Thieves Highway (1949)
Thieves’ Highway is a 1949 American film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese and Lee J. Cobb. The screenplay was written by A. I. Bezzerides, based on his novel Thieves’ Market.
Plot
Nico “Nick” Garcos is a veteran of World War II, who arrives, from Asia, at his family home in Fresno, California to find that his foreign-born father, who became a produce truck driver, has lost his legs and was forced to sell his truck. He learns that his father was crippled at the hands of an unscrupulous produce dealer in San Francisco, called Mike Figlia. Garcos vows revenge for his father.
Garcos goes into business with Ed Kinney, who bought the Garcos truck, and drives a truckload of apples to San Francisco, where he runs into Figlia, and his truck is sabotaged, and unable to move, due to a cut tire. The truck is blocking Figlia’s busy wholesale stand, and cannot be towed.
Figlia hires a streetwalker, Rica, to seduce and preoccupy Nick in her room while his men unload the apples without Nick’s permission. Figlia later pays Nick for his fruit, but that night his goons waylay and rob Nick of the cash.
Meanwhile, Kinney’s truck, full of apples, has been struggling on the drive to San Francisco and the drive shaft universal joint breaks as he is driving downhill, preventing downshifting (engine braking). The brakes also seem to fail. In a horrific crash Kinney initially survives but the truck bursts into flames and he is burned alive, despite several onlookers. Polly, Nick’s hometown sweetheart, then arrives in the city ready to marry him, but leaves disillusioned after she finds him recovering from his beating in Rica’s apartment and with no money. Nick and a trucker finally confront the cowed bully Figlia at a tavern, in San Francisco, Nick beats him, and Figlia is arrested, restoring Nick’s family honor. Nick and Rica happily drive off and plan to get married
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