Dust Be My Destiny
Directed by Lewis Seiler
Written by Robert Rossen from a novel by Jerome Odlum
1939/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
Joe Bell: [defiantly] You’re sorry? You didn’t serve time. I did. I’m sorry I was chump enough to think the cops would believe a nobody like me when I told them I was only trying to help the guy who was shot. I should have kept my nose out of trouble. Don’t worry, warden. I’m wised up now, ’cause no matter what happens or who gets hurt, from now on, Joe Bell runs the other way.
This is a very solid Depression era story about two young people who simply can’t catch a break.
Joe Bell (Garfield) has been in prison for 16 months for a burglary he did not commit. He is released when the real burglar is found. He starts riding the rails. He is given several breaks by kind people who recognize Joe’s essential decency and talent. But for one reason or another he must keep moving on.
Along the way, he gets a job and falls in love with his foreman’s daughter, Mabel (Priscilla Lane). They have an argument and during it her father drops dead of a heart attack. Joe believes that he will be wrongly convicted again and goes on the run. Mabel insists on joining him and eventually they marry. The law hounds them on every step of their journey.
Garfield is dynamite in one of his early films. I always enjoy Priscilla Lane – she is so wholesome and funny. I enjoyed this and my husband thought it was one of the best films we have watched lately.
