Purely Joyful Movie!

Charming and brutal

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

If not for the inspired casting of George Macready as DA Kerman,I'd give this no more than 5/10.He's just absolutely smoking as the prosecutor.And if he'd been prosecutor in To Kill A Mockingbird,just imagine how that would've been.Pretty Boy Romano is a poor excuse for a man,and Morton,his atty wastes his time trying to get him off murdering a cop.He was given every opportunity to straighten up and fly right,but as usual,the world owed him an apology for his tough life.He seemed to come from an okay family,but he was bound to associate with the wrong type.Morton was his equal in youth,and you can imagine the kind of youth Atty Kerman had in comparison to Morton,but the two were worthy opponents,the difference being that the law was right,and no matter what Morton argued in Romano's defense,it was a lost cause.This really was Macready's film!

The message of this film is very important, and something we can think about today.I will not ruin this plot for those who have not had the time to see it, but I recommend this as one of those 'hard to find' movies from Bogart's large collection.For a thriller, this is the perfect ingredients. You have a good leading man, and a story centered around crime. The ending is one in a million. I disagree with the first review on this page, in no way does this film try to "glorify a hoodlum" the message is something we need to think about today when we see all these gang bangers on the news murdering people. There's a way we can do without all of that. This movie, should be a warning why you should not do those kind of things.

I wasn't expecting THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. I wasn't even expecting REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. But considering (or perhaps not even considering) the fact that the subject matter (juvenile delinquents, rebels, anti-conformity) was close to Nicholas Ray's heart, this is an unfortunately stale effort by one of the best and most important American film directors of the 20th century. Pretty Boy (a.k.a. Nick Romano, played by the perpetually puppy-dog eyed John Derek) grows up hardened and tough in a bad neighborhood on the Columbia Studios backlot. After years of jail terms and a stretch in a reform school, he returns home and falls for Pretty Girl (a.k.a. Emma, played to almost intoxicating sweetness by Allene Roberts). When he can't quit the life of crime, his pregnant wife commits suicide and Romano is put on trial for killing (or perhaps not killing) a cop. Most of his hardship is overseen by attorney Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart, the only lead actor who gives his role at least some intrigue and is therefore the only one who doesn't get the nickname treatment from yours truly), also from the wrong side of the tracks. He doesn't always quite believe that Romano is telling the truth and doesn't approve of his self-pitying ways (neither do I), but nonetheless he takes Romano's case and the battle is fought in the courtroom.I believe that films should stand on their own two feet and not be compared to previous works, but since Nicholas Ray was so clearly trying to recapture the magic of his astonishing debut THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, it's hard not to compare the two; after all the love story between Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl directly parallels Bowie and Keechie's relationship. Both stories involve two young adults from the wrong side of the tracks, a criminal hardened by his tough life and the angelic girl who he marries and briefly finds inner peace with. I never thought that anyone could give a bad performance under Ray's direction, but while Farley Granger was no Montgomery Clift, John Derek is a dime-store version of Granger; at least Granger was able to give a sensitive and genuinely compelling performance under Ray's fatherly direction. Derek goes through the motions but not the emotions that Granger did so effortlessly. And even the ethereal Cathy O'Donnell was smart enough to allude to the toughness earned from years of living in the wrong place; Allenne Roberts captures none of that, only the unbelievable angelic nature. These characters don't echo the complexity of Ray's debut; they are whiny caricatures of people we're supposed to feel sorry for.It's admirable that Humphrey Bogart would want to make a film about social injustice for his first project as a producer (this film was financed by his independent production company Santana), and he even lets most of the light shine on Pretty Boy. However, given Derek's poor performance and Bogart's coy cynicism, his golden integrity just hidden beneath the surface, and his brooding on-screen presence (as preachy as his closing argument is, it is well acted by Bogart), I wished the movie had been more about him, I wished the script not been as black-and-white as Burnett Guffey's cinematography. In trying to cry out for justice, the film just annoyed me with its condescending attitude and simplified message my six-year-old cousin could've caught. I recommend two Nicholas Ray films that are a much more stimulating and thought- provoking experience: the first is THEY LIVE BY NIGHT for reasons already stated. The second is his masterful IN A LONELY PLACE, his second film with Humphrey Bogart--and in this one he *is* in the center stage, featuring probably the most complex and darkest role of his career. I guess one good thing came out of KNOCK ON ANY DOOR: Bogart and Ray, who came from different ways of approaching their jobs, needed one film to get to know each other, how the other one worked. Ray once said that during this film he "took the gun away from Bogart's hands," and by the time they re-teamed for the second and last time, their professional relationship had ripened to friendship. Bogart trusted Ray enough to give a nakedly vulnerable performance in a film which you *SHOULD* look into.

Enjoy all Humphrey Bogart films from "Dead End" to the "Caine Mutiny" and in this film Bogart plays a lawyer, (Andrew Morton) who has grown up in the rough neighborhoods of New York City and even went to prison and became a successful lawyer. Andrew Morton gets involved with John Derek,(Nick Romano) when he was very young and tried to defend and protect him from getting into trouble; however, Nick wound up in reform school and got himself in one jam after another. Nick meets up with a sweet innocent young gal named Emma in a candy Shop she works in and falls in love with her while she was selling him a Carmel candy for only five (5) cents each. This couple get married and Nick finds it hard to find a job after being a crook for so many years and gets blamed for a crime he did not commit. Nick seeks the help of his old friend Andrew Morton to represent him in a cop killing case. The District Attorny is played by George Macready who does his best to convict Nick in a court of law and sentence him to death. Bogart in my opinion did not play this role with any enthusiasm and was not really suited for this role, however, he did have his money invested in this Santana Production Company, which was the same name he used for his own private yacht in real life the "Santana".