Richard Conte travels down "Thieves' Highway"

Thieves’ Highway (1949) is an American film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Conte, and Valentina Cortese. Lee J. Cobb, and Barbara Lawrence co-star. 

Nico “Nick” Garcos, a returning war veteran arrives home to find his father, a California fruit farmer, who lost his legs in an accident and was forced to sell his truck. Nick discovers that his father was crippled at the hands of Mike Figlia (Cobb), a corrupt produce dealer in San Francisco. Nick vows revenge. 

Nick goes into business with Ed Kinney (Millard Mitchell), hoping to beat Figlia at his own game. Through a series of suspicious circumstances, Nick’s future at hauling and selling produce is jeopardized. Along the way, Nick meets a streetwalker named Rica (Cortese) who Garcos hired to distract Nick so he can undermine his ability to sell his haul. 

Eventually, Nick gets paid $4,000.00 for his haul by Garcos but while he is out one evening with Rica, he is beaten and robbed by two of Garcos’s stooges. 

Will Nick be able to get his money back and win justice for his father?

 

Valentina Cortese and Richard Conte

Jules Dassin (1911 – 2008) was an American film director. He got work as an assistant director at RKO and then moved to M-G-M where he directed short subjects. Dassin directed the film noir classics Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), and Thieves’ Highway (1949). He was blacklisted because of his once being a member of the Communist Party so he left the United States for Europe where remained for the rest of his life. He was married to Greek film actress Melina Mercouri.

Richard Conte (1910 – 1975) was an American actor who came to prominence in the late 1940s under contract to 20th Century-Fox. He co-starred with James Stewart in Call Northside 777 (1948) and had the lead role in Thieves’ Highway (1949) directed by Jules Dassin (Night and the City 1950), and played Gene Tierney’s husband in Otto Preminger’s Whirlpool (1949). Conte worked constantly and had major roles in Ocean’s 11 (1960) and The Godfather (1972).

Valentina Cortese (1923 - 2019) was an Italian actress. She graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome and began her film career in Italian films in 1940. She starred as Fantine and Cosette in an Italian production of Les Miserables (1948). In Europe, she worked with all the top directors including Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, and Francois Truffaut. She signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox and made several American films including Thieves’ Highway (1949), House on Telegraph Hill (1951), and The Barefoot Contessa (1954). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Truffaut’s Day for Night (1973).

Thieves' Highway trivia

• Dana Andrews and Victor Mature were under consideration for the role of Nick.
• Richard Conte was a truck driver before he was "discovered" by Elia Kazan and John Garfield while acting on the stage in 1935.
• The film was filmed in San Francisco's Produce Market.
• Jules Dassin made his film debut as the man in the freight elevator with Figlia.
• Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, and Kasia Orzazewski all appeared in Call Northside 777.

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Discussion questions

1. Did this film feel realistic to you? 
2. This film is considered a film noir. Do you agree with that classification? 
3. What did you think of the performances? Had you ever seen the Italian actress Valentina Cortese in an American film before? What did you think of her performance?
4. The film had an impressive supporting cast. Did any of the supporting performances impress you more than the others?
5. Do you think the location shooting helped make the film more realistic? 
6. Would you recommend this film to a friend interested in classic movies?