Top action specialist B. Reeves Eason directed this short but fast-paced Warners quickie about a hotshot dirt-track driver who gets suspended for dirty tricks on the track and gets mixed up with the pretty owner of a bus line who's being driven out of business by the unscrupulous owner of a rival bus line. Star Dick Purcell is one in a long line of motor-mouthed, wisecracking, fast-talking Warners leads--think Pat O'Brien and James Cagney, among others--who, although he never broke out of the "B" category, could be counted on to make films like this interesting (the same can't be said about his sidekick, Charles Foy, who gets more annoying and irritating every time he opens his mouth). The racetrack footage is really exciting, and Gloria Blondell, in her film debut as a cashier who falls for Foy, is sexy and adorable and seems to be having a whale of a good time. This is a fun picture, as long as you take it for what it is, and worth checking out.
5 Reviews
The cars are the stars...
jbacks321 July 2005
This Warner's First National programmer is only worth watching when Dick Purcell is behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle. Produced by Charles Foy and co-starring his comic-foil younger brother, Charles, The Daredevil Drivers is a typical bad guys (in the form of a competing underhanded bus company) vs. good guys (underdog bus company ran by Beverly Roberts) and a wayward dirt track racer (Purcell) that gets in the middle of it all. I watched it mainly to see William ("Paul Drake") Hopper in a 20-second cameo (hey, he got screen credit!) as a disgruntled bus driver and to check out hottie Gloria Blondell's first stab at acting on film. What I came away with is how much better this could have been with a different cast. Neither Purcell (who could double for Dick Foran) or Beverly Roberts (imagine a bland Gloria Stuart) makes an impression and Charles Foy could be replaced by anyone from Shemp Howard to Frank McHugh to Allen Jenkins. Strictly a programmer, it's interesting really only for shots of spectacular dirt track racing that appear early on---the inserted stock footage looks fatal--- and the cars (the supposedly broke Purcell tools around town in a semi-customized Packard roadster). I'm still trying to figure out what Gloria Blondell saw in Charles Foy. There's nothing much here folks!
Beware the man with the cutting shears!
JohnHowardReid2 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This movie exists in two versions. The 2/10 version is the one that usually popped up on TV. If you had a hankering to waste sixty minutes listening to a bunch of charmless people talk and talk and talk and talk in totally unattractive surroundings, then this is the ideal version for you! B. Reeves Eason directed this gab-fest with the sure hand of a somnambulist. It's really dead-dreary from go to whoa! The only point of interest is the chance to catch a few glimpses of Joan Blondell's delightful sister, Gloria Blondell, who plays Lucy. (I always had the impression that Gloria was the older sister, but I could be wrong).
However, just to complicate matters, there is another version of this movie doing the rounds. This was presumably the original release cut, and it opens most promisingly with a melange of really spectacular racing car crashes, and then it moves into a really exciting edge-of-the-seat sequence with a runaway bus. And when these thrills have put an audience into the right mood, on comes the dull Breezy Eason footage which manages to sparkle here and there thanks to Gloria Blondell.
However, just to complicate matters, there is another version of this movie doing the rounds. This was presumably the original release cut, and it opens most promisingly with a melange of really spectacular racing car crashes, and then it moves into a really exciting edge-of-the-seat sequence with a runaway bus. And when these thrills have put an audience into the right mood, on comes the dull Breezy Eason footage which manages to sparkle here and there thanks to Gloria Blondell.
Entirely different skill sets
bkoganbing12 September 2020
The Daredevil Drivers casts Dick Purcell as a suspended race car driver and Charley
Foy as his mechanic who get involved in a feud between Beverly Roberts and
Donald Briggs a pair of competing owners of bus line franchises. Purcell
initially lines up with Briggs, but soon Purcell sees Briggs for the Snidely Whiplash
type villain he is and comes over to Roberts and what she has to offer.
This was truly one silly plot contrivance, having race car drivers go to work as bus drivers. Two entirely different skills are needed for either job.
Gloria Blondell is also in Daredevil Drivers as Foy's love interest. No doubt she's Joan's sister though I best remember her as Honeybee Gillis from Life Of Riley.
Not one of Warner Brothers better B picture double bill offerings.
This was truly one silly plot contrivance, having race car drivers go to work as bus drivers. Two entirely different skills are needed for either job.
Gloria Blondell is also in Daredevil Drivers as Foy's love interest. No doubt she's Joan's sister though I best remember her as Honeybee Gillis from Life Of Riley.
Not one of Warner Brothers better B picture double bill offerings.
Nothing special. Merely routine.
mark.waltz2 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
With a quota of films to put out to get prints into their chains of theaters, every studio rushed out scripts and productions to meet deadlines as films went in and out faster than the speeding vehicles. These films are action packed and gloriously short, yet don't spend much time on character development or strong plots. Basically, they're newspaper headlines from short articles from all over the country, fleshed out and shoved into tins to get to their destination while the story is considered hot.
Take a story like a bus crash involving children, toss in details from an article posted in the column next to it, throw in cliched situations to pad it out, add a romance, some conflict, and stir, and you end up with "Daredevil Drivers" where Dick Purcell and Beverly Roberts are at odds for much of it, denying their attraction, and once she gets into scrapes, he jumps in (literally) to save the day.
Just adequately acted and directed, it's lots of squawking between the leads, featuring a speeding bus out of control (with Roberts behind the wheel), and an impossible stunt that would instantly kill anyone else, ending with a high speed race later on. Padded with Warners contract players to hit an hour running time, and nothing to really praise other than the audacity. Films like this end up being watched and filed away, and in my case tossed because I see no reason to give it another hour of my time.
Take a story like a bus crash involving children, toss in details from an article posted in the column next to it, throw in cliched situations to pad it out, add a romance, some conflict, and stir, and you end up with "Daredevil Drivers" where Dick Purcell and Beverly Roberts are at odds for much of it, denying their attraction, and once she gets into scrapes, he jumps in (literally) to save the day.
Just adequately acted and directed, it's lots of squawking between the leads, featuring a speeding bus out of control (with Roberts behind the wheel), and an impossible stunt that would instantly kill anyone else, ending with a high speed race later on. Padded with Warners contract players to hit an hour running time, and nothing to really praise other than the audacity. Films like this end up being watched and filed away, and in my case tossed because I see no reason to give it another hour of my time.
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