"They Live by Night" is the first feature directed by Nicholas Ray ("Rebel Without a Cause") and with this one he entered the scene like gangbusters. This is a small story about two star crossed lovers, Bowie (Farley Granger) and Keechie (Cathy O'Donnel) whose paths cross when Bowie and some other cons (Chicamaw "One-Eye" Mobley and Henry T-Dub Mansfield) break out of prison and hole up in the house of Chicamaw's brother (the brother is just called Mobley, he's the father of Keechie). I suppose you could say this is a story of nurture versus nature but it's much more than that. Ray has created a world of outcasts, characters cast off by society. For the most part, these are characters hardened by the world they've grown up in. "One-Eye" and his brother frequently escape into the bottle. T-Dub is tender one moment and despicable the next. Bowie, all 23 years of him, was sent to prison at the age of 16. He was a carnie, got mixed up with the wrong crowd, the wrong scheme, resulting in a murder. He's a good kid for the most part but he, like most characters in these noirs, cannot outrun his past. Just like the previous film in this series, "Night And The City" he finds a woman that loves him and, ultimately, will be devastated by him. Unlike the main guy from "Night And The City", Bowie might actually deserve that love. The problem is starting over was never going to an option for him, especially once things start to circle the drain.
The unique thing about this picture is the sympathy Ray seems to have for most of these characters. You can make the argument, I suppose, that Chicamaw and "T-Dub" (the names in this thing!) are the true villains but I don't think that one holds much water. The villain seems to be the society that has born out these misfits and then, later, tries to destroy them. The film opens with our three escaped cons hijacking a car and, later, abandoning it after it breaks down. They savagely beat the driver (the beating obscured by the car itself -- I assumed they killed him, later revealed he lived) and make off on foot. Bowie, with a broken foot at this point, is left underneath a billboard where he awaits rescue (his two cohorts make off for Chicamaw's brothers house where some money awaits). Later that night a car appears to bring Bowie back, a car driven by Keechie. They banter a bit but mostly Bowie wants and needs to rest. Back at the house, a plan is hatched. They'll rob another bank in the neighboring town. T-Dub's sister in-law (Mattie -- a wonderful Helen Craig) gets involved. She'd like some money to help get her husband out of jail. They all have their motives. Bowies plan is to secure some money, hire a lawyer, and overturn what he believes was an unjust conviction. He's an idealist. He truly wants a new start. He's not the smartest guy in the room.
The robbery goes pretty well. Until the car carrying both Chicamaw and Bowie has an accident (caused by a drunken Chicamaw). Chicamaw shoots a police officer that stops to investigate the accident (another brutal act of violence that takes place on the other side of the car, obscuring the viewer from the killing -- This film is really well shot). So now our escaped convicts have a murder on their hands. The murder of a police officer. Not something any of these guys can overcome. Chicamaw drops Bowie off with Keechie and then flees with T-Dub. Keechie keeps Bowie hidden for a while and then they start talking...and fall in love. It happens pretty fast. He still talks about moving to a new town, getting a fresh start and living the life of a good person. She buys into it wholesale. They hit the road. At first by bus. We see some good in Bowie as they make their getaway, in the way he calms a screeching baby on the bus, the fun dialogue he and Keechie share, the sad dialogue they share ("I wish we could take a chance, go into town and see a movie together. I've always wanted to hold hands with a girl at a movie"), but these moments are too often broken by reality (upon re-boarding the bus, to Keechie "do you mind sitting by the window"?).
What we got here is a Bonnie & Clyde type deal, lovers on the run from the law and also the past. Along the way they even get married ("Twenty dollars for a wedding? Oughta be a law" -- Bowie). They weigh their options ("I've always wanted to see a big city" but then again that Justice of the Peace did speak fondly of Mexico?). They settle on a town, even make fun of people in unison (look at those butts bob up and down on the horses), hit the local nightclub where, again, reality smacks them in the face. Not the law. The gangsters in town make Bowie immediately, tell him to leave by midnight. They don't need more heat than they're already producing, themselves. He's famous apparently. Regionally famous is still famous. The local newspapers referring to him as "Bowie the Kid". So, what choice is there but to leave? They do. News travels fast but maybe this new car they bought can travel faster.
The character of Mattie is set up as a villain but she's not that all all, in the end. She just wants her husband back. Her "villainy" brought on by circumstance and desperation. When Bowie and Keechie show up, begging her for a place to stay she relents. The cops have their mitts all over her, however, and her betrayal, while awful, is understandable. The lead detective, upon presenting her with the deal (trade in Bowie for her husband) is perplexed by the look on her face ("everyone always has that look when they make this choice"). Again, there are no bad characters in this picture. The baddest character is probably Chicamaw. His fate occurred offscreen, involved a failed liquor store robbery. Ultimately destroyed by his main vice. I don't know, not much else to say about this one. I'm not sure I've said much of anything, to be honest. I enjoyed it and was moved by it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit choked up by the way this thing wrapped up like "Night and the City" with a man done in by fate and the woman that loved him (a noble, earned love unlike "Night") broken by fate. "Night and the City" is the better picture but this is certainly the more human one.
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