Mon 15 Feb 2021
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE (1937)
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[7] Comments
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE. United Artists, 1937. Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon, William Gargan, Jerome Cowan, Chic Sale, Margaret Hamilton, Warren Hymer, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams. Directed by Fritz Lang. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel and other platforms.
An early entry in the “lovers on the run†crime film subgenre, You Only Live Once blends American sentimentalism with German Expressionist fatalism to a largely successful effect. Eschewing the gritty realism of Warner Brothers’ prison films for a more nuanced, psychological portrayal of a man caught up in a Kafkaseque predicament, the movie is too early chronologically to be properly considered a film noir. Nevertheless, it definitely contains numerous thematic elements which would become hallmarks of films noir in the 1940s; first and foremost, a doomed protagonist.
Here, it is ex-convict Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda). He is, as far as the audience can tell, an everyman just trying to get by in a cold world. At first glance, Taylor doesn’t have any particular character traits which would distinguish him from many other men. This is on purpose. But as the film progresses, the audience is made aware of one very salient fact; namely, that his first encounter with the legal system stemmed from an incident with frogs.
But not in the way one might think. As a child, Taylor apparently watched another boy being horribly mistreating a frog. It upset him so much – the cruelty of it all – that he attacked the potential future sociopath. This sent him to on a path no longer of his own making. Shipped off to reform school, Taylor never once was able to get his life on track. All for protecting a helpless creature.
Taylor explains the frog story to his new wife, the electrifyingly innocent Jo Graham (Sylvia Sidney). As he tells her that frogs cannot stand to live alone, the camera pans to a close up of two frogs living side by side. The symbolism may be a little too on your nose, but it works. Eddie and Jo are made for each other. They can’t survive apart.
After Eddie is accused of a bank job that leaves six people dead, Jo does everything she can to support her one true love. But it’s too much for even intrepid public defender Stephen Whitney (Barton MacLane) who is, among other things, her boss. The story contains numerous twists and turns, invoking fatalism at nearly every corner. Just as you think things are going to look up for Eddie, everything goes dark again.
The final fifteen minutes or so of the movie showcases Eddie and Jo reunited for the last time. Lovers on the run, hiding out from the law. But there’s no glamour, no romanticism in their perilous journey through the backroads of a rapidly transforming America. It’s just about surviving day to day. Frogs united together in a cruel, unjust world until the very end.
February 15th, 2021 at 8:29 pm
Lang lifted the bank robbery sequence in this from the one in his silent classic SPIES.
All in all one of his best American films with a strong cast. Sidney was one of the few performers fond of Lang and spoke well of him as a director. She, Joan Bennett, Edward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea, and Dana Andrews seem to be among the few actors willing to work with him more than once.
February 15th, 2021 at 8:55 pm
Besides the two leading players, it was the secondary cast that caught my eye while formatting this review for the blog. Quite a number of well known names.
I will have to watch this. It sounds like a full-fledged noir film to me.
February 15th, 2021 at 9:03 pm
Besides, “M”; (in a class by itself) Lang’s ’36 film with Spencer Tracy (“Fury”) is my all-around favorite Lang work. I always harken to the way the plot hinged on Tracy’s character loving roasted peanuts so much that he always carried some around with him in his pocket. Similar to “In the Hall of the Mountain King” whistled in “M”. Little touches like that make for fine storytelling.
February 15th, 2021 at 9:05 pm
Supporting cast indeed. Chic Sale? Gadzooks. Now that is a name with some history behind it.
February 15th, 2021 at 9:23 pm
Regarding Dana Andrews and Lang. Certainly so that they worked together on pair of projects but both were in decline with nothing much on the table for either — perhaps not quite the dying days of Dana’s career, but Lang’s finish in America, and soon enough elsewhere. The studio was RKO, and that tank was empty, the physical plant to be purchased by Desilu.
February 15th, 2021 at 11:06 pm
At one time in America, Dana Andrews had feverish, fervent fan-clubs all over the country. Young girls sent him thousands of letters each month; vied to be in the forefront of his attention; even though he was married at the time.
February 16th, 2021 at 12:33 am
A great actor and as I understand it, a fine person, but he had an alcohol problem and after some grand films at Fox slowly diminished into minor products, some of which, Night of the Demon, is widely admired. Not by me, and no one went. On the other hand, I loved While the City Sleeps, an all-star cast also just past it, with Lang, likewise.