Hell Drivers (film)
Encyclopedia
Hell Drivers is a 1957
1957 in film
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...

 British film directed by Cy Endfield
Cy Endfield
Cyril Raker Endfield was an American screenwriter, film director, theatre director, author, magician and inventor, based in Britain from 1953.- Biography :...

 starring Stanley Baker
Stanley Baker
Sir Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer.-Early career:William Stanley Baker was born in Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales. In the mid-1930s his parents moved to London, where Baker spent most of his formative years...

, Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...

, Peggy Cummins
Peggy Cummins
Peggy Cummins is a retired Irish actress. Cummins is best known for her performance in Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy , playing a trigger happy femme fatale who robs banks with her lover .-Early life:...

, Patrick McGoohan
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...

 and Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...

, produced by the Rank Organisation
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....

 and Aqua Film Productions.

Plot

The plot of Hell Drivers circles around Joe 'Tom' Yateley (Baker) who is an ex-convict. Trying to leave his past behind, he decides to start working for Hawlett's Trucking Company, which transports gravel. Trouble begins when he tries to expose his boss's rackets. Baker's character, Yateley, comes from Blaenllechau
Blaenllechau
Blaenllechau is a small village located in the Rhondda Fach valley, Rhondda Cynon Taf. Neighbouring villages are Ferndale, Maerdy and Tylorstown. The population of Blaenllechau is far less than 1000.-History:...

 in the Rhondda
Rhondda
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley , is a former coal mining valley in Wales, formerly a local government district, consisting of 16 communities built around the River Rhondda. The valley is made up of two valleys, the larger Rhondda Fawr valley and the smaller Rhondda Fach valley...

, very close to Baker's own birthplace of Ferndale.

Cast

  • Stanley Baker
    Stanley Baker
    Sir Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer.-Early career:William Stanley Baker was born in Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales. In the mid-1930s his parents moved to London, where Baker spent most of his formative years...

     as Tom Yately
  • Herbert Lom
    Herbert Lom
    Herbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...

     as Gino Rossi
  • Peggy Cummins
    Peggy Cummins
    Peggy Cummins is a retired Irish actress. Cummins is best known for her performance in Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy , playing a trigger happy femme fatale who robs banks with her lover .-Early life:...

     as Lucy, Hawlett's Trucking secretary
  • Patrick McGoohan
    Patrick McGoohan
    Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...

     as C. 'Red' Redman, foreman (truck 1)
  • William Hartnell
    William Hartnell
    William Henry Hartnell was an English actor. During 1963-66, he was the first actor to play the Doctor in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...

     as Cartley, Hawlett's manager
  • Wilfrid Lawson
    Wilfrid Lawson (actor)
    Wilfrid Lawson was a British character actor of stage and screen.-Life and career:...

     as Ed, Hawlett's mechanic
  • Sid James
    Sid James
    Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...

     as Dusty, truck driver
  • Jill Ireland
    Jill Ireland
    Jill Dorothy Ireland was an English actress, best known for her many films with her second husband, Charles Bronson.-Life and career:Born in London, England, Ireland was the daughter of a wine importer...

     as Jill, Pull Inn waitress
  • Alfie Bass
    Alfie Bass
    Alfred Bass was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; their parents had fled persecution in Russia...

     as Tinker, truck driver
  • Gordon Jackson
    Gordon Jackson (actor)
    Gordon Cameron Jackson, OBE was a Scottish Emmy Award-winning actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals....

     as Scottie
  • David McCallum
    David McCallum
    David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a Scottish actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., as interdimensional operative Steel in Sapphire & Steel, and Dr...

     as Jimmy Yately, Tom's brother
  • Sean Connery
    Sean Connery
    Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...

     as Johnny Kates
  • Wensley Pithey
    Wensley Pithey
    Wensley Pithey was a South African character actor who had a long stage career.Pithey was born in Cape Town, South Africa. A graduate of the University of Cape Town where he studied music and drama, he travelled to England in 1947...

     as Pop, truck 4 driver
  • George Murcell
    George Murcell
    George Murcell was a British character actor. His first wife was Josephine Tweedy whom he married in 1953, and his second was the actress Elvi Hale whom he was married to from 1960 until his death....

     as Tub, truck driver
  • Marjorie Rhodes
    Marjorie Rhodes
    Marjorie Rhodes was a British actress.One of her best-known roles was as Lucy Fitton, the mother of Bill Naughton's northern comedy All in Good Time. She played the role on Broadway, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award in 1965...

     as Ma West, landlady
  • Vera Day
    Vera Day
    -Selected filmography:* Dance Little Lady * The Crowded Day * It's a Great Day * Quatermass 2 * Hell Drivers 1957)* The Prince and the Showgirl * Too Many Crooks * And the Same to You...

     as Blonde at dance
  • Beatrice Varley
    Beatrice Varley
    Beatrice Varley was a British actress who appeared in a variety of television and film roles between 1936 and 1964...

     as Mrs. Yately, Tom's mother
  • Robin Bailey
    Robin Bailey
    Robin Bailey was an English actor. He was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.Although often chosen for upper class and tradition-bound roles such as Judge Graves in Thames Television's Rumpole Of The Bailey, Bailey is perhaps most fondly remembered for his portrayal of Uncle Mort in I Didn't Know...

     as Hawlett's Assistant Manager
  • Jerry Stovin as Chick Keithley
  • John Horsley
    John Horsley (actor)
    John L. Horsley is an English actor. He was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England.He made his acting debut at the Theatre Royal in Bournemouth. His early career saw him playing a succession of doctors and policemen, the former on film in Hell Drivers , the latter on television in Big...

     as Doctor Attending Gino
  • Marianne Stone
    Marianne Stone
    Marianne Stone was a British character actress. She appeared in many films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s...

     as Nurse Attending Gino
  • Ronald Clarke as Barber Joe
  • Charles Lamb
    Charles Lamb (actor)
    Charles Lamb was a British film and television actor.His longest role was as Mrs Dale's gardener, Monument, in the radio soap opera Mrs Dale's Diary.-Selected filmography:* Once a Crook...

     as Cafe Owner (uncredited)
  • Hal Osmond
    Hal Osmond
    -Selected filmography:* Once Upon a Dream * Vote for Huggett * Diamond City * Your Witness * Last Holiday * The Happy Family * The Brave Don't Cry * To Dorothy a Son...

     as Station Ticket Clerk (uncredited)

Production note

Footage of a Hawlett's lorry going over the edge of a quarry are reused in an episode of the Rank Organisation
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....

 TV series Interpol Calling
Interpol Calling
Interpol Calling was a 1959 Rank Organisation and Jack Wrather Productions television crime drama series for ITC Entertainment. The series, which ran for one season of 39 half-hour monchrome episodes, followed the adventures of Interpol policemen Duval and Mornay as they fought against...

in the episode "The Heiress"

DVD release

The film was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

in 2007 with many extras on the film including documentaries.
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