They Live by Night (1948)

8/10

Noir Tales Of 'Keechie,' 'T-Dub, "Chickamaw' And Other Common Names

ccthemovieman-128 December 2007

This was the first pairing of Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell and it was successful enough so that the two worked together two years later in "Side Street. I heard that this movie was sort of a early "Bonnie and Clyde," and it was, but only to a degree.

Granger and O'Donnell didn't really dominate the screen until after 40 minutes but after that, it was mostly them. Frankly, I enjoyed the first 40 minutes best when Howard da Silva and J.C. Flippen shared the screen time. They were great film noir characters in this movie (and they did come back in the second half, livening up the film again.) I liked their names in here: da Silva was "Chicamaw." and Flippen was "T-Dub." In most of the second half of this movie, it went from a noir to a romance. but that's not surprising knowing the director was Nicholas Ray.

This is the best I've ever seen O'Donnell, who never impressed me much but she's impressive here with a fine performance and a nice '40s look to her. She had a strange character name, too: "Keechie." Granger ("Arthur Bowers") does a nice job, too. For an uneducated thug, he sure comes across as a really nice guy. It's kinda of weird. He reminded me of John Dall in "Gun Crazy" (1950). Some of the camera-work also reminded me of "Gun Crazy."

However, one major detail should be noted: unlike "Gun Crazy" and "Bonnie & Clyde," the two lovers in this movie did NOT rob banks together. O'Donnell's character never gets involved in any crime, so comparing this film to those doesn't really fit. Most of "Keechie's" time is spent living in a remote cabin lodge, and suggesting periodically to her husband that he go straight - a far cry from the women Peggy Cummins and Faye Dunaway played.

Like a lot of good film noirs, this also has some very good supporting actors who play weird people, and say weird things. Some of the dialogue in this movie is fascinating because it's so odd. One example is the guy who marries the couple for $20. Another is Keechie's father.

This is a odd little "B" noir/melodrama and definitely one that film noir fans should check out. Romantics will like it, too. I'm glad it is now available on disc, as part of the Film Noir Classics Collection Volume 4.

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8/10

THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (Nicholas Ray, 1948) ***1/2

Bunuel197628 September 2007

Warning: Spoilers

This is undoubtedly one of the finest directorial debuts in American cinema, with its ground-breaking use of helicopter shots to depict the escaping convicts instantly alerting one to a film-maker to watch even if, as it turned out, some of his next assignments were not as rewarding.

Most of the cast members have arguably career-best roles here: O'Donnell who died of cancer at age 46 and got married to William Wyler's producer brother Robert some months before this film's release is a beguiling presence as the vulnerable, slightly tomboyish garage attendant who has never had a boyfriend and doesn't know how to kiss but, after a false start, she instinctively hitches up with doomed runaway convict Granger. The latter, then, had a great run of pictures during the early stages of his career including leading roles for Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Mann and Luchino Visconti but his career petered out after the mid-50s; still, his brooding, sensitive portrayal of a rebellious youngster here would soon prove very influential, particularly on the likes of James Dean (who, of course, would essay his most iconic role in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE [1955] for Nicholas Ray himself).

However, the supporting players are equally impressive: Howard Da Silva as the boozing, trigger-happy and one-eyed leader of the gang; Jay C. Flippen as the more level-headed of the two hardened bandits who make up the rest of Bowie's gang, a characterization far removed from the happy-go-lucky sidekick he often played in John Wayne movies; Helen Craig as Flippen's two-timing sister-in-law who is more concerned with springing her own hubby out of jail, even if it means betraying Bowie to the authorities; Will Wright as O'Donnell's alcoholic weakling of a father; and, especially, reptilian Ian Wolfe as a 24-hour service Justice of the Peace who has all the right "connections" for the perfect wedding ceremony and honeymoon, so long as the customers are able to pay for the comforts provided.

