"Hell Drivers" - A Neglected Masterpiece? Quiz

Answer: Heavy gravel

The company transports 10-ton loads of ballast (gravel) over bad roads from a quarry 10 miles away. Any driver who fails to deliver 12 loads in a day is fired.

Answer: He met a driver who had recently left the company.

Tom, played by Stanley Baker, had met a former Hawlett's driver who had had a serious accident. He therefore assumed there would be a vacancy.

Answer: William Hartnell

The chilling portrayal of Hartley, who demands that drivers ignore speed limits to meet their targets, was not untypical for William Hartnell, whose film career largely consisted of portraying unsympathetic authority figures. He played the first Doctor from 1963 to 1966 on BBC television.

Answer: He takes a more dangerous route.

Red offers a £250 cigarette case to anyone who can make more runs than he can in a day. Tom wants to take him on, but discovers that the other drivers are no longer willing to take the dangerous shortcut that Red's route entails. Red is played by Patrick McGoohan, who was later to star in British TV series "Danger Man" and "The Prisoner".

Answer: Sean Connery

Appearing in his third film, and still with a full head of hair, Sean Connery plays Johnny Kates, driver of truck 19, and attempts a Cockney accent. The film has a remarkable cast combining established actors with others who would go on to great things. Fellow drivers include comedy stalwarts Sid James and Alfie Bass along with Gordon Jackson, the future Mr Hudson in "Upstairs Downstairs". Peggy Cummins, who plays the femme fatale secretary, had previously starred in Hollywood film noir "Gun Crazy" and the small role of Ed, the mechanic, is filled by Wilfrid Lawson, who had starred as Alfred Doolittle in the film version of "Pygmalion".

Answer: David McCallum

We never learn what the crime was that left Tom's brother Jimmy reliant on crutches. David McCallum met his first wife, Jill Ireland, on the set of "Hell Drivers", in which she played a waitress. After they went to Hollywood McCallum starred as Illya Kuryakin in 1960s series "The Man From UNCLE" before appearing in "Colditz" and "Sapphire and Steel" in Britain and then "NCIS" in America.

Answer: A fellow driver is also in love with her.

Gino, played by Herbert Lom, dreams of returning to Italy with Lucy. When the other drivers call Tom a coward and try to run him off the road, Gino stands by him, offering to change truck numbers with him. This results in an accident in which Gino is seriously injured.

Answer: The company is being paid for more drivers than it employs.

The drivers are being forced to take life-threatening risks because five drivers too few are employed. The money saved on wages is being shared by Cartley and Red. On being confronted about this, Cartley offers to cut Tom in on the scam.

Answer: Tom

Gino dies in hospital following his accident. Red forces Cartley into what he thinks is his vehicle and chases after Tom, trying to run him off the road. However the truck is really Tom's and the brakes fail, sending the two men over the edge of the quarry to their deaths. Tom regains consciousness and escapes just before the other truck also falls over the precipice.

Answer: Cy Endfield

Cy Endfield was blacklisted in Hollywood after being named as a communist at a 1951 HUAC hearing. He moved to Britain in 1953, initially working under different pseudonyms. "Hell Drivers" was his first British film released under his real name. His most famous film was probably "Zulu", also starring Stanley Baker.