By Richard Harland Smith
Daredevil Drivers
Brief Synopsis
Rival bus companies find an unusual go-between in a former auto racer.
Cast & Crew
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B. Reeves Eason
Director
Beverly Roberts
Jerry Neeley
Dick Purcell
Bill Foster
Gloria Blondell
Lucy Mack
Gordon Oliver
Mark Banning
Charles Foy
Stub Wilson
Film Details
Also Known As
Highway Pirates
Genre
Drama
Action
Adventure
Romance
Release Date
Feb
12,
1938
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
59m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6 reels
Synopsis
Racing car driver Bill Foster is disqualified for reckless driving after winning a race. When he protests, he is banned from the racing association. Later, while driving to Westport with his mechanic, Stub Wilson, Bill collides with a bus belonging to Neeley Transport. Determined to recover the cost of his wrecked car, Bill insists on seeing the owner of the company. To his surprise, Jerry Neeley is an attractive woman who angrily denies responsibility for the crash. When Bill learns that he has been suspended from racing, he decides to offer his services to Jerry's rival, Tommy Burnell. While driving a Burnell bus, Bill stops to help a woman with a flat tire and discovers that she is Jerry. Angry because Burnell's lawyer, Perkins, is suing her for the cost of Bill's car, Jerry begs him to drop the suit in exchange for fixing his car. In the meantime, Perkins acquires power of attorney from Bill and uses it to continue the suit against Bill's wishes. Thinking the suit was dropped, Jerry does not appear in court and loses by default. With her company facing liquidation, Jerry accepts a call to take a busload of children to the park. Bill learns that Jerry's bus has defective brakes, having been doctored by Mark Banning, a Neeley employee who is secretly working for Burnell, and races to stop her before the bus reaches a long downhill grade, but is too late. After pursuing the runaway bus, Bill leaps on the vehicle and drives it uphill until it stops, saving everyone. Because of his successful lawsuit, Bill has himself appointed receiver of the Neeley company and files charges against Perkins. Jerry, however, believes that Bill always intended to take the company away from her. He insists that he will get the company in financial shape despite her and drives in an outlaw race to get the money. He hires his racing friends to repair the buses, and things start to look up. Then Jerry is warned that her franchise application will probably be denied. When one of her new drivers hits Councilman Baker's car, Baker vows to drive the Neeley buses out of town. Bill hurries to City Hall to offer his newly repaired racing car to Baker in exchange for his damaged car. They arrive after the vote to learn that everyone except Baker voted to retain the franchise and Jerry will stay in business.
Director
B. Reeves Eason
Director
Cast
Beverly Roberts
Jerry Neeley
Dick Purcell
Bill Foster
Gloria Blondell
Lucy Mack
Gordon Oliver
Mark Banning
Charles Foy
Stub Wilson
Donald Briggs
Tommy Burnell
Eric Stanley
Mr. Lane
Max Hoffman Jr.
Joe Bailey
Ferris Taylor
Councilman Baker
Cliff Clark
Mr. McAullife
Earl Dwire
Mr. Perkins
William Hopper
Neeley bus driver
Fred Lawrence
Burnell bus driver
Anderson Lawler
Mr. Bounty
John Harron
Mr. Maxfield
Crew
Film Details
Also Known As
Highway Pirates
Genre
Drama
Action
Adventure
Romance
Release Date
Feb
12,
1938
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
59m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6 reels
Articles
Daredevil Drivers -
The motion picture and automobile industries developed along parallel timelines, making movies about cars and their drivers an inevitability. Some of the first subjects printed to celluloid involved charismatic speed demons and the open road, a subject that only grew in popularity as autos outpaced public transportation in the years leading up to the Second World War. Daredevil Drivers (1938) went into production in December 1937 under the working title Highway Pirates, leading one to expect a tale of interstate hijacking; instead, this First National release concerns a not-so-friendly rivalry between competing municipal bus companies, a dispute that only intensifies with the intercession of a disgraced race car driver (Dick Purcell, later a leading man for Poverty Row's Monogram Pictures), who falls for the lady owner (Beverly Roberts) of one of the firms. Author of the film's original story, Charles R. Condon had previously written the racetrack drama Ten Laps to Go (1936) and not one but two films about speedboat racing while director B. Reeves Easton had slightly over a decade earlier overseen the chariot race scene for Fred Niblo's Biblical epic Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). Worth mentioning among Daredevil Drivers' supporting cast is third-billed Gloria Blondell (kid sister of Warner Brothers staple Joan Blondell, and later the voice of Disney's Daisy Duck), William Hopper (son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and later one of the stars of the long-running Perry Mason series) and Charley Foy, one of vaudeville's celebrated child performers The Seven Little Foys.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Daredevil Drivers -
The motion picture and automobile industries developed along parallel timelines, making movies about cars and their drivers an inevitability. Some of the first subjects printed to celluloid involved charismatic speed demons and the open road, a subject that only grew in popularity as autos outpaced public transportation in the years leading up to the Second World War. Daredevil Drivers (1938) went into production in December 1937 under the working title Highway Pirates, leading one to expect a tale of interstate hijacking; instead, this First National release concerns a not-so-friendly rivalry between competing municipal bus companies, a dispute that only intensifies with the intercession of a disgraced race car driver (Dick Purcell, later a leading man for Poverty Row's Monogram Pictures), who falls for the lady owner (Beverly Roberts) of one of the firms. Author of the film's original story, Charles R. Condon had previously written the racetrack drama Ten Laps to Go (1936) and not one but two films about speedboat racing while director B. Reeves Easton had slightly over a decade earlier overseen the chariot race scene for Fred Niblo's Biblical epic Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). Worth mentioning among Daredevil Drivers' supporting cast is third-billed Gloria Blondell (kid sister of Warner Brothers staple Joan Blondell, and later the voice of Disney's Daisy Duck), William Hopper (son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and later one of the stars of the long-running Perry Mason series) and Charley Foy, one of vaudeville's celebrated child performers The Seven Little Foys.
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's pre-release title was Highway Pirates. According to Variety, Beverly Roberts was to sing a song in the picture, but the number was edited out.