While there is perhaps an excess of romanticism and verbosity in the script itself (the expected action is largely downplayed and the unsuccessful second robbery is not even shown), the tender portrayal of the two lovers on the run is what gives this film its heart and sets it apart from other noirs of the era compare, for example, Joseph H. Lewis' slightly superior GUN CRAZY (1950) for a different (i.e. more nihilistic) approach to similar material. In this context, therefore, I found the use of hard-boiled dialogue in THEY LIVE BY NIGHT a bit surprising. Incidentally, the film was remade by none other than Robert Altman in 1974 as THIEVES LIKE US, the name of Edward Anderson's original novel; the latter is a pretty good effort in its own right, but hardly one of the director's major works and, in retrospect, a lesser achievement than Ray's version.

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8/10

Quite a debut from Nicholas Ray.

hitchcockthelegend29 September 2010

They Live By Night (AKA: The Twisted Road) is directed by Nicholas Ray and written by Ray and Charles Schnee who adapt from Edward Anderson's novel Thieves Like Us. It stars Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva & Jay C. Flippen. Produced by John Houseman out of RKO, it's photographed by George E. Diskant and music is by Leigh Harline.

Ray's debut feature (it was actually wrapped in 1947) is a potent piece of film noir set during the Great Depression. Story follows Bowie (Granger), a naive young man who escapes from prison with two hardened criminals, Chicamaw (Da Silva) & T-Dub (Flippen), and finds unexpected love in the form of the almost saintly Keechie (O'Donnell). However, he finds that no matter what his good intentions are, crime just wont leave him be and with Keechie in tow, goes on the run to hopefully find a better life.

It's a pretty simple story all told, one that has been well represented in film over the years with the likes of You Only Live Once, High Sierra & Gun Crazy. But as simple as the tale is, Ray's film is very much a leading light in the sub-genre of "lovers on the lam" movies. First thing of note is that there's a movement away from the normal characters that had frequented the noir driven crime world up till now. The protagonists here are not gangsters or private investigators, they are thieves, and country folk too. This offers up a different viewing character wise. Admittedly the protagonists are shrouded in classic film noir hopelessness, where the air of desperation hangs heavy throughout, but the characterisation shift gives the simple story a lift.

From the outset it's evident that this is an intriguing, even curious, picture. A shot of our loving couple sharing a kiss is accompanied with a title card telling us that they were never properly introduced to the world we live in. A blast of Harline's music startles them and we then cut to an aerial shot (Ray leading the way for helicopter shots) of the three escapee's in the getaway car. In those 30 seconds Ray has managed to convey that his film will be an energetic, yet doom laden, love story. Quite a feat for a fledgling director to be unique right from the off. It's interesting to note that Ray himself said that he wasn't trying to make a film noir movie, he was merely telling a tragic love story. Just another point of reference as to why the film is so fascinating.

Be that as it may, They Live By Night pulses with noir blood. From its perpetual moody atmospherics, to the romantic narrative being punctured by moments of violence, it deserves its classic film noir status. 8/10

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Actually quite good

Patsy-915 June 1999

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.

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9/10

Beautiful!!!!

lauloi10 August 2001

Nicholas Ray is mostly known for his work, "Rebel WIthout a Cause", but his first work, a dazzling, moving (if sentimental) film noir, is far better. Unjustly out-of-print, "They Live By Night" may have its minor flaws, but the stark, beautiful camerawork, stolid dialogue and (perhaps above all) exquisite performances make up for it. It has none of the often phony emotions and annoying characters that are found in "Rebel Without a Cause."

Bowie, the innocent, sympathetic outlaw hero of "They Live By Night" is a wonderfully drawn. By no means is he the cliched nice-guy-in-a-bad-situation; though essentially good-hearted, he can be frighteningly callous at times. Farley Granger, working with excellent direction, he gives us glimpses of a violent yet passionate nature, struggling against the condemnation of society. Cathy O'Donnell is also entrancingly tender, yet we can vaguely see that her character is trapped in a hopeless relationship with Bowie. She is also sadly obscure, which plainly has nothing to do with her talent.

