras who worked at the market). The film was released on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection in 2005.
