They Drive by Night – Blu-ray

This is an enjoyable film featuring the usual Warner Bros. cast of characters from the late 30's-early 40's: George Raft in one of the last good movies he agreed to be cast in, Ann Sheridan finally getting a good starring part where she gets to do more than just look like an Oomph Girl, Humphrey Bogart who sadly disappears in the second half of the film, Alan Hale Jr. who gives one of his stock-in-trade performances but he does it so well you don't mind it at all, and finally, Ida Lupino who takes over the film and then is driven insane by Jim Morrison and his bandmates (IYKYK). There was apparently a crack between Raft and Bogart in the film about Sheridan's "headlights" but the Breen Office had it removed; alas, if only there were a pre-Code version of this movie! A shame that MGM could never put together a believable working-class story like this one once Irving Thalberg died.