“DEVIL IS DRIVING.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 732, 8 April 1933, Page 24 (Supplement)

“DEVIL IS DRIVING.”

Plaza Offers Gripping Drama. A drama, in which all the principal characters are trying, each in his own way, to circumvent the driving of the Devil, for money at all costs, is “ The Devil is Driving ”, which began today at the Plaza Theatre. “ The Devil is Driving ” is reported to be an unusual, superbly-acted story that grips all the way. Set in a fifteen-storey garage, respectable and even elite on the ground floors, but devoted to car thieving and disguise on the upper floors, this swiftly-moving tale concerns itself chiefly with the workers there, some ignorant and honest and others who stop at nothing. Beef Evans (James Gleason) has been driven into the dishonest side of the trade for his family’s sake, while “ Gabby ” (Edmund Lowe), his brother-in-law, knows nothing until he and the boss’s girl Silver (Wynne Gibson) fall in love. Some of the snappiest repartee heard in a film for some time comes from these two. As the story progresses one sees the fevered chase of stolen luxurious cars through the streets, the swift turn in to the secret entrance to the garage, the rapid climb at dizzy speeds to the safety of a steel curtained room on the top floor, where an army of experts rips the car to bits, repaints it, and by many lightning changes, even to parts of the machinery, have it ready within the few moments before the police arrive. The pushing of a dead driver, killed because he knew too much, down the circular drive to the street, is followed by a terrific fight on the top floor, and a head-on collision on the twelfth floor which wipes out the killers, both cars breaking through the wall and crashing down the light well in the centre of the building. The love story is humorous and tense in turns, and the whole picture is realistic to the end.