Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Richard Conte (Nick) returns home after serving with the military and he brings gifts from all over the world for his mother, father and girlfriend. They don't go down well, though. His father Morris Carnovsky (Yanko) has lost both his legs in a trucking accident and has no need for a pair of Chinese slippers. Conte sets out for revenge for those responsible for his father's condition. It involves teaming up with trucker Millard Mitchell (Ed) and selling apples to market trader and bully boy Lee J Cobb (Mike).I was a bit wary of this film when it started. A film about trucks. Not my thing. However, this is more than just a film about trucks. But it is unbelievable in parts and the main examples of this come with Conte's encounters with gangster Lee J. I'm afraid Conte would have been disposed of pretty sharpish and there is no way he would have got away with such an antagonistic manner towards the king of the thugs. Even in the final climax, Lee J is seen as a cowering wreck when face-to-face with Conte. It doesn't make sense.My favourite in the cast are street girl Valentina Cortesa (Rica) and fellow trucker Jack Oakie (Slob). They both deliver funny lines and give the most notable performances. They win the acting honours for me. I usually find Oakie an irritant and groan if I see him on any cast list. However, he has won me around with this performance. His character has a conscience - sort of!

THIEVES' HIGHWAY is one of the earliest road movies and, no two ways about it, one of the best. Jules Dassin surprises again with his own unique way of approaching a scene (the opening scene between Conte and his father, for example, or the scene where Conte lies pinned beneath his rig). Like WAGES OF FEAR, THIEVES' HIGHWAY never veers too far off course and we're along for the ride, riding shotgun- the best place to be in a road movie. Lee J. Cobb is on hand, warming up for his role in ON THE WATERFRONT, and my favorite scene in THIEVES' HIGHWAY is the barroom brawl, wherein Conte hammers Cobb senseless beneath a framed picture of Heavyweight Champion Bob Fitzsimmons. (Having earned a very meager living as a cab driver, I can relate to Conte's character's plight: when I collapsed in a service station parking lot one night- from a medical condition I didn't know I had, called "occult blood"- I had a guy try to pick my pocket quite literally while I was flat on my face. I stopped him by grabbing his wrist. He released my roll of bills- mostly ones- and kicked me in the head. There's ALWAYS somebody waiting to take advantage of a man when he's down...) (Prior to that, I'd written a three-day novel titled HACKS about cab-driving that could've served as the basis for a low budget independent feature itself.)

***Great summary by imogensara_smith ("A movie like this keeps the doctor away", imogensara_smith from New York City, 5 June 2006). Meanwhile, McGonigle ("Bravo", McGonigle from bean world, Massachusetts, 4 December 2006) has interesting thoughts about Nick's mental state at the film's end.***"Thieves Highway" (1949, Jules Dassin), Where film noir and Golden Delicious apples meet, is extremely gritty and suspenseful. Appearing a year before Dassin is blacklisted by the House un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), it depicts capitalism as an all-but-universal corrupter. With the lone exception of the protagonist, every character is seen destroying another for profit. The titanic struggle for working people to get ahead in a rigged game resonates today.War-veteran Nick Garcos (Richard Conte) comes home bearing presents for his family and somewhat tall girlfriend Polly (former model Barbara Lawrence, 5'8"). He learns that his formerly wildcatting father has been recently crippled by the perfidy of a Frisco-based produce market dealer, Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Headstrong and possessing a bad temper (when wronged), Nick partners up with occasionally unscrupulous, hard-boiled Ed (Millard Mitchell) to each drive a truck loaded with Golden Delicious apples from a particularly sun-kissed orchard to the Frisco market. Nick wants to do business with Figlia in order to make money and avenge his father at the same time. Unfortunately, Nick does not fully understand the depth to which Figlia employs murderous thugs to undermine business deals.There is a lot to enjoy. The performers are all excellent. Conte brings a physicality to Nick that is evident with his smoldering eyes, cat-like movement and athletic build. Lee J. Cobb, in a role that reminds many of his later appearance in "On the Waterfront (1954)", is perfect as the cigar-chomping, duplicitous produce dealer. There is always money to be made crossing unsuspecting saps and Lee J. Cobb seems to have known this from birth. Valentina Cortese is remarkably effective as the occasional Italian prostitute Rica, who is as street-wise as she is sensual. After being hired by Figlia to distract Nick from his load of apples, she double-crosses Figlia and becomes Nick's best ally. She helps Nick negotiate the tricky San Francisco underworld, a brutal environment that Nick's rarefied fiancé, Polly, could never acclimate to. The scenes between Nick and Rica in Rica's apartment are often beautifully realized. The moment where the pair play tic-tac-toe with their fingers on Nick's chest is really sexy.The screenplay (by A. I. Bezzerides who adapted his own novel) really breathes; i.e., events change at a believable pace, as seen by the length of screen time before Figlia begins appropriating Nick's apples. I love how vital the market scenes are, as Dassin's camera is normally stationary while the background is filled with people and objects in motion. Some reviewers believe that Dassin is showing his antipathy towards capitalism by making the audio and visuals from the early market scenes "noisy", as if to portray it as an assault on the senses. However, there is one particular image that everyone remembers from "Thieves." The much-discussed sight of apples tumbling down a steep hill after the truck that was carrying them has crashed is uniquely profound. Again, many will find an anti-capitalist message here. Clearly Dassin is commenting on the sheer destruction of countless lives in the pursuit of monetary gain.Speaking of double-crosses, executive producer Darryl Zanuck is known to have included (and personally directed) the final shot, without Dassin's knowledge. Zanuck also altered the roadhouse showdown between Nick and Figlia by including surprisingly uncorrupted police officers, one of whom is laughably from a different universe than every other character.) Also, Star Trek fans will want to notice Joseph Pevney as Pete. (Pevney later became one of Star Trek's principal directors.) "Thieves Highway" is a top-shelf noir, and an absolute must-see for Cinephiles. However, if you are driving an over-loaded big-rig to the revival theater showing this, it is recommended that you have slept within the last 36 hours and that your universal joint is not being held up by wire and spit.

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")