The Devil Is Driving (1932) is a surprisingly dark pre-code car crime gem

If you have a soft spot for dusty, fast-talking pre-code crime movies from the early thirties, The Devil Is Driving is absolutely worth eighty minutes of your life tonight. Anyone who hates old-fashioned gangster slang or squealing tires will probably want to skip it, though. 🚗

It starts out like a typical car-theft comedy but turns into a surprisingly dark tragedy. Edmund Lowe plays Gabby, a charmingly smug guy who gets a job with a massive car-stealing ring operating right under the noses of the NYPD.

Naturally, he falls hard for the boss's girl, played by Wynne Gibson with a great, tired sneer. Gibson is easily the best part of the movie, looking like she has survived on black coffee and cheap cigarettes for a decade.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Devil Is Driving (1932) through its definitive frames.

The whole setup feels cozy and familiar, almost like the chaotic city streets in The Cameraman, but with a lot more grease and criminal intent. But then, the movie pulls the rug out from under you.

Gabby’s nephew—played by the incredibly cute kid actor Dickie Moore—gets run over by one of the gang's stolen cars. It is a shockingly brutal moment for a film of this era, and the tone shifts instantly.

The grief feels messy and real, especially from the kid's mother. I did notice that some of the editing during the car chases is super choppy, though.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Devil Is Driving (1932) through its definitive frames.

One second a car is speeding down a dirt road, and the next its crashing into a wall with almost no transition. It's not quite as polished as other crime dramas from that era, like Meddling Women, but the rough edges give it a weird charm.

James Gleason is also here, doing his usual fast-talking, cynical routine which always makes me smile. The garage itself is a great set, full of dark corners and mechanics who look like actual grease monkeys instead of Hollywood extras.

You can almost smell the gasoline and cheap cologne. It gets a bit preachy near the end, as these movies often do when they try to teach a lesson, but the bleakness of the middle section stays with you.

Some random things I jotted down:

• Dickie Moore is almost too cute, which of course means something bad is gonna happen to him.
• The sound of the car horns in this movie is incredibly loud and annoying.
• That one guy's mustache deserves its own billing in the credits.
• The police in this movie are completely useless until the last five minutes.