The Long Haul is a 1957 British drama film directed and written by Ken Hughes and starring Victor Mature, Diana Dors and Patrick Allen.

He soon comes into contact with criminals involved in theft from long-hauling trucks and draws close to Lynn, the beautiful blonde girlfriend of a major crime figure.

According to his obituary in The Independent newspaper, the novel "stemmed from his journeys through early post-war Britain on a moped, before the advent of the motorways, when he absorbed, on the Great North Road, something of the lives of the long-distance lorry drivers, their roadside cafes and the people, often women, who frequented them.

The book was turned down by 12 publishers, then accepted by the 13th, and even then Mills had to fight for his artistic integrity with the director and general editor Lovat Dickson to retain the more colourful passages.

On the contrary, its script and zestless handling exploit almost every known melodramatic cliché in the pursuit of squalor and violence, while its depiction of road haulage is most unconvincing.

Victor Mature and Diana Dors handle synthetic roles with mournful expressions and apparent indifference; of the variable supporting cast only Patrick Allen stands out as a villain of real power and substance.

The authentic Northern backgrounds, well photographed by Basil Emmot, are fully utilised in a single gripping sequence in which a ten-ton truck is driven over mountains – an oasis in the desert of tedium.