They Live By Night
directed by Nicholas Ray
Countless movies feature lovers on the run, two against the world, a man and woman who as the song goes "have been up and down this highway and haven't seen a goddamn thing." These stories often conclude with one or both of the lovers dying, usually going out in a blaze of glory. The archetype predates film. My earliest exposure to it was in the poem, "The Highwayman". But this stuff is older than dirt.
directed by Nicholas Ray
Countless movies feature lovers on the run, two against the world, a man and woman who as the song goes "have been up and down this highway and haven't seen a goddamn thing." These stories often conclude with one or both of the lovers dying, usually going out in a blaze of glory. The archetype predates film. My earliest exposure to it was in the poem, "The Highwayman". But this stuff is older than dirt.
The star crossed lovers die because fictional or not, the establishment wants to demonstrate the dangers of actual outlawry or socially transgressive actions. I think this story's best modern example is Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde.
Although the titular outlaws weren't as intelligent or decent as the film portrayal, they really did die together in a hail of bullets. Oliver Stone (with an assist from Quentin Tarantino) took the opposite tack in Natural Born Killers, in which the killers are shown to be awful--but somehow cool--people who survive.
These movies all owe something to They Live By Night, Ray's directorial debut. Ray later directed In A Lonely Place. Bowie (Farley Granger-later seen in Strangers on a Train) is an escaped convict, along with the much older convicts T-Dub (Jay Flippen) and one eyed Chicamaw (Howard Da Silva).
The two older men have robbery plans but need a third man. They say Bowie owes them for their protection in prison. I don't want to think too much about what that might mean. Bowie was in prison for felony murder. Bowie insists he didn't kill anyone or know about plans to kill anyone.
The trio temporarily hides out at a gas station/auto shop owned by Chicamaw's brother (Will Wright). T-Dub's sister-in-law Mattie (Helen Craig) meets them there. Her husband, T-Dub's brother, is still incarcerated. Mattie's upset. She wants to get her hubby out and get his cut from future jobs that T-Dub and Chicamaw have lined up.
The primary gas station clerk and secondary mechanic is Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell), Chicamaw's shy niece. Despite herself Keechie starts taking a liking to Bowie.
That's unsurprising because the only other man looking at Keechie is creepy one eyed uncle Chicamaw, whose glances aren't always familial. Bowie feels like he can tell Keechie anything. Bowie desperately needs a woman to talk to and well, you know.
The two, who are depicted as barely more than children, bond together over shared tales of familial woe and a certain naivete that they each see in each other though they guard it from other people.
Bowie thinks crime is the way to get enough money to hire an attorney to prove his innocence of murder. Keechie disagrees. When a job goes wrong Keechie convinces Bowie to leave with her. The couple gets married. Bowie and Keechie do their best to live on the road and off the grid.
But the past can catch up with people. This acting was melodramatic but given that the two leads are supposed to be crazy kids in LOVE for the very first time I guess that's ok.
The better person that Bowie becomes the more danger he's in from both the authorities and the underworld. The film teased the frustrations that Keechie and Bowie have even as they claim to be completely content. But when they are traveling by night they are 100% in tune with each other and the universe. This film has an elegiac character. True love may exist but does it conquer all? CLIP
