The Long Haul Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Long Haul Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 28, 2026

Ken Hughes' "The Long Haul" (1957) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Indicator/Powerhouse Films. The supplemental features on the release include new program with third assistant director Ted Wallis and focus puller Alec Burridge; new audio commentary by critics Will Fowler and Vic Pratt; vintage promotional materials; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Stuck and running out of time

Ken Hughes completed The Long Haul a year after Wicked as They Come. Both films were conceived with the same blueprint, but in The Long Haul, the all-important American magnet was an even bigger male star, Victor Mature. A decade earlier, Mature had appeared in the Oscar-nominated Kiss of Death and Cry of the City, both huge international hits, rightfully considered film noir classics.  

In The Long Haul, Mature is dispatched to Liverpool, Hughes’ hometown, where he plays Harry Miller, an American Army veteran who has reluctantly followed his British wife (Gene Anderson) from Germany back to England. After failing to convince her that they could have a substantially better life in America, Miller gets a job with a local trucking company, completely unaware that several of his colleagues routinely make extra cash by losing their loads to a well-organized gang. At approximately the same time he is given a chance to join the criminal scheme and refuses, Miller hooks up with a busty blonde (Diana Dors), who has had enough of her abusive boyfriend, Joe Easy (Patrick Allen), a shady businessman and leader of the well-organized gang. After falling hard for the blonde, Miller makes an even bigger mistake and agrees to take a risky job involving stolen goods for Easy, seemingly the only man in the Liverpool area able to put him to work again. However, the police finally gather enough evidence to take down Easy, and as Miller begins working for him, all hell breaks loose.

Despite the British scenery and accents, The Long Haul looks and behaves like a classic American film noir, and it is almost exclusively because of Mature’s dominant presence in it. It is difficult to tell if this was always Hughes’ intent, and whether he demanded such a performance. However, Dors, Allen, and several other actors clearly conform to it, rather than influencing it in ways that could have provided The Long Haul with a different, undeniably British identity.

Interestingly, plenty of material, and especially the one from the final act, makes it quite easy to link The Long Haul to Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterpiece The Wages of Fear. To be clear, Hughes cannot create and sustain the same tense atmosphere that flourishes in The Wages of Fear. However, some early accidents and especially the prolonged treacherous trip to the port where Mature must unload the stolen goods on the back of his failing truck are undoubtedly modeled after similar developments in The Wages of Fear.

Hughes also penned the screenplay, whose main weakness is a familiar one. After Mature gets his first assignment and begins learning about the tricks other drivers are involved with, the bulk of the material becomes appropriately dark and cynical. However, the screenplay gradually begins countering this material with soapy melodrama, which also prepares for the inevitable feel-good finale. In a proper American film noir from the same period, the finale would have been quite different. (This exact development can also be observed in Wicked as They Come).

Hughes made The Long Haul and Wicked as They Come with the same director of photography, Basil Emmott.

The Long Haul Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Long Haul arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Indicator/Powerhouse Films.

The release is sourced from an older master, supplied by Sony Pictures. This master produces visuals whose overall quality is not going to surprise anyone who has seen the remaining five films in the Columbia Noir #7: Made in Britain six-disc box set. All visuals have a stable, attractive organic appearance, and on a large screen, virtually all convey pleasing tightness. However, it is also easy to tell that in a few areas density levels can be even better, and grain exposure, while perfectly fine, can be more even. The grayscale is solid and convincing. In select darker areas, a few ranges of blacks can be managed a bit more convincingly to reveal more subtler nuances, but I do not think that crushing is an issue. Image stability is good. A few small blemishes and nicks remain, but there are no large cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Long Haul Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is excellent. It must have been fully remastered when the current master was created because clarity and sharpness are very good, while stability is pretty much ideal. During the outdoor action footage, some small unevenness can be noticed, but it is clearly part of the film's original sound design, which the lossless track replicates. The music has a decent role to play, but the dynamic contrasts it creates are easily forgettable.

The Long Haul Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this new audio commentary was recorded by critics Will Fowler and Vic Pratt.

• Alec Burridge and Ted Wallis: In for the Long Haul - in this new program, third assistant director Ted Wallis explains why Diana Dors should have been more than a British sex symbol, while second unit focus puller Alec Burridge discusses a challenging action sequence from the final act in The Long Haul. In English, not subtitled. (10 min).

• Theatrical Trailer - a remastered theatrical trailer for The Long Haul. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Image Gallery - a collection of vintage promotional materials for The Long Haul.

• The Long Night Haul (1943) - an archival documentary about the BRS (British Road Services), directed by James Ritchie. Fully restored. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles. (20 min).

• Book - a 120-page book with new essays by Jonathan Bygraves, Andrew Spicer, Pamela Hutchinson, Robert Murphy, Chloe Walker, and Bethan Roberts; an archival on-set report for A Prize of Gold; extracts from The Last Man to Hang's pressbook; collected archival interviews with Wicked as They Come director Ken Hughes; an American Cinematographer report on The Long Haul; a reprint of a Films and Filming article on Fortune Is a Woman filmmakers Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder; new writing on A Test for Love and This Little Ship; and film credits.

The Long Haul Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Victor Mature leads with an undisputable authority and makes everyone else around him better in The Long Haul, a British film noir that looks and behaves like a classic American film noir. However, there is quite a bit of material that also makes it easy to link The Long Haul to Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece The Wages of Fear. For my money, The Long Haul and Wicked as They Come, both directed by Ken Hughes, are the best films in Indicator/Powerhouse Films' Columbia Noir #7: Made in Britain six-disc box set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.