The one significant fault of this film is over-restraint. At times, Ray's understated direction can be extremely effective, such as when he is dealing with violence. But at other times the characters' (and especially Keechie's) emotions are so tightly controlled that some of the impact on the audience is lost. Still, despite a few faults, "They Live By Night" is a wonderful film, and if ever you can find it, sell your hair but GET IT!!!

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9/10

tender crime drama

RanchoTuVu2 December 2004

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.

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7/10

Juliet and Clyde

bkoganbing3 July 2015

Nicholas Ray made his directorial debut in They Live By Night that's a little bit Romeo and Juliet and a little bit Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie Parker will no way recognize Cathy O'Donnell as herself, but The Bard will no way miss seeing her as Juliet Capulet.

As for Farley Granger he was always playing sensitive and misunderstood youths like this one back in his salad days. Ostensibly he starts as an innocent kid convicted for something he didn't do and is looking for money to get a good lawyer to clear himself.

A pair of rough customers, Howard DaSilva and Jay C. Flippen break out of their prison farm in Mississippi and as Flippen puts it recognize talent when they see it and he's an investment. If Granger was innocent before he sure isn't now. But the funny thing is that the media concentrate on Granger's baby face good looks and dub him as the gang leader.

While Granger heals up from injuries sustained in the escape he does it at Will Wright's farm and gas station where he meets Cathy O'Donnell and it's instant love. But this is passion that will burn hot and fast as this love is no way meant to last.

Ray did remarkably well capturing the doomed nature of the relationship and the people. Even viewing it today by someone who never heard of Bonnie&Clyde or even has seen the classic film. There is such an aura of sadness permeating the entire film from start to finish that even though you know it will end bad, you are drawn to these people.

They Live By Night is one of Farley Granger's signature roles and a great start for the career of Nicholas Ray.

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10/10

a classic "B-noir" film with heart and style

Quinoa198413 May 2006

Nicholas Ray's first film is a fascinating, enveloping example of a filmmaker getting as much as he can out of so little. His film was made under the radar at RKO, despite having John Houseman as a producer. While also having a cast of really unknowns, he also uses it to his advantage to tell a small story very well. It's close to being one of the more 'text-book' examples, in the story's core, in the history of B-noir (film-noir that didn't get the hype of The Big Sleep or Out of the Past, star vehicles as much as unique thrillers). Bowie (Farley Granger, soon to be a Hitchcock stock-player) escapes from jail with the help of a couple of bank robbers who make him, as they say, "an investment." He meets a girl, Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell), daughter of a farmer they pass by, and he becomes friends with her, so to speak. She agrees to leave town with him and they also decide, almost on a whim, to get married (for twenty bucks no less). But soon, very soon, fall in love, however, despite the checkered and now notorious past catching up to Bowie.

Obviously, if you're looking for stellar, "method" acting, look elsewhere in the main performances. But they do have enough of a pull in their chemistry on screen- sometimes rough and spelling of their doomed relationship, other times tragically tender- to back up the best aspects to the film. The true pleasures in seeing They Live By Night are the details that Ray lays in the scenes, bits of life probably taken from the book the movie's based on. Godard once proclaimed that Ray "IS cinema". If this statement does hold validity to a degree, it shows for certain even in Ray's debut in the scenes with the secondary platers. Such as the wedding scene, or in general with the dialog in the script (i.e. "Between him and the chicken, I'd bet on the chicken", or "I'm the black sheep" "the only thing black about you are your eyelashes), or even with the strengths in Ray's camera as a simple storyteller. In a sense this cuts right to the chase with the theme of doomed youth, years before Rebel Without a Cause yet with the given desperation of the noir films.

While generally less seen than Ray's other films (though more attributable to being less available on video), it's likely one of his best; a powerful mix of the bittersweet tale of a criminal and his love that would decades later meld with other crime-film elements into a work like True Romance.

