The Long Haul

Victor Mature stars in this British thriller as a demobbed GI who winds up driving trucks for a Liverpool haulage company when his English wife proves reluctant to move back to the States. The film landed in UK cinemas a month after terrific truck-driving action drama Hell Drivers with Stanley Baker, and while tamer by comparison, it still does pretty well in transplanting film noir moves to a humdrum British setting. Square-jawed Patrick Allen's gangland operator proves Mature's nemesis as the plot forces the desperate driver off the straight and narrow, just as he's distracted by the temptation of sultry moll Diana Dors. Their chemistry keeps the movie on a strong simmer, and Dors impressively makes the most of her role. The excitement levels pick up in the final reel, which injects some Wages of Fear-inspired jeopardy into proceedings, as Mature is called upon to put his Leyland rig through its paces.