Friday, December 1, 2017
335 - They Live By Night, United States, 1948. Dir. Nicholas Ray.
A woman only loves once.
That is what Keechie says to Bowie, her new husband. They are on their honeymoon, staying in a cabin they have just rented out in the woods. Thirty-five dollars a week, pay in advance.
Keechie continues with an analogy in which she intends no insult.
I guess a woman is sort of like a dog. A bad dog will take things from anybody. But you just take a good dog--his master dies, he won't take food from anybody. He'll bite anybody that tries to pet him. There was a man back up home, and after he died his dog wouldn't eat or drink. Then he just died too.
Perhaps not every woman feels that way. Maybe some women move on and they are able to love again. But this is how Keechie feels. She has found Bowie. She has given her heart to him. And she will never take it back. She is faithful. She is loyal. She is loving.
Wherever he goes, she will go. And whatever he does, she will do.
It is just too bad that he robs banks.
She wants him to stop. She wants him to settle down. They are going to have a baby. She does not want to be on the run any more. And she fears for his life.
This is Nicholas Ray's debut film. It is an auspicious beginning.
With it, Ray begins a series of film noir classics: They Live By Night (1948), A Woman's Secret (1949), Knock on Any Door (1950), In a Lonely Place (1950), Born to Be Bad (1950), The Racket (1951), On Dangerous Ground (1951), and Macao (1952). He also made dramas (Roseanna McCoy (1949)), war movies (Flying Leathernecks (1951)), sports films (The Lusty Men (1952)), comedies (Androcles and the Lion (1952), and Westerns (Johnny Guitar (1954), Run for Cover (1955)).
Then he made the movie for which most people know him. Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
He continued making films for another couple decades, working mostly as an independent. Earlier this year we saw his drama Bigger Than Life (1956). We also saw him as an actor in Wim Wenders' Tom Ripley adaptation, The American Friend (1977). He also directed MGM's big budget epic 70mm Super Technirama Technicolor spectacular King of Kings (1961).
But he begins with this one. A poetic look at young lovers, naive, earnest, and innocent in their own way. Romeo and Juliet on the lam in Texas and Mississippi.
They Live By Night stars Farley Granger as Arthur Bowers, aka Bowie. You may know him as the Alfred Hitchcock star from Rope (148) and Strangers on a Train (1951). It also stars Cathy O'Donnell as Catherine Mobley, aka Keechie. She appeared as Wilma Cameron in the great classic The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and as Tirzah in Ben-Hur (1959). The two of them starred together again the next year in Anthony Mann's thriller Side Street (1949).
The film famously features an array of helicopter shots, some of the earliest, looking down on actors in action, including driving and running.
RKO considered making the movie years before, but the studio head did not like the script and shelved it. Then Dore Schary became the head of production and pushed to get the film made. Even after it was made, it sat for a couple years before it was shown in London, to rave reviews, which in turn got it finally released in America, where it was a good success and helped launch Granger's career. He got the role in Hitchcock's Rope soon after.
Bowie looks after Keechie. He takes care of her. Looks out for her. Protects her.
Now if only he can find a way to get them to Mexico before the law catches up to them.
* * * * *
Little girl, I'm gonna miss you, but I gotta do it this way. I'll send for both of you when I can. No matter how long it takes. I gotta see that kid. He's lucky. He'll have you to keep him squared around. I love you. Bowie.
* * * * *
He was very much alive and he had it all in his head. He would take you aside and he would just talk to you, calmly and quietly. He was very easy-going. He knew exactly what he wanted. He didn't miss a thing. He and Hitchcock were the two best directors I worked with. - Farley Granger.
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