The Long Haul

There is a sort of inevitability about casting Victor Mature and Diana Dors. That is if you the reader have any passion for 1950's films as I do. They were larger than life then, and their physicality alone caught people's attention back then even if it does not now. Imagine the star of ' Demetrius and the Gladiators ' and the star of ' Passport to Shame ' meeting in a dream and insisting on their acting together and you have it. A dream for many came true to them as well as us, both with the male and female audience. Ken Hughes was a good director for them, and the screen is in stark and beautiful black and white showing off their mutual acting and physical abilities. Typecast as bad girl we all loved back then, but good at heart even when she kills in ' Yield to the Night ' (arguably her best performance) Dors shows yet again how well she could handle her sexual allure and her skills as a fine actor. Victor Mature in his rough, beat up good looks, and his equal power as a very strong actor make as I said a perfect match. And Hughes given a complex Film Noir plot does not let the audience down with trucks burning up the asphalt quite literally and corrupt men manipulating the weak and the good. No spoilers but Mature is a married man, but despite falling in love with Dors, duty to a mistaken marriage haunts him to the film's end. I enjoyed every minute of this very thrilling and sexy film (more so if the censor would have allowed) and it is well worth seeing once, and maybe more than once. Not a great film and a little bit derivative of others it somehow holds its own, and corruption in the long haul trucking business shows well the underside of British life in the mid-1950's.

I've just seen the 88m version of this film on a 'Hollywood Movie Greats' video and feel compelled to add my opinion because I feel the other reviews don't do this film justice. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia of the Gangster Film (edited by Phil Hardy, 1998) calls it an 'impressive...tough, exciting movie that, for its time, is remarkably full of nasty and sleazy characters...' They go on to mention the uniformly good performances including Diana Dors who is 'excellent'. In fact, if you're a fan of noir, Diana Dors, and Victor Mature, this is a triple whammy. Dors is lovingly lit throughout, weather with gleaming blonde hair giving her an almost angelic allure when Mature first realises he's a goner as he looks at her, or whether weeping in the shadows of a car's backseat; by the final scene only the truly cynical will be left unmoved by her performance. Okay, there's nothing particularly new or genre-bending in the script, but the relationships,whether amatory, or detailing the struggle of a fundamentally honest man trying not to succumb to the corruption of the low-lifes surrounding him, are more than adequately depicted. Perhaps the longer version has some slack; many films are improved by trimming. Well-written, well-shot, well-acted, well - what more do you want?

This is a very good film, starting with a great , sensitive script, terrific acting from Victor Mature and Diana Dors , and beautiful wide-screen B&W photography.

Anyone who's ever doubted the two leads acting ability should see this film. Diana Dors is particularly great in a role which was a surprise to me, displaying great sensitivity beyond the script, which is already very good.

I highly recommend this movie, it is much more than just a trucker, road action flick.

The relationships of the principal characters are very well drawn,

and the outcome is not the normal cliché ending one might expect.

The Long Haul is really a great film-noir of the 50s era, as good as any of the classic 40s noir, I believe.

It is available on DVD ... see it , you won't be disappointed.

I wasn't expecting much from "The Long Haul," but it's actually quite good. It stars Victor Mature, Diana Dors, Gene Anderson, Patrick Allen, and Peter Reynolds.

Mature is ex-GI Henry Miller, living in England with his British wife (Anderson). He wants to go back to America with her and their son, but she wants to wait a few months, to return to Liverpool and see her mother. Henry, she says, can get a job with her relative's trucking company.

It doesn't quite work out as hoped. The truck company is totally corrupt, and before Henry knows his, he's forced out of regular trucking and in order to make any money, doing illegal runs for the mob owner, Joe Easy (Allen).

Then Henry meets Joe's girlfriend, the gorgeous Lynn (Dors). She and Henry fall for one another. Henry is unhappy in his marriage, but he's not sure he can go through with leaving his wife and child.

This is a sad film about sad people: Henry, unhappily married, Lynn, in love with a married man and tied to a criminal, Henry's wife, who doesn't want to go to America, Joe, a frustrated mob boss.

A huge part of the film shows Henry's truck driving through the mountains on a narrow, rocky road and what follows - very dramatic and nerve-wracking.

I'm not a huge fan of Mature, but he does a very good job here. Dors, despite coming to fame due to her drop dead gorgeous looks, was a very good actress and is effective here.

Lots of truck driving scenes and cheap diners - they capture the lonely atmosphere very well.

Remarkably similar to Cy Endfield's 'Hell Drivers', which came out slightly earlier; but that was probably a coincidence.

This probably owes it's provenance more to Hollywood blue collar road movies of the forties like 'They Drive by Night' and 'Thieves Highway' - with a bit 'The Wages of Fear' thrown in - while the Brylcreemed, zoot-suited villain Joe Easy is presumably based on Johnny Friendly in 'On the Waterfront' and his sidekick played by Peter Reynolds on Rod Steiger's Charley.