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7/10

An Admirable Precursor To In A Lonely Place

jzappa24 March 2009

Nicholas Ray's first feature film is the prototype for the lovers on the lam genre, generally suggested to foreshadow Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde. I enjoy it for different reasons that for the more contemporary ones. It may not be as intense as those, nor as intense as some of Ray's later efforts such as the unadorned masterpiece In a Lonely Place, but we sympathize on a much purer level with Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell's young lovers here than we do with Bonnie and Clyde or the violent lovers of Gun Crazy or much more extreme and shocking variations on that assembly line like Natural Born Killers, Criminal Lovers or Baise Moi. Granger and O'Donnell, two young specimens whose beautiful faces radiate with solemn innocence, find the seeds of love in their first incidental meetings with one another in spite of their cataclysmic circumstances and dangerous dynamics. Indeed, the film is in no small part owing to the argument of heredity vs. environment, which one bears in mind throughout as we not only follow the external plot but also the emotional process of the chemistry between the two leads.

Perhaps the movie doesn't take enough chances with Granger's circumstances. He escapes from prison with two hardened down-home bank robbers Chicamaw and T-Dub, but rather than being a part of their underworld economy, though he does find himself planning a heist with them to, in a strange, roundabout way, bring justice to his initial imprisonment, he is fleeing the condemnation of an unjust murder charge. This flaw cannot be argued as a bedrock but if he were a young, budding career thief himself, the audience's sense of morality and justice would be given more vigorous exercise. It would make O'Donnell's love for him ironically more ennobled by not only siding with him against the way the world has treated him, but also by seeing through the way he has treated the world.

I was enthralled by the physicality of the two lovers, stressed by Ray in unusual ways. We first see the angelic Cathy O'Donnell in a baggy, oil-stained jumpsuit. She is the daughter of a gas station owner. Her beauty either radiates through the adventitious scuzziness, inherits a raw carnal edge by it, or both. Granger is a swarthy young boy, his anger perpetuated by his submissiveness in his situations, against which he gradually begins to recklessly rebel. Much in the same way we can see Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart baring their most guileless identities, almost too painfully, in the great film Ray made the next year, In a Lonely Place, Granger and O'Donnell are a younger and more socially subversive precursor. Though the story itself may not sizzle with more tension, we feel very deeply for the two lovers based on the sheer presence of their actors.

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8/10

I think this film holds up well and is well worth watching.

ronb82819 February 2005

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.

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7/10

an auspicious point of departure for an auteur-in-the-making,

lasttimeisaw15 June 2017

This Film-Noir-inflected directorial debut feature of maverick US filmmaker Nicholas Ray is headlined by two young stars on the rising, Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell, as their escapist romance is par for the course of a sorry denouement which tallies with the now stock "lovers on the run" scenario, to today's audience, it is Ray's audacious craftsmanship leaving a hefty mark on the route.

Adapted from Edward Anderson's novel THIEVES LIKE US (from which Robert Altman would regurgitate his own version using the book's original title in 1974), the storyline revolves around a young convict Bowie (Granger), who escapes from prison with two senior bank robbers, Chicamaw (Da Silva, flaunting with his snarky, one-eyed menace to great effect) and T-Dub (Flippen, sports a hostile ruggedness likens Michael Shannon). After falling in with Keechie (O'Donnell), the daughter of their accomplice Mobley (Wright), Bowie develops a liking for her, when a road accident leaves Bowie in the caring hands of Keechie, they decide to elope, leaving everything behind, whether it is police force or Bowie's partners in crime.

Notably, the film vigorously lunges its opening gambit of chopper-aided aerial shots when the credits roll, quite a cutting-edge feat of its time, but if one thinks for granted that the movie would be heavy on the action front, a sly Ray proves otherwise, he spares us with all the robbery fracas and the upshots of peripheral players, because the movie's focus is unflinchingly zoomed in on the star-crossed lovers, close-ups expressively inspect their indecision, immaturity, callowness, but also their steely determination of finding a way out in spite of the mounting obstruction, Granger and O'Donnell both elicit emotively heart-rending renderings without any help of plot machinations, their ending is foreseeable miles away, they are mired in a cul-de-sac, catching up with a scintilla of hope and affection before it's too late. Which is to say that in Ray's fabrication, one cannot help but discerning an overt proclivity for fatalism, a heady profusion of gloom, angst, and agitation, that would evolve into Ray's trademark in the years to come. Even in the supposedly jolly strains of YOUR RED WAGON interlude, Ray manifestly shows us the singer (Bryant), cadging cash out of punters and then brandishing it in front of our eyes, that's the world which entraps the two lovebirds, materialistic, corrupted and voracious.

