Information
- BFI identifier47910
- Date1939 (Copyright)
- Production countryUnited Kingdom
- Production company
- Synopsis"Shorty" Matthews, recently released from prison, goes to visit a female friend, Alice, only to find her in bed strangled. Panicking, he runs from the house, but not before he is spotted by the landlady. Being an ex-prisoner, he is convinced that the police will not believe that he simply found her, and he flees London. He hitches a lift with a truck driver and heads north, but the police are on his trail. Shorty therefore returns to London where he thinks he will be safer. With the help of dance hall hostess Molly, another friend and former co-worker of Alice's, Shorty sets out to find the real killer himself, believing that he must have been one of Alice's customers at the dance hall. (Synopsis)
- Work history'Quota quickie' (low-budget film) made to comply with the Cinematographic Act of 1927 by which a quota of the films shown in the UK every year had to be British.
- Genre
- CreditsDirector: Arthur Woods
Presents: Warner Brothers First National Productions
Executive Producer: Jerome J. Jackson
view all - CastEmlyn Williams (Albert Owen "Shorty" Matthews)
Anna Konstam (Molly O'Neil)
Allan Jeayes (Wally)
view full cast
Title
They Drive by Night (Original)
EIDR identifier
10.5240/CD30-8CF4-DB94-CDB5-2299-MCategory
FictionThis work is included in the BFI Filmography.
- Collections
- Film / Video
35mm BW Positive - Safety - Combined - Viewing
view all - Scripts / DocumentsDocument: report - Based on the novel by James Curtis - BBFC-1-7-896
Script - Original story: Based on the novel by James Curtis - SCR-17256
view all - StillsPhotograph: film still - Portrait - SPD-800894
Photograph: film still - Portrait - SPD-800895
Photograph: film still - Portrait - SPD-800896
Photograph: film still - Portrait - SPD-800897
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00n-zad
view all - Articles
- +They Drive by Night
Work - 47910 - 1939 (Copyright)
United Kingdom - Film - Fiction
Hierarchy Display