Noir Trivia of The Day: They Drive By Night (1940) with Humphrey Bogart, George Raft & Ann Sheridan. The wife of producer Mark Hellinger, Gladys Glad, a former showgirl for Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., was responsible for getting this film made. Hellinger had brought home a large stack of scripts that he was to read for filming consideration. He had leafed through the script and read the summary, but felt that nobody would pay money to see a bunch of truck drivers. His wife read this script, liked it and pressured Hellinger to read it. Reluctantly, he did, the film eventually got made and became the sleeper hit of the year for Warners. It was made for an estimated $400,000 and grossed more than $4,000,000. (Source: Book The Mark Hellinger Story by Jim Bishop, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1952). Duirng the conversation between Joe and Carlson, Carslon lights his cigarette twice. When Joe and Pauls truck crashes, a motorist in a 1933 Cadillac with California license number 2N 214 stops to give assistance. Later, at Ed and Lana Carlsons anniversary party the same car (and same license number) is shown as one of Eds cars as he demonstrates his garage door opener.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 15:09:16 +0000