Tonight's Movie: Hi-Jack Highway (1955) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

The French film HI-JACK HIGHWAY (1955), also known as GAS-OIL, was recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Based on what little I knew about the movie in advance, I was expecting something of a "hard-boiled" crime film; while it wasn't quite that, I enjoyed it very much.

Jean Gabin plays Jean, a trucker from a small town in France. He lives a low-key but pleasant life; he's surrounded by loyal friends and has a lovely (and much younger) girlfriend, a teacher named Alice (Jeanne Moreau).

Early one morning Jean, who has spent the night with Alice, goes to work but shockingly runs over a body in the road. Was the man already dead? Jean doesn't know, but (unlike Tom Neal's character in the recently viewed DETOUR!) he promptly reports his unhappy road incident to the police.

After some investigation Jean's impounded truck is returned to him by the police and he gets back to work, but he's hounded everywhere he goes by a group of men in a car.

We learn the men were part of a recent bank robbery, along with the mean Jean ran over, and they believe that Jean now has the stolen loot. (Little do they know who actually has it...!) When his apartment is trashed and it's unsafe for Alice to move in as planned, Jean gathers his trucker comrades to put an end to the harassment.

I found HI-JACK HIGHWAY somewhat slow-moving yet engrossing. The first hour is really more a "slice of life" depiction of a working-class trucker's life and relationships, rather than a crime film, and it has a realistic, unglamorous tone. I think the movie would have been interesting even if it focused entirely on these aspects, without the crime elements.

Gradually the crime story moves front and center, as the bad guys stalk Jean throughout the final third of the movie.

The rough-hewn Jean and lovely young Alice seem an unlikely couple, but Gabin and Moreau completely sell us on their comfortable, loving relationship. (I did wonder how the characters first met.)  There was an age difference between the actors of nearly two dozen years in real life, but it doesn't seem quite that marked on film.

The couple's unmarried status is also notable from the standpoint that it's unlikely a relationship could be depicted in quite the same way in a 1955 American film.

Jean, Alice, and their friends are likeable and trustworthy people, in contrast to the criminals Jean encounters, and it's pleasant spending time in their company.

The climax, as Jean and his comrades use their trucks to foil the robbers, is quite fun to watch.

All in all, this is a pleasant 92 minutes which I would gladly watch again.

The movie was scripted by Michel Audiard, based on a novel by Georges Bayle (DU RAISIN DANS LE GAS-OIL). It was directed by Gilles Grangier and filmed in black and white by Pierre Montazel.

Kino Lorber's sharp-looking Blu-ray print is from a 4K restoration.

Extras consist of a commentary track by Simon Abrams; the trailer; and a gallery of nine additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

I'll close with the comment that HI-JACK HIGHWAY would make a very nice "trucker noir" double bill with THIEVES' HIGHWAY (1949), which also has a gritty, realistic tone. I like them both.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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