Wildcat Bus (1940)

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Angeleno Jerry Waters II, on the verge of losing all his assets except his car and his faithful chauffeur Pete Donovan, is desperate for a job to put food in his mouth. While Donovan is able to find work with Federated Bus Lines, owned and operated by father and daughter Charles and Theodora ("Ted") Dawson and which has the franchise to operate up and down the entire US west coast, Jerry, denied a job with them because of his cocky attitude, instead finds work with Sid Casey driving his own car in unlicensed passenger transport in much the same territory. What Jerry does not know is that the brains behind Casey, Emma "Ma" Talbot, is determined to put Federated out of business and take over its franchise not only by providing that rival and largely underground passenger transport business at a fraction of what Federated charges, but also by having Joe Miller, a mechanic on the inside at Federated, being able to cause some bus malfunctions on the road, another man, Burke, causing some traffic accidents involving Federated buses, and yet another man, Stanley Regan, pilfering Federated passengers by riding the Federated buses and talking up the benefits of the alternative to the passengers. While Jerry and Ted, in spending time together out of circumstance working in the same business, ultimately fall in love, they in combination with Donovan, may ultimately discover what is going on with Casey and Ma, but it may be too late before Federation loses its license due to its problems and lost business, and before someone like Jerry or Donovan gets hurt or killed in these on road accidents.