Amongst the ragbag of supporting group, on the one hand, stage old-hand Helen Craig rounds out her celluloid debut with a stolid veneer cracked with tangible tinge of compunction in a femme fatale role; and on the other hand, productive character actor Ian Wolfe gives our two wet-behind- their-ears protagonists a good run for their money as the grasping matrimony officiator, who effortlessly hammers that last nail in their coffin without much of self-awareness. By and large, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT has professed to be an auspicious point of departure for an auteur-in-the- making, and of course, the best is yet to come.

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10/10

A Wonderful Film in the Tradition of "Bonnie and Clyde"

evanston_dad17 May 2006

"They Live By Night" joins "Gun Crazy" (1949) and "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) to form a little trilogy of remarkable films in the "lovers-on-the-lam" sub-genre. Nicholas Ray's film has much in common with "Gun Crazy," both in look and theme, but it's a much warmer and more emotionally effective piece of film-making. Peggy Cummins gave a fascinating performance in "Gun Crazy" as a flinty, unbelievably callous femme fatale; Cathy O'Donnell in "They Live By Night" will break your heart.

Indeed, the acting is probably this film's greatest asset, and it enables what in all respects is a B movie to feel like an A one. Farley Granger and O'Donnell bring wonderful nuances to their roles, and they have a naturalistic style of acting that feels ahead of its time when compared to other films from the same period. Howard da Silva is also tremendous in the supporting role of Chickamaw, managing to create a grotesque character who nevertheless feels at home in the very human world created by Ray. And Helen Craig shines in a small but vital role as Mattie, who may be the most heartless character in the film.

At a time when America most likely just wanted to hurry up and get everything back to normal, how shocking that a film like this would emerge. The domestic contentment that Granger and O'Donnell establish for themselves is a sham; they know it and we know it. They're living on borrowed time, and the things that the average American strived for in a booming post-war climate--loving spouse, children, safe and secure home--exist in this film as taunting reminders of blessings this couple can never have.

And the ending---that could have been so sentimental and is instead in Ray's hands so spare and sad---just may well take your breath away.

Grade: A+

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7/10

A kind of romantic, enchanting dream...

iperscriptor13 November 2007

Isn't it nice fantasizing that, sometimes, life can really run like in the Bowie/Keechie story? They just meet, fall in love each other and runaway together without hesitation; a few later, they accidentally see a chapel from the Greyhound bus stop and immediately get married at the low cost of 27 $, including the wedding ring and the tips for the best men: then their tragic life burns off very quickly, but... Isn't a similar perspective awfully alluring, somehow? The potency of this movie stays in summarizing the myth of the negative hero who fights to the bone, unsuccessfully trying to subvert his destiny in the name of love, that's a kind of 'evergreen' philosophy in making movies - a much better work by Nicholas Ray, I think, than the famous but fulsome "Rebel wirhout a cause".

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3/10

From a layman's perspective, not that great

albertinamel1 July 2011

It seems the people who really enjoyed this flick as an example of noir are folks who focus a lot more on cinematography and film-making than the average viewer. (I don't know if the helicopter shots, for instance, were ground-breaking.) However, I can say that as simply a casual viewer who enjoys a good noir film, this one missed the mark. Is it noir or sappy romance? I felt like the director couldn't decide. The main actors seemed too baby-faced to carry off noir, imho, since the hardened characters in noir plots usually need to be a little bit more mature to have gained their worldly experiences. When compared with films like "Double Indemnity" and "Touch of Evil," "They Live by Night" just can't hold its own. Unless you're a total noir buff, I'd skip this one. There's even an old Nancy Davis (Reagan) film called "Shadow on the Wall" that few people have seen that I liked better than this one, fwiw.

