Posted by Dan in the MW
on 10/6/2009, 8:37 am, in reply to "NOIR OF THE WEEK (10/5/2009): THIEVES' HIGHWAY (1949) (see "adminstrative note")"
67.175.176.9
For whatever reason, trading in agricultural products has always been a cut throat business. The fact that the fruits and vegetables, dairy products, eggs and meats are perishable certainly added to the difficulties attendant to the business. Author Edna Ferber had critical things to say about commerce in "The Haymarket" in her novel, "So, Big."
Yes, that "Haymarket" on Chicago's near West Side (Randolph and Halsted Streets) where a bombing and a riot took place when the police tried to disrupt a meeting called by anarchists and labor organizers to protest the brutal measures taking against strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works.
"Thieves' Highway" is a good film, much better than "They Drive By Night," which is a fairly good picture, based upon another novel by the same author, in its own right. I was fortunate to see this Dassin film at a retrospective theater a few years ago. The screening coincided with the release of the Criterion DVD, so it was a superior print.
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