User reviews

"Beef" Evans (James Gleason) works in a crooked garage. He takes in hot cars because he wants his wife and son to have the best things in life, but his wife worries about the consequences of his actions. Rightfully so. His new hire, "Gabby" Denton (Edmund Lowe) has his own concerns, and starts investigating the details of the racket.

I saw this movie screened at Cinevent 41, and for most of the movie, the sound was out of sync. If I were too bored, I would have left, but I couldn't miss out on seeing Dickie Moore in a rare film. Even when his voice didn't match his expressions, I found myself awwing for his innocence in spite of his predictable role in the story.

This is a standard programmer with strong ties to the crime drama genre. If you're a fan of cars and pre-codes, find a copy.

The Devil Is Driving (TDID) is a little known pre-code movie that is currently available for viewing on the Criterion Channel. It is of interest to us today primarily because of its unusual casting. Traditionally offered leading man roles around that time, Edmund Lowe------known mainly to fans of old films for his salty Sergeant Quirt part in the acclaimed Raoul Walsh silent version of What Price Glory (1926) and as the sophisticated society doctor in the all-star MGM classic Dinner at Eight (1933)-------plays an ordinary nondescript auto mechanic (!) who just happens to get involved in some very extraordinary activities that take place in the garage where he works. And seasoned veteran comic actor James Gleason, who over the years accumulated a hefty resume of scene-stealing humorous wise-cracking character parts, plays it more or less straight as the garage's manager as well as a kindly and loyal husband, father and friend. Both Lowe and Gleason stand out in the fast moving and unusual film.

The garage forms the principal setting for this tale, and much credit must go to the director and cinemaphotographer for making TDID both highly realistic and very exciting. Much of the camera work is startling and inventive---well above the usual standard associated with what was probably budgeted as a "B" movie.

Wynne Gibson does her usual thing as the hard-boiled blond with a heart of gold. She was quite believable and effective as Lowe's love interest. A supporting juvenile part was very well played by the talented child actor Dickie Moore.

It is astonishing to realize that Paramount Studio likely produced this little gem as a minor programmer to be shown as the bottom end of a "double bill" theatrical presentation. Nonetheless, TDID is well plotted, absorbing and constantly interesting. TDID is definitely worth being checked out as one of the better pre-code "B" films of the period.

A Pre-Coder for the Whole Family with Child-Star Dickie Moore (Our Gang) on Hand for Much Lightheartedness and Finally Pathos.

It's a Quickly-Paced Inner-City Tale of a Mechanics Garage a Front for a Stolen Car Ring.

The Action is Fast and Furious and the Inner-Gang Machinations make for some Off-Beat and Colorful "Characters"".

There is a Deaf and Dumb Psycho who Uses an "Auto-Pen" to Communicate Between the Gang. He Looks Like He Stepped Off the Set of a Bela Lugosi Movie and Wandered Where He Could Look the Most Out of Place.

"Silver" is a Platinum Blonde Looker that Struts Around Like a Mini-Mae-West.

The Sex and Violence are on the Softer-Side of Many Pre-Coders. A Few Play on Words and that's it.

Even a "Little-Person" Makes the Opening Scene.

The Car Chases are a Highlight as is the Overall Audience-Friendly Tone.

Not Much to See Here as a Pre-Code Movie, but Nonetheless its Entertaining for its 1 Hour Running Time and Keeps You On Your Toes.

Slightly Above Average and...

Worth a Watch.

This is a zippy little precode with a most unusual plot line.

Gabby Denton (Edmund Lowe) is the irresponsible type. He blows all of the money that he won gambling and now needs a job. He asks for a job as mechanic at his brother-in-law. Beef's (James Gleason's) garage and gets one. It's not long before Gabby figures out that Beef is in cahoots with some car thieves in the same building as the auto repair shop. Here I have to get into architecture, because it has a major place in the plot. Beef's garage is in an eight story building. The repair shop is on the second floor, the auto paint shop that is fronting for the auto theft ring is on the sixth floor and a speakeasy is on the seventh. There is a circular ramp/driveway that connects the floors together so you can drive from the street all the way to the seventh floor if you wish.

Thrown into this mix is the marvelous Wynne Gibson as Silver, a saucy blonde who is the girlfriend of the titular head of the auto theft ring, Jenkins (Alan Dinehart). Gabby ends up towing her wrecked car one day, and the two embark on an affair punctuated with lots of precode dialogue that consists of rhetoric so ribald that I'm surprised it made it to the screen.

Gabby: What are you sitting on?

Silver: Please judge, do I have to answer that?

Gabby figures the car thieves and Beef's involvement - he's doing it for extra cash for his wife and kid - is Beef's business. But then one day Beef's son and Gabby's nephew is run over by a speeding car and Gabby ties it to a stolen car that was speeding up the ramp where the garage is moments later. At this point, things get dicey.

This is a great precode with a marvelous cast. I always loved Edmund Lowe as the extremely flawed guy who is the private eye or the reporter or in this case just an average Joe who gets mixed up in a dangerous situation. This was a most unusual role for James Gleason, and you need to watch the film to see what I mean. Dickie Moore as Gleason's son is cute as a button. And Alan Dinehart as the titular head of the theft ring always excelled as the slimy weasel with a refined veneer. When you see the real brains of the ring - George Rossener - you figure out why there's a front man. He's playing a deaf mute, but he is also no fun to look at and has a perpetual scowl on his face.

Then there are the strange little things that make the film such as the autopen that the mute gangster uses to communicate with Dinehart and a wedding chapel that is across the street from the garage where everybody who gets married gets interviewed by a radio host and then there is the little person groom at the beginning of the film who gets the last laugh.

I'd highly recommend it as a great example of a precode film. It has everything - including that macabre scene I mentioned in the title. If anything sticks with you years after you see it, it will be that one scene.

"The Devil is Driving" is one of the stranger films of its era. First, it's unusual because the usually dapper Edmund Lowe is cast as an auto mechanic! Lowe was much like Adolph Menjou--a fashion plate and sophisticated sort of guy and seeing him in overalls is unusual...though he was such a good actor, it worked anyway. Second, the setting is very strange. The story unfolds in the oddest hot car outfit imaginable. Think about it...a multistory highrise in the big city...with a parking garage and garage....and hidden garages in the higher floors where the repaint and strip the cars they steal! The bosses (and this is pretty weird) are in the floors above...one of which is a mute who is murderous and might just be the big boss covering as the other man's servant! Weird is definitely the word for all this.

Problems occur when the bosses hire two particularly stupid and unsavory characters. The pair end up nearly blowing everything because they aren't careful and later they run over the head mechanic's son! But it gets worse...and I don't want to say more since it would ruin the exciting (and brutal) finale.

Overall, this is a great film because it's so unusual and shockingly violent at times...and will never bore you! See this one.