Nicholas Ray (best known for Rebel Without a Cause) made his directorial debut with this low budget RKO feature about a young couple on the lamb. Comparisons have been made to Bonnie and Clyde, which are relevant in someways such as the inventive camera work (one of the first films to us a helicopter shot for following an automobile) and the fact that its a 'young couple on the lamb' movie, though these two sweethearts don't actually commit any crimes together. The leads are Farley Granger, a young man whose spent most of his life in prison and just escaped with a couple of fellow inmates, and Cathy O'Donnell the niece of one of Grangers fellow escapees.
The two of course fall in love, its a sweet romance of awkward country virgins whose circumstances are anything but favorable. They split with Grangers share of a Texas bank robbery and travel around the country just trying to stay together. The media has misinterpreted Granger to be the master mind so that only adds to there trouble, they do however take time to stop and get themselves married. The wedding was necessitated by the production code of the time so as to allow for another plot development, O'Donnell's pregnancy. When this comes to light Granger wants to get them to Mexico for safety, espically after his two former compatriots are killed. Of course they never make it and O'Donnell is left a poor young, pregnant widow.
The film can't help but bring to mind Gun Crazy, a much more hard edged, twisted and psychological 'young couple on the lamb' film, which interestingly stared Grangers Rope co-star John Dall. For whatever reason Howard Hughs, president of RKO at the time, sat on the film for two years, though the movie garnered good buzz for Ray and Granger even before its release.
Granger and O'Donnoll have a strong chemistry, he must have known they would as Granger was the one to suggest her as his co-star. Shortly after Nights American release Granger and O'Donnoll were paired together again, this time at MGM in a noir titled Side Street. Filmed largely on location in New York City (an unusual practice for a studio film of the time), Side Street has a basic stock plot of a down-on-his-luck young man who gets in over his head; here in an attempt to steal what he thinks will be just a couple of hundred dollars, Granger ends up with $30,000 and you can bet the crooks he stole it from would like it back.
O'Donnoll doesn't have much to do here, she's pregnant and/or in the hospital for most of the movie (she's really got a lovely face Cathy O'Donnell). There are a number of good character players here to make up for it, including Jean Hagen in a small but memorable part as a gangsters ill fated moll. The cinematography is excellent, all sorts of neat shots, including some very impressive high angle shots that give an extra dimension of 'entrappedness' during the films signature final car chase. The police procedural elements are very Dragnet, but fun and earnest. Two completely solid and rather unique looking noirs.
The Live by Night: B-
Side Street: B-
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