Not to be confused with either Nicholas Ray's melancholic 1949 crime tale They Live by Night or Raoul Walsh's 1940 action-melodrama (which borrowed only its title), this British thriller concerns one flawed man's attempts at clearing his name. They Drive by Night stars Emlyn Williams as Shorty, a just-released convict eager to reunite with his girlfriend -- whom he finds strangled to death when he reaches her apartment. Certain the police won't look favorably upon him should he report the dead body, Shorty enlists the help of ex-girlfriend Molly (Anna Konstam) in an attempt to find the real killer, amidst the intrusions of Walter Hoover (Ernst Thesiger), a creepy forensic criminologist who might know more than he lets on.