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9/10

Love On The Run

seymourblack-117 September 2013

Warning: Spoilers

A brief but memorable shot at the very beginning of Nicholas Ray's "They Live By Night" shows two young lovers in a few shared moments of contentment that seem incredibly intimate, romantic and precious. It provides an arresting image primarily because of its skillful composition but also because of the way in which light and shadow are so cleverly used to create an atmosphere of warmth and tenderness. This shot is important not only because it emphasises that the young couple's love story is the main focus of the action that follows but also because it signifies that the first-time director's approach to filmmaking is significantly more subjective and empathetic than the majority of his contemporaries who were making film noirs during the same period.

Bowie (Farley Granger) is a young man who was unjustly found guilty of murder and imprisoned at the age of sixteen. After having served seven years of his sentence, he takes the opportunity offered to him by two other inmates and together they escape from prison. When the car in which they're travelling develops a puncture, Chicamaw "One-Eye" Mobley (Howard Da Silva) and "T-Dub" Mansfield (Jay C Flippen) leave the injured Bowie behind and make their way on foot to Chicamaw's brother's cabin where they plan to hide out and they arrange for Chicamaw's teenage niece Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell) to use her father's vehicle to go and bring Bowie back to the cabin.

The young couple are instantly attracted to each other but their relationship is initially awkward and tentative primarily because of their common naiveté but also because of Keechie's hostility towards the criminals. Bowie takes part in a bank robbery with the other two escapees because he thinks that by doing so; he can get enough money together to hire a lawyer who could prove that his original conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

Following the robbery, Chicamaw and Bowie are involved in a car accident in which Bowie is injured and shortly after, Chicamaw shoots a police officer who arrives to check out what had happened. Chicamaw takes Bowie back to his brother's cabin where Keechie nurses him back to health and it's during this period that the couple fall deeply in love and decide to go on the run. Their dream of a normal life together is what drives them as they travel across country but their chances of success are constantly under threat.

A striking feature of this movie is the way in which expressionistic cinematography, tight framing and close-ups are used to create an environment which looks closed in and oppressive. Everyone seems to be physically trapped by their surroundings and this is even true in the outdoor sequences as the use of aerial photography creates an impression that the people below are being watched and can't escape the scrutiny that they're under.

Bowie and Keechie are both portrayed as being the products of their unfortunate backgrounds and people who are essentially good. Bowie never chose to follow a life of crime and his greatest ambition is to go straight. This being the case, it's fitting that he should be represented on screen by an actor who doesn't look like a stereotypical criminal and Farley Granger certainly meets this requirement. He gives a very credible performance as the misfit bank robber and Cathy O'Donnell steals the show as Keechie. Her skill in displaying the various characteristics of a girl who goes from being sullen and mistrustful to being rather warmer and more good humoured is both subtle and convincing.

The best of the supporting performances comes from Howard Da Silva who is very threatening as a vicious career criminal. The entire cast is also particularly good and certainly adds another level of enjoyment to the movie by the ways in which the eccentricities and corrupt natures of the colourful characters are portrayed.

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10/10

Powerful

buffme4evr22 March 2003

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?

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We're gonna keep searchin' searchin' ....

dbdumonteil24 September 2005

Warning: Spoilers

O'Donnell /Granger are par excellence the romantic couple of the film noir,and their scenes display a tenderness ,a longing for a happiness which always eludes them.This is a dark movie,since most of the scenes were filmed by night:the first meeting of the doomed lovers,the wedding (no walk down the aisle,no flowers,no wedding dress) ,the unforgettable last scene when O'Donnell whispers "I love you" ....

