Movie review - "The Long Haul" (1957) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Not a Warwick Film even though it was made for Columbia in England and stars Victor Mature. He gives a solid performance, all craggy torment, as an American who gets out of the army in England and is nagged by his Pommie wife into living in Liverpool for a bit. He starts driving trucks and gets involved in a few dodgy runs. (Truck driving was the flavour of the month in England at this time - Hell Drivers came out a few years earlier.) Diana Dors is very good as a gangster's mistress who falls for Mature - while sex's all slinky nightclub sex appeal there's no doubt her feelings for Mature are genuine and her heart is broken at the end when it doesn't work out.

The story is a bit of a mess - people keep offering Mature to go on jobs, he keeps making decisions and changing his mind, too much of the action doesn't involve him, he goes back to his family because of a very convenient brain hemorrhage. The black and white photography is effective and the handling is crisp. Plus there's that solid support cast you always seem to find in British crime films. No classic, but unpretentious entertainment and you'll enjoy it a lot if you like trucker movies.