They Live by Night

source: They Live by Night

They Live by Night

They Live By Night - tearjerker noir.Nicholas Ray's first movie - is the story of a naive young couple in love and on the run.Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell have intense chemistry.Granger's character is a crook by habit- he has no love for crime- but is driven by the naive notion that he needs to raise enough money to hire a bigtime barrister to help clear his name-not realizing that breaking out of jail has added time to his sentence.After his escape he meets the daughter of one his partner's brother.The sparks fly from the first meeting.Howard DaSilva is perfect as the leader of the trio of escapees.The movie has some great location shots and one of the truly tragic and engaging plots.This movie was shelved for 2 years by Howard Hughes.The DVD has a featurette and a commentary by Eddie Muller and the star of the movie Farley Granger.Yet another swell flick from the recent Warner's noir set. A

This film really moved me in the way the lead characters Keechie and Bowie were portrayed. One of the best scenes is early when Farley Granger (Bowie) is asking Keechie if she has a fella, and if she would like one. It is very well done. Granger does a great job of playing the sweet but troubled young man caught in a jam. A sense of dread overtakes the picture as it moves towards its inevitable tragic conclusion. Overall, get your hands on this one if you can. The studio needs to release a DVD of it, anyone know anything about that?

This is a very good film noir movie with excellent performances from the leads Farley Granger (of Hitchcock's "Rope" and "Strangers on a Train" and another great film noir movie "The Edge of Doom") and Cathy O'Donnell, whom I have not seen in any other role. Howard Da Silva also gives an excellent performance as a "one-eyed lush" of a gangster. I saw this movie as a teenager when it first came out and had not seen it since until recently, but I still think it holds up well as a movie well worth watching. Farley Granger, who tired of being cast as a "pretty boy" in trouble with the law and sought his fortunes elsewhere, in Europe, was a big loss to American movies.

Nicholas Ray's first feature, in 1949, was an adaptation of the novel Thieves Like Us (which Robert Altman so memorably filmed in the mid-1970s). It's a bit of a surprise to encounter the same characters -- Bowie, Keechie, T-Dub et al. -- in postwar black-and-white. Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell play the star-crossed lovers later rended by Keith Carradine and Shelly Duvall, and they bring a vulnerable, doomed edge to this very interesting, tragic movie. (Granger may never have been better during his brief bout of stardom). The supporting cast isn't quite up to the level of Altman's (without Louise Fletcher and her odd little girl), but on the whole this remains an honorable and moving piece of film art -- and a vital instalment, along with the same year's Gun Crazy (also a tale of doomed, romantic outlaws), in the noir cycle.

Now I have not read the novel this is based on and I had not seen this before the other day. But anyone who is into film and crime noir (though this has quite the romantic touch to it!), will not be dissapointed in the movie at hand here. Having a blueprint of what James Deen became later, we have a young criminal who is also quite the charmer. An interesting mix of crime and romantism. Very well played and while certain things are not shown vividly (censorship and so forth back in the day would not allow certain things to be shown or being said for that matter), the themes are not always "jolly" and fun. A very good movie indeed, that is very well played too - and very well directed by Nicholas Ray who apparently made his directing debut here. If you have a knack for "older" movies, you probably saw some of them - if this is the first it is very likely it will make you seek out his other efforts! Also good movies!

Farley Granger plays Bowie, a young con who escapes from the pen with two hardened criminals, Chicamaw and T-Dub played respectively by Howard Da Silva and Jay C Flippen in They Live By Night, an aptly titled film if there ever was one. Da Silva and Flippen are both terrific here, as is Cathy O'Donnel as Keechie, Bowie's equally young girlfriend. The movie revolves around the relationship between them and their efforts to get away from the life of crime that is always a few steps behind them and also to try living like normal people, during the day, instead of at night, like their criminal associates. This was Nicholas Ray's first film as a director and it certainly was a worthy effort, as it has fine performances throughout, especially O'Donnels. As the film comes to a close, you can pretty well figure out the ending, but that doesn't detract from its potency, as they are let down by one of their own, blackmailed it seems by the cops.

An early, nearly-forgotten picture from the director of "Rebel Without a Cause", this story of fugitive love (though not in the same was as "Bonnie and Clyde" or "Gun Crazy") is in its own right a rather accomplished picture. Farley Granger is best remembered for his Hitchcock roles, and he gives a good, multifaceted performance. It's clear from the get-go that despite the company he keeps and despite his time in prison, he's really a scared, uncertain kid. Cathy O'Donnell is all but forgotten, but here gives a nearly Oscar-calibre performance, extremely convincing and appealing as his naive bride. The film is also notable for early use of helicopter shots of cars, and for its refusal to vilify either the criminals or the cops (one of the policemen admits that "the system failed him", an astonishing statement for 1949). All in all, a film which deserves to be resurrected from its obscurity.