You Only Live Once (1937) DVDRip (SiRiUs sHaRe)

You Only Live Once (1937)



Joan is the secretary to the public defender in a large city. She is in love with a career criminal named Eddie, and she believes that he is a basically good person who just had some tough breaks. She uses her influence to get him released early, and he tries to go straight after marrying her, but things don't work out, and they both go on the lam.



Sylvia Sidney ... Joan Graham Taylor

Henry Fonda ... Eddie Taylor

Barton MacLane ... Stephen Whitney

Jean Dixon ... Bonnie Graham

William Gargan ... Father Dolan

Jerome Cowan ... Dr. Hill

Charles 'Chic' Sale ... Ethan (as Chic Sale)

Margaret Hamilton ... Hester

Warren Hymer ... Buggsy

Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams ... Rogers (misspelled Roger in closing credits) (as Guinn Williams)

John Wray ... Warden Wheeler

Walter De Palma ... Monk Mendall



Director: Fritz Lang



Runtime: 86 mins



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029808/
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Codecs:



Video : 647 MB, 1055 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 512*384 (4:3), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4,

Audio : 52 MB, 85 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 1 channels, 0x55 = MPEG Layer-3, CBR,



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This is one of the lesser known Fritz Lang flicks, and is a good representative of its era : it basically is about how blood-thirsty society misjudges and mistreats some of its members, "making them murderers" (my favorite one of that kind must be a little later "The Talk of the Town" with Cary Grant).



You can see why Lang is regarded as one of the masters of German Expresionism - some shots are really weird (check the shot of the courthouse somewhere in the beginning of the movie) and he uses strange camera angles, which will later be repeated in many film-noirs.



Unfortunately the film suffers from several plot holes. It is not really clear how the gun ends up on Taylor's hospital bed, etc. But I can recommend the movie despite its shortcomings. If you're a Fritz Lang fan you musn't miss it. If you're a film-noir fan, you shouldn't miss it because of some of his elements that will be found is such masterpieces as "The Scarlet Street" or "The Big Heat". If you're a movie fan in general you are strongly advised to see it, and you will not waste the 85 minutes of your life.



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Fritz Lang did a great job with this well-acted, uniquely photographed drama from the '30s. It's not anything to see if you're looking for a lift, though. Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney, so young it's unbelievable, play a husband and wife escaping the law. Sidney is a secretary who falls in love with a convict and marries him as soon as he gets out of prison. He's a three-time felon and has a tough time getting back into society. Ultimately, he's convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to death row. He escapes with Sidney and they become sort of a Bonnie and Clyde on the run for the Canadian border.



There are some plot problems, for instance, how Fonda got the gun in order to escape. Also, the boss at the trucking firm where he works is over the top in his dislike for Fonda and refuses to give him another chance.



The acting is very intense from both Sidney and Fonda. Looking at the young Fonda, one can really see where Jane got her looks. This isn't a big film, nor is it a happy one, but it's worth seeing.



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Joan Graham (Sylvia Sidney) is the efficient secretary of a public defender Stephen Whitney (Barton MacLane) and is in love of the smalltime criminal Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda). Her boss and friend Stephen helps Eddie to leave the prison on probation, Eddie promises to have a straight life and immediately get married with Joan. He finds a job as truck driver, but is unfairly fired on his first day. While trying to find another job, there is a heist in a bank with six victims and Eddie is accused. Joan convinces him to go to the court and prove his innocence, but based on circumstantial evidence and prejudice of the jury, Eddie is sentenced to the electric chair. On the night of his execution, the FBI finds the real criminal and Eddie grants an indulgence. However, Eddie is trying to escape from prison in a hostage situation, and kills his friend Father Dolan (William Gargan), who was trying to help him. Eddie meets Joan and together they try to reach the border and escape from justice.



"You Only Live Once" is the second American movie of Fritz Lang and a tragic melodrama. The depressive story of love and prejudice discloses a tough criticism to a very unfair, corrupt and hostile society, where losers do not have the chance to recover their dignity and common people are corrupt. The screenplay is visibly influenced by Bonnie and Clyde, who died on 23 May 1934, ambushed in their getaway car - therefore less than three years before the release date of this film. Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney show a great chemistry in good performances in this minor movie of this great director.



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* A cast list with character names in the Fritz Lang papers at USC includes the following actors, all of whom were not in the viewed print: John Beck, Harry Bernard, Dorothea Wolbert (People in post office), Walter Soderling (Man in teller's cage), Frank Hammond (Lounger in store) and Russ Powell (Sheriff in store). It is not known if scenes with these actors were shot at all, or just deleted from the released print.



* The song "A Thousand Dreams of You" was probably played as background music, since the published sheet music cover showed pictures of Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda. It is known that Fonda recorded the song on 6 November 1936, but his singing does not appear in the film.



* PCA director Joseph Breen objected to the robbery scene details which were against the production code. Specifically, he listed "no flash of a man's face contorted with agony, no showing of a woman lying on the sidewalk, no hurling of bombs, no cop lying on the street, his face contorted with pain, no truck crushing out the life of a cop, no terrible screaming, no shots of bodies lying around, no figure of a little girl huddled in death, no shrieks." The print received by the PCA ran 100 minutes, and it is clear from the released print that some of these items and other scenes were cut, and the PCA finally gave it an approved certificate.



* First film of Jack Carson.