Thieves’ Highway (1949)

Thieves’ Highway is a 1949 film noir directed by Jules Dassin. The screenplay was written by A. I. Bezzerides, based on his novel Thieves’ Market.

Director – Jules Dassin

Writer – A.I. Bezzerides (screen play)

Cast –
Richard Conte as Nico “Nick” Garcos
Valentina Cortese as Rica
Lee J. Cobb as Mike Figlia
Barbara Lawrence as Polly Faber
Jack Oakie as Slob
Millard Mitchell as Ed Kinney
Joseph Pevney as Pete
Morris Carnovsky as Yanko Garcos
Tamara Shayne as Parthena Garcos
Kasia Orzazewski as Mrs. Polansky
Norbert Schiller as Mr. Polansky
Hope Emerson as Midge, a buyer

Watch “Thieves’ Highway” (1949)

Plot

A war-veteran-turned-truck driver Nico “Nick” Garcos arrives at home to find that his foreign-born father, a California fruit farmer, 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, Mike Figlia. Garcos vows revenge.

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 when his truck is immobilized with a suspiciously cut tire, 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 is killed when his own truck mechanically fails, veers off the road, and burns after speeding out of control down a long hill. 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 friend finally confront the cowed bully Figlia at a tavern, and have him arrested, restoring Nick’s family honor. Nick and Rica happily drive off and plan to get married.