Nobody Lives Forever (1946)

I wanted to but couldn't!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

When con-artist John Garfield is released from Army hospital, he is eager to see his old girl Faye Emerson again, as well as the $50K he left in her care. But she found a new guy, a nightclub owner she also works for as a singer, and she made some bad investments with the money. Garfield smells something fishy and beats the money out of the nightclub owner. With his pal George Tobias he heads to LA. They find Garfield's old mentor Walter Brennan there, as well as another group of con-artists led by George Coulouris. Coulouris found a new mark, rich widow Geraldine Fitzgerald, and begrudgingly needs Garfield to work on her. Garfield pretends to be a wealthy businessman and befriends Fitzgerald. Soon Fitzgerald falls for Garfield, but he falls for her as well. Garfield wants out, and tries to pay off Coulouris and his gang. But they won't let their fat fish off the hook that easily.A noir melodrama with a by-the-numbers story by W.R. Burnett ('The Asphalt Jungle'), but the excellent cast and crew elevates the movie. Garfield ('Body And Soul') is great as always and has great chemistry with Fitzgerald ('The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry'), who is excellent, bringing a lot of depth to her character. But the rest of the cast is great as well, altho Emerson ('The Mask Of Dimitrios') is underused, but does give off a nice femme fatale vibe every second she's on the screen. Coulouris ('Citizen Kane') is as oily and sleazy as can be expected, and Brennan ('Bad Day At Black Rock') does well in a stereotypical 'father' role.Director Jean Negulesco ('The Mask Of Dimitrios') and DoP Arthur Edeson ('The Maltese Falcon') keep this movie interesting throughout, by offsetting the light and opulent surroundings of Fitzgerald's life with the dingy, dark and claustrophobic rooms that Coulouris and his crew live in, with top con-artist Garfield effortlessly navigating between both lifestyles. The movie ends with a fog-filled climax in a small harbor, which is beautifully shot and quite thrilling, but then ends in a bit of a redemptive whimper/cop-out. That and the story which lacks any real surprises or twists, are the only 2 flaws in an otherwise good movie. 8/10

Nobody Lives Forever (1946)This is a quirky but good film. If technically a film noir in tone and structure, it largely lacks the darkness of intention in any of the main characters. Part of this comes from the casting—John Garfield is just too sweet a guy to pull off a devious, malicious scammer, and Walter Brennan as the sidekick couldn't appear evil if he tried.There are some classic noir elements which make the movie fun, like a nightclub (and nightclub owner), a femme fatale (played with restraint by Faye Emerson), and a host of thugs who are convincing (this is Warner Bros. after all). The main plot is a kind of crime romance, where Garfield, an ex-con man playing a returning soldier, has half an intention to go straight but then gets roped into one last big scam. The victim is a rich young widow, and as Garfield goes after his mark he naturally falls in love. The people backing Garfield have a stake in his success and they don't like what's going on—he could just marry the widow and they'd be left in the cold.So there is a turning of who is against who in the scenario. And this matters, but a lot of the first half of the movie is about the growing romance between the two leads. And it doesn't quite take off. I suppose it was important to make this widow a straight up type, a "good" woman," but casting Geraldine Fitzgerald made sure the chemistry would be restrained. You do want these two very nice people to make it, but it's not spiked with anxiety enough, or dreamy highs enough, to make you quite get swept away.Where it gets interesting is when the thugs get in the way. The plot takes some terrific twists, and there are some some terrific atmospheric scenes at a pier in the second half of the movie, with large pumps running and the mist rolling by at night. People's better natures are revealed. A tragedy for one man becomes a lesson for our leading couple.Director Jean Negulesco, though not as well known as a dozen of his contemporaries, made a series of strong, highly dramatic movies after the war that are often worth watching just for their moods. Here he uses legendary cinematographer Arthur Edeson ("Casablanca," "Frankenstein") to make this mood memorable and visually stunning. Throw in the usual high standards of Hollywood, and Warner Bros., at the time and you have a lot of why this movie, whatever its flaws, is still completely absorbing. Well worth watching.

A very usual plot covers this story. A manipulator wants to fleece a wealthy widow but falls for her instead. The problem is that he had made previous commitments with other hoods to take this woman for a ride.John Garfield is perfect as Nick. He falls for Mrs.Halverson, a wonderful Geraldine Fitzgerald.The gang is in top form with Walter Brennan as Pop, George Coulouris'Doc is excellent. By the way, for a hood Coulouris speaks very well and in fact sounds like a very educated person in some scenes. George Tobias really provides some comic relief, but in a straight role as Nick's sidekick.You wonder why the Fitzgerald character can't fall in love with her financial adviser, nicely played by Richard Gaines. The two seem to be a perfect match but I guess there would be no story if that occurred.Faye Emerson is the dame that Nick had previously hooked up with. She is a real hot number here. Few realize that in real life she had been married to Eliot Roosevelt, FDR's son.

Of all the Hollywood writers now associated with classic film noir --among them James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler & Dashell Hammett— the least known and perhaps least appreciated is W.R. Burnett who was responsible for the story and often the screenplay of a number of film crime classics, among them the films Scarface, Little Caesar, High Sierra and Asphalt Jungle. Burnett's dialog is as sharp and tough as the others, and he often displays a finer insight and even greater sympathy for the criminal mind than the others whose stories feature and sometimes romanticize the hard-boiled detective. This excellently directed and photographed film tells the story of a charming con-man, perfectly played by John Garfield, who falls for the widow he is trying to cheat. The petty crooks who people his world played by a superb cast of character actors (George Coulouris, Walter Brennan, George Tobias) are all clearly drawn and don't resemble the usual cliché gang members of other films. Burnett obviously knew this world better than his colleagues.