The Devil Is Driving

The Devil Is Driving (1932)

Genres - Drama, Romance, Comedy, Crime  |   Release Date - Dec 9, 1932 (USA - Unknown), Dec 9, 1932 (USA)  |   Run Time - 63 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Review by Bruce Eder

There are three-hour epic dramas that don't pack as much plot or characterization into their running time as this 63-minute action picture from B-movie expert Ben Stoloff does; and that's reason enough to marvel at its economical approach to filmmaking and visual storytelling. But what makes The Devil Is Driving well worth seeing, even 75 years later, are the cultural and topical touchstones that it contains. Made before the clampdown of the Production Code that eliminated the ability to even hint at such things, this movie actually contains a totally obvious sexual assignation between hero Gabby Denton (Edmund Lowe) and heroine Silver (Wynne Gibson) -- the latter a "good time girl," as they were referred to politely -- in the middle of an afternoon, with the windows open and in earshot of people going about their business on the streets of New York, and for no purpose other than hedonistic pleasure. And, even more amazingly in light of the censorship that fell over Hollywood just a couple of years later, neither character is made to suffer in any serious way for such hedonism, nor is the heroine forced to sacrifice herself to make up for her amoral lifestyle; instead, in the freer and more honest moral environment of these pre-Code movies, they get married and go off to a life of presumed coital (and spousal) bliss. Add those elements to the free-flowing alcohol depicted in this Prohibition-era story, and the brashness of Edmund Lowe's cocky, self-assured hero -- he was more than halfway to the territory that Clark Gable would stake out in It Happened One Night -- plus the brisk pacing, and the result is a breathless, priceless social and pop-culture document of its era. It's not "high art" or even great movie-making, butThe Devil Is Driving is still worth seeing and savoring for 21st century viewers, as a reminder of movies and the genuine morality (and immortality) that are seldom discussed and scarcely known from their own era.