They Live by Night (1948)

They Live by Night
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Written by Charles Schnee and Nicholas Ray from the novel “Thieves Like Us” by Edward Anderson
1948/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4

Mr. Hawkins, Wedding Chapel Proprietor: I believe in helping people get what they want as long as they pay for it. I marry people ‘cos there’s a little hope they’ll be happy. But I can’t take this money of yours. No sir. In a way I’m a thief just the same as you are, but I won’t sell you hope when there ain’t any. 

There are plenty of films about lovers on the lam.  This one is more poignant than most and strikingly shot by Nicholas Ray.

Bowie (Farley Granger) has just escaped from prison, where he was serving a sentence for a murder that took place during a robbery he was involved in.  The luckless boy was the only one the police could catch.  Now he finds himself hiding out in a gas station with his much older felllow escapees, the alcoholic Chickamaw (Howard da Silva) and redneck T-Dub.

Bowie serves as getaway driver for a heist and is hurt in a crash.  When a policeman comes to investigate the accident, Chickamaw shoots him.  Keechie (Cathy O’Donnell), the station owner’s daughter, grudgingly nurses Bowie and the two fall in love. But now Bowie has been tagged for the murder and the two flee together with the robbery proceeds.

On a sudden impulse, the two get off the bus and marry at a truck-stop chapel.  The justice-of-the-peace speaks suggestively of his contacts in Mexico but the two press on.  Keechie falls pregnant and then everything goes to hell.

Although it is firmly in the noir style, They Live by Night is actually more a tragic love story than a crime film.  O’Donnell gets a crack at a more complex character than usual for her, being hardbitten before she is tamed by love.  I thought she was very good.  Farley Granger is always Farley Granger to me.  I don’t find him too convincing.  The most notable aspect of the film are the awesome compositions and beautiful cinematography.  Ray pioneered the use of a helicopter to film an action sequence in the opening.

This was Ray’s first feature.  As was his wont, Howard Hughes put it on the shelf for two years before releasing it.

Clip – opening