They Live By Night ((Region 2)

Impressive debut feature from Nicholas Ray, with handsome Farley Granger and lovely Cathy O'Donnell as lovers on the run from the authorities. Not as hardboiled as you'd expect from a film noir, but very beautiful and rather romantic instead.The UK Criterion Blu-ray release comes with an audio commentary and featurette that were earlier on the US DVD-release in Warner Brothers Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 4, but adds a good video essay introduction by Imogen Sara Smith. And of course an excellent picture and audio quality that makes this a welcome upgrade from the DVD.As usual with Criterion-releases the English subtitles are not accessible through the Blu-ray-menu, but can be switched on using the Subtitle-button on your remote control.

Restoration and film quality are up to Criterion standards. No subtitles to come with the film. My father is hearing impaired so cannot enjoy this one. Very poor form from Criterion not to provide English subtitles.

Fab dvd featuring the gorgeous Cathy O'Donnell - great movie !

Good product and service thank you.

Director Nicholas Ray’s 1948 debut film remains a significant entry in the noir genre, displaying remarkable assuredness and a degree of innovation for a novice film-maker. They Live By Night, which is based on the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson, also has an authentic edge to it – as it charts the whirlwind romance and flight from justice of Farley Granger’s morally conflicted ne’er-do-well and supposed murderer, Arthur 'Bowie’ Bowers, and Cathy O’Donnell’s idealistic ‘innocent’, Catherine 'Keechie’ Mobley – courtesy of Charles Schnee’s sharp screenplay and a host of impressive supporting turns from Ray’s cast. The film’s visual sense is evident from the word go with Ray (and cinematographer George E Diskant) making novel (and repeated) use of helicopter tracking shots as Bowie and his fellow jailbreak pals track across a field, to be followed by plenty of chiaroscuro night-time shots so typical of the genre. The film effectively launched Granger’s career – the actor would go on to work with Alfred Hitchcock in Rope (made in the same year as They Live By Night) and Strangers On A Train – and the 22/3-year old Granger gives an outstanding account of himself in what is quite a complex role, mixing the (feigned) macho requirements of the uncompromising hoodlum with the tender humanity of Bowie’s (admittedly slightly overdone) romance with O’Donnell’s Keechie.The film’s hard-edged realism is perhaps best summed up during the film’s early scene of Bowie and Keechie’s first meeting, as Bowie attempts to hide his reticence from his current way of life from his fellow prison escapees, Howard Da Silva’s one-eyed Chicamaw and Jay C Flippen’s equally uncompromising T-Dub – both Da Silva and Flippen turning in brilliant turns here. Robert Mitchum had, at one point, been under consideration for the Chicamaw role, but great though Mitchum was, it is difficult to imagine anyone surpassing Da Silva’s depiction of casual evil here (with Diskant’s camera at one point giving us a truly unnerving close-up on the 'cyclops’). This scene also sets up the film’s theme of Bowie and Keechie’s shared position of social disadvantage – both being from broken homes, both having ‘lost’ their respective mothers and Bowie having lost the formative period of his youth (jailed from age 16 to 23). That said, even though the film (through a senior cop late on in the film) does fleetingly address the issue of society’s potential culpability for Bowie’s situation, this is rather superficial in the scheme of things in what is otherwise a more conventional noir thriller with its bank robberies, murders, duplicity and misplaced optimism.Perhaps the film’s only weakness is this latter point, as the burgeoning romance between Bowie and Keechie is a little overdone and the signposting of some form of comeuppance is a little too obvious. That said, there are some genuinely touching scenes between the couple – Keechie’s first smile on receiving the gift of a watch from Bowie – whilst Granger’s harder-edged performance just about keeps the film on the right side of being overly sentimental. On the acting front, mention should also be made of Ian Wolfe’s semi-comic turn as the justice of the peace, Hawkins, and from Helen Craig, superbly creepy as Mattie. Overall, I do have a slight preference for Ray’s other outstanding noirs, On Dangerous Ground and In A Lonely Place, but They Live By Night is another impressive example from the director (particularly as a debut film).

They Live By Night (AKA: The Twisted Road) is directed by Nicholas Ray and written by Ray and Charles Schnee who adapt from Edward Anderson's novel Thieves Like Us. It stars Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva & Jay C. Flippen. Produced by John Houseman out of RKO, it's photographed by George E. Diskant and music is by Leigh Harline.Ray's debut feature (it was actually wrapped in 1947) is a potent piece of film noir set during the Great Depression. Story follows Bowie (Granger), a naive young man who escapes from prison with two hardened criminals, Chicamaw (Da Silva) & T-Dub (Flippen), and finds unexpected love in the form of the almost saintly Keechie (O'Donnell). However, he finds that no matter what his good intentions are, crime just wont leave him be and with Keechie in tow, goes on the run to hopefully find a better life.It's a pretty simple story all told, one that has been well represented in film over the years with the likes of You Only Live Once, High Sierra & Gun Crazy. But as simple as the tale is, Ray's film is very much a leading light in the sub-genre of "lovers on the lam" movies. First thing of note is that there's a movement away from the normal characters that had frequented the noir driven crime world up till now. The protagonists here are not gangsters or private investigators, they are thieves, and country folk too. This offers up a different viewing character wise. Admittedly the protagonists are shrouded in classic film noir hopelessness, where the air of desperation hangs heavy throughout, but the characterisation shift gives the simple story a lift.From the outset it's evident that this is an intriguing, even curious, picture. A shot of our loving couple sharing a kiss is accompanied with a title card telling us that they were never properly introduced to the world we live in. A blast of Harline's music startles them and we then cut to an aerial shot (Ray leading the way for helicopter shots) of the three escapee's in the getaway car. In those 30 seconds Ray has managed to convey that his film will be an energetic, yet doom laden, love story. Quite a feat for a fledgling director to be unique right from the off. It's interesting to note that Ray himself said that he wasn't trying to make a film noir movie, he was merely telling a tragic love story. Just another point of reference as to why the film is so fascinating.Be that as it may, They Live By Night pulses with noir blood. From its perpetual moody atmospherics, to the romantic narrative being punctured by moments of violence, it deserves its classic film noir status. 8/10