Wonderful character development!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Please don't spend money on this.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A brief episode, when the young couple on the run visit a roadhouse, features an African-American band and the terrific singer Marie Bryant performing "It's Your Red Wagon". Unusual bit of Southern jazz singng for a 1950s all-white movie. Perhaps it was deliberately meant as a sign that the pair are "slumming", but the script has them enjoying a posh night on the town... the kind of entertainment that was seldom available to working class types like them. It was touching to think of black entertainers, presumably still in Mississipi, being happier and more fortunate than the white characters.

Bowie is a young prisoner escaping from a prison farm with two bank robbers. They are taken in by the Mobleys for a price. Bowie hopes to prove his innocence but must join the others in a bank robbery. He falls for the Mobley daughter, Keechie. After the chaos of the crime, the young love try to start a doomed star-crossed life together.This is a noir of a pair of doomed young lovers. The two leads have an interesting sincerity. They have a youthful innocence but also a world-weariness. They don't come off as movie stars. They seem more real than that. The drama isn't allowed to push too far into melodrama. There is compelling violence and needed consequences. This has a solid noir for its time.

Nicholas Ray made his directorial debut in They Live By Night that's a little bit Romeo and Juliet and a little bit Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie Parker will no way recognize Cathy O'Donnell as herself, but The Bard will no way miss seeing her as Juliet Capulet.As for Farley Granger he was always playing sensitive and misunderstood youths like this one back in his salad days. Ostensibly he starts as an innocent kid convicted for something he didn't do and is looking for money to get a good lawyer to clear himself.A pair of rough customers, Howard DaSilva and Jay C. Flippen break out of their prison farm in Mississippi and as Flippen puts it recognize talent when they see it and he's an investment. If Granger was innocent before he sure isn't now. But the funny thing is that the media concentrate on Granger's baby face good looks and dub him as the gang leader. While Granger heals up from injuries sustained in the escape he does it at Will Wright's farm and gas station where he meets Cathy O'Donnell and it's instant love. But this is passion that will burn hot and fast as this love is no way meant to last.Ray did remarkably well capturing the doomed nature of the relationship and the people. Even viewing it today by someone who never heard of Bonnie&Clyde or even has seen the classic film. There is such an aura of sadness permeating the entire film from start to finish that even though you know it will end bad, you are drawn to these people.They Live By Night is one of Farley Granger's signature roles and a great start for the career of Nicholas Ray.

They Live by Night, Nicholas Ray's directorial debut which he also co-wrote, offers an emotionally powerful storyline with a moody atmosphere film noir is known for. Young, naive and recently out of jail, Bowie (Farley Granger) has to survive robbing banks with experienced accomplices 'One-Eye' Chicamaw and 'T-Dub' Mansfield. Lying low from the police in a gas station, Bowie and Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell), daughter of the gas station owner, bond which develops into a run-away romance following an incident. Though their relationship is threatened by being 'chained' in a continuous struggle between their love and a world of crime.As a film noir They Live by Night goes beyond action-packed violence, tense confrontations and atmospheric settings. They Live by Night's genius was creating a hotbed of complex relationships filled with stirring emotions. Placing these relationships amongst a noir setting resulted in a bittersweet viewing experience because of Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell's chemistry. It was magnificent, both giving their characters a sense of nativity and innocence within their love for each other. Amongst the reputation Bowie receives for his criminality we see his true self, a young man engulfed in misdeeds trying to escape. Whereas Keechie is vulnerable to Bowie's world and inexperienced in general. Yet she is still of giving love wholeheartedly. Bowie and Keechie's journey was heartbreaking to see. These attributes also extended to the secondary characters. Adding to They Live by Night's atmosphere was Bowie's working relationship with Chicamaw and Mansfield. Howard Da Silva and Jay C. Flippen respectively offered a fierce intensity to They Live by Night emphasising Bowie's vulnerability by bossing him around with their hard-boiled nature which is typical of film noir. These tragic and fierce attributes went beyond characterisation. They Live by Night offered appropriate symbolism adding to Bowie and Keechie's dire circumstances. In a memorable scene where Bowie and Keechie are married, it takes place at a cheap chapel and cost $20 for a wedding license. The cheap tackiness is associated with the background Bowie and Keechie were attempting to escape. Wanting to lead suitable lives yet having to sink so low to achieve it. This underlines a depth towards They Live by Night's narrative surpassing into a fully-charged emotional noir.