They Live by Night (1949)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Strong and Moving!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Best movie ever!

Many people forget, at one point or another, they once were young. Youth was a time of wonder, exploring, learning. Att the time, most Parents instilled values that were going to be needed, as the years went by. Many Youths remembered those values. Others shoved them aside for what ever reasons. And yet others got caught up in situations- being at the wrong place at the right time...like Bowie and the girl he falls for, Keechie As things've turned out for me, I'm a sucker for old movies. Black&White, Color, SciFi, Sit-Coms (My Little Margie) any ones! I hadn't realized how much I love to watch them. In this movie, the acting is unlike today's acting and that's another attribute that makes me go for noir movies. All of the Actors in "They Live By Night" add to the tragedy of the story by Screenwriter Charles Schnee. Sherman Todd's Film Editing is a sure story sequitur, while The Black & White photography (Kenneth Peach) captures the essential sinister scenes. The Lighting, shadows & depth of field (in the end scene) is pure Hollywood genius. Ollie Sigurdson (Stills) captured the youthful, innocent beauty of Keechie. Literally, I got all choked up. I wanted to embrace and console the poor, inconsolable child. Go see it. Have some popcorn too.

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.

There is no 'movie' as wonderful and nuanced as the perception we bring to our own life, though a lot of the time this cornucopia of senses is an indifferent and presupposed given, ungratefully and unwondrously seen. So we seek diversion and spectacle, most of which really dulls by the same degree that we were already dulled to seek the escape. But there are movies, like moments in life, that awaken some of that wondrous sense, in which we are real people again, alert and fully in our presence.I'm not waxing here, it's what the movie is about. It is about people, bank robbers on the run, who want the escape. Like a mantra, the characters repeat that they want to be 'real people', a transcendent drive. For the older two, dulled by life, the pursuit translates to one as simple practicality, money, to the other as the desire for thrills and diversion, the making of headlines whereby 'real' is the better than ordinary. For the betraying woman, it means getting her husband out of prison so she can be alive again instead of merely biding time.But for the young couple, which is the fulcrum of the film, it comes to mean real in each other's eyes, realized by truth and commitment to love. Great. Oh we see that the boy's clinging to the notion that love should be expressed with things to buy and a good time is a false escape, and that newspapers and in the end the cop continue to circulate a false image(the boy as killer) all to solidify the floating world. But I was amazed here by just the sincere spark between the lovers.The crime spree is merely the diversion here, the newspaper wrap. What's so wonderful is the heartfelt ordinariness, given the Hollywood trappings. Neither of the two protagonists is a seductive movie star, they are green, raw and overly eager in a larger world, as are their characters. And I value a presence like this as much as the most submerged Method, for me it steals into and reveals that presupposed life before any affected stance.The film captures only certain aspects of noir, it is not shot in the style for one. The most revealing thing is that the girl is not 'in' the crime story, not an accomplice like Bonnie to Clyde but a haven, a conscience. But the main engine remains noirish: an inexplicable black hole in life, the killing of a man 7 years ago, which can't be made right and devours the light. The karmic upsurge of previous life, the (similarly arbitrary) killing of the father, the breakup of home by parents who ran away with lovers, which rises again in our couple.Overall, it's not so much a noir as one of the great melodramatic love movies of the time. The trail goes from here to Gun Crazy to Breathless, which brings a 'real' camera to stress the affected stance, to the marvelous Zen of the Breathless remake with Gere and Kaprisky.Noir Meter: 2/4

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.