I certainly love Nicholas Ray's movies.In "they live by night" a lot of his recurrent features are already present:the hero is still a child ,a victim of fate.We do not know anything about his background,his parents but he's certainly akin to Jim Stark in "rebel without a cause " who is playing with a toy on the street or Jeff in "lusty men" finding back his old money-box.The heroine is a distant relative of Judy in "rebel" and O'Donnell resembles Natalie Wood.Like her,her family life is a dead end and she sees love as the only way out of it.In 'rebel' ,Ray puts the parents on trial ,in "Bigger than life" -one of his most extraordinary films ,unfairly overlooked - a father becomes monstrous and almost kills his son.Here Bowie was probably "killed" too, on his own at such an early age.

To quote Neil Young,Ray "offers life in sacrifice so the others can go on".In "Rebel" ,Plato's death might mean a new beginning for Jim and Judy and their families (it's stunning how Plato wanted his two friends to be his "parents" ).In "lusty men" ,Jeff's death signals Wes's maturity.But there 's much more:in "run for cover" we find another relationship father/son where the latter's decease allows his "father " to find love and serenity.Even the much debated "55 days at Peking" follows suit:Ray might have been drunk during the shooting,but the baroness'death leads the officer to take on the Chinese orphan girl.

Here Bowie's death does not leave the audience helpless and desperate :he had to die so that his child could have a better life .We know that Keechie is a strong girl and that she will do all that she can for her baby.

In Ray's world,young people are misfits:around them everything is hostile from a father washing up (in "Rebel") to the ugly sinister-looking gangsters in direct contrast with the lovers' charm(in "they live by night" ) to the cruel microcosm of rodeo (in "lusty men").The scene of the wedding is somewhat gloomy even if Ray displays a sense of humor ("You've got a cold!" (so don't kiss the bride)).It's a world beyond any moral:take for instance Mattie's character;is she good? is she evil?probably both like Vienna in "Johnny Guitar" or Ed in "Bigger than life".It displays more than a world in ruins: a world that has forgotten it's in ruins.Almost every ending tells us life HAS to be rebuilt.

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7/10

young star-crossed love

SnoopyStyle21 September 2017

Bowie is a young prisoner escaping from a prison farm with two bank robbers. They are taken in by the Mobleys for a price. Bowie hopes to prove his innocence but must join the others in a bank robbery. He falls for the Mobley daughter, Keechie. After the chaos of the crime, the young love try to start a doomed star-crossed life together.

This is a noir of a pair of doomed young lovers. The two leads have an interesting sincerity. They have a youthful innocence but also a world-weariness. They don't come off as movie stars. They seem more real than that. The drama isn't allowed to push too far into melodrama. There is compelling violence and needed consequences. This has a solid noir for its time.

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8/10

No Keechy Way Out

Lejink22 January 2019

A beautiful yet bleak movie about doomed young love on the run. The debut directorial feature of Nicholas Ray, it starts with three escaped prisoners on the run, roughing up the driver of a car they've hijacked after robbing a bank, two of them are seasoned old pros, but the third is a fresh-faced youngster imprisoned for a murder committed when he was a teenager. Although grateful for their springing him, he is resistant to their future plans to continue a life of crime. When they turn up at a safe house peopled by an old alcoholic friend and his young daughter, she makes clear her distaste for the three escapees. Tomboyish, with her hair up and dressed in overalls, she softens to the fresh-faced lad as she nurses him through an injury he's picked up on the road.

Soon they fall in love and decide to hit the road themselves, paying $20 dollars for a cut-price marriage but while they dream of carefree days ahead, in truth, they're always looking over their shoulders, fearing his discovery by the authorities, but when he's tracked down by his old cronies and forced into another bank job which goes wrong, his notoriety only increases and you just know his days are numbered.

Central to the film is the chemistry between its young stars Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell, as Bowie and Keechy, both completely natural in their roles. Production Code morality of the day ensures that Granger's Bowie character is duly punished for his misdemeanours but all the way you're rooting for the youngsters to somehow come through.

