Thieves' Highway

A war veteran turned truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce marketer. Former soldier Nick Garcos returns home from the war in a happy mood bearing gifts for his parents, Yanko and Parthena Garcos with enough money in his pocket to open a business and marry his girlfriend, Polly Faber. Shortly after arriving home, Nick discovers that his father has lost both legs. Yanko, who was a truck driver, says that he was cheated by produce dealer Mike Figlia in a San Francisco market when he delivered a truckload of tomatoes but was not paid. He believes that his "accident" was caused by Figlia's gangsters. Yanko also says that he then sold the truck to a driver named Ed Kinney who has not yet paid him for it. Nick meets Ed and says that he will take back the truck, but Ed proposes a deal hauling apples as a team where they may earn a great amount of money. Nick invests his savings in another truck and buys apples from a Polish farmer. They need to drive directly to the market in San Francisco without sleeping to keep the fruit fresh; but Ed's truck has a problem with its axle and Nick arrives first. Mike Figlia hires an Italian whore named Rica to distract Nick, but she falls for him and tells him that Mike is stealing his cargo. Mike is forced to share his earnings with Nick who makes a large profit. Then Nick calls Polly and asks her to meet him to get married. Rica tells Nick that Polly is only interested in his money. When Nick is robbed by Mike's gangsters, he learns who really loves him. But Nick still has to settle the score with Mike. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / edited by Hans Delbruck Returning home to Fresno after the war, working class Nick Garcos is full of vim and vigor with a handful of cash to show for it and an armload of gifts for his family and his girl, Polly Faber, the two who plan to get married. Nick's enthusiasm is dampened when he sees that his father, Yanko Garcos, who transported produce - he buying directly from farmers to transport and sell to wholesalers at produce markets - has suffered at the hands of San Francisco wholesaler, Mike Figlia. Yanko is not totally certain that Figlia bilked him out of the payment for what was Yanko's final shipment - Yanko drunk at the time, he awakening with no money - but is certain that it was Figlia who got him drunk which Figlia arguably did to bilk him out of said payment and which led to the traffic accident resulting in the loss of his legs. Vowing revenge for what Figlia did to his father, Nick senses an opportunity upon meeting another produce transporter, Ed Kinney, with who he plans to partner in an upcoming shipment of much sought out apples. In the process, Nick discovers that among the mostly honest and up front people in the business, there are a few solely out to make a buck by whatever means, including cheating and stealing, such as Figlia. While not in the business, who may fall into that unscrupulous category is Rica, a party girl who Nick meets in the vicinity of the produce market where Figlia has his operation, she who sometimes seems to be on Nick's side in wanting to help him, but who he sometimes suspects may in reality be in Figlia's back pocket in her needy nature. —Huggo