Starkly filmed by Ray, he ramps up the emotional tension as every time the couple find some solace and calm on their travels something happens to set them back. A last-ditch attempt to escape to Mexico only confirms Bowie's hopelessness at his and Keechy's prospects leaving just one final betrayal to seal his fate. Shot in atmospheric black and white with many imaginatively staged scenes alternating tenderness and fear, perhaps the most striking use of Ray's cameras are the helicopter shots looking down on the fleeing characters even as their journeys will take all of them nowhere.

Watching the film, I was reminded of another earlier noir classic about ill-fated young love, Fritz Lang's superb "You Only Live Once". Both are dark, driven, doomy pieces, memorable and highly recommended, just don't look for happy endings. Even the movies don't all end that way.

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7/10

Solid Soap and Noir - They Live By Night

arthur_tafero11 April 2023

What could be better than an ill-fated pair of lovers on the run (similar to Bonnie and Clyde)? You know the film will be impeccably perfect in every technical sense because it was produced by John Houseman, an old ally of Orson Welles from the Citizen Kane days. The man was a perfectionist in every sense. His casting was perfect for every role; the shot sequences were perfectly planned and executed, and the writing was highly entertaining. Cathy O'Connell gives a first-rate performance, as does Farley. And Nicholas Ray shows why he had many hits ahead of him in his directoral debut. Be sure to catch this one.

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8/10

An earlier, and just as involving, version of Thieves Like Us

bmacv23 January 2001

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.

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6/10

They Live By Night-Miscasting Day and Night **1/2

edwagreen18 March 2008

Warning: Spoilers

A good movie with a serious plot line goes awry with the horrible casting of Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell in the lead roles.

Granger is supposed to be a 23 year old, imprisoned for 7 years, a bank robber, on the lam. I can't believe he was chosen for the part. Even when he speaks, he sounds like a college sophomore.

O'Donnell who was perfect as Charlton Heston's condemned sister in "Ben-Hur" and Harold Russell's sacrificing girl friend in "The Best Years of Our Lives" is called upon to be his new found girl-friend, who flees with him from the law and marries him while they're both on the lam! Believe me, Bonnie and Clyde they're not.

They try to philosophize what life can be like if they can get out of this turmoil.

Naturally, there will always be someone to turn them in. Dreams can become wicked, you know.

Robert Mitchum and perhaps Audrey Totter would have been certainly more suited for the roles. Hard-boiled Ida Luppino would have been perfect and so would a young Shelley Winters. They possessed that vulnerability that is missing in the two performances here.

What was the casting director thinking of when he had Granger and O'Donnell for the roles?

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10/10

Heartbreak and heartache- noir has a heart

DJJOEINC7 August 2007

Warning: Spoilers

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

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7/10

Drive By Day.

AaronCapenBanner12 November 2013

Nicholas Ray directed this innovative film noir that stars Farley Granger as Bowie, a young man recently escaped from prison with two older convicts(played by Jay C. Flippen & Howard Da Silva) All Bowie wants is to live with his love Keechie(played by Cathy O'Donnell) but his two cohorts won't let him, forcing him on a multi-state crime spree that mistakenly leads the police to identify Bowie as the ringleader! Bowie becomes increasingly alarmed, and is determined to break away from his criminal "friends", but first must figure out how to do so, and not get captured or killed. Good cast and effective direction(an opening helicopter tracking shot in particular) make this film work well, even if it ends as you would expect it too.

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4/10

A Dull, And Drawn Out Affair, Made Worst By Its Predictability.

ArmandoManuelPereira1 August 2020

Apparently, this is considered by many to be a Nicholas Ray classic, but quite frankly, after watching it twice (the 2nd time just to make sure I hadn't missed something the first time) I don't know why. It starts off promising enough, but from around the point where Bowie the young theif, gives Keechie a watch, the movie begins to descend into a dull and drawn out affair, made worst by its predictability. The main point of the films second half is that the young couples love for each other is doomed, but its doom didn't come quick enough for me. Thats how tedious it becomes.

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