Load of rubbish!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The public defender's secretary (Sylvia Sidney) and an ex-convict (Henry Fonda) get married and try to make a life together, but a series of disasters sends their lives spiraling out of control.When Fritz Lang came to America, he seemed to specialize in film noir. This was one of his earliest films. Unfortunately, because of the censors, we will likely never get to see his proper vision... as much as fifteen minutes have been cut for violence. Today, these scenes would probably be considered tame or laughable.The film today may be in the public domain (this is unclear), as the available copies are not as crisp as they could be (though not nearly as bad as hey could be, either). The film recorded a loss of $48,045, which is rather startling in retrospect -- how could Lang or Fonda be attached to a box office bomb?

You Only Live Once is directed by Fritz Lang and written by C. Graham Baker and Gene Towne. It stars Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon and William Gargan. Music is by Alfred Newman and cinematography by Leon Shamroy. He has been pounding on the door of that execution chamber since the day he was born. One of Fritz Lang's first American productions is a cracker-jack proto- noir, a leading light (darkly shaded of course) in the sub-genre of fugitive lovers on the lam pictures. Story leans on the legend of Bonnie and Clyde and finds Fonda as three times jailbird Eddie Taylor. After strings are pulled and promises made, Eddie gets released into the arms of his adoring gal, Jo Graham (Sidney). Determined to go straight and settle down with Jo, Eddie finds a society not ready to forgive and forget, worst still, he's old comrades in criminal arms have cooked something up and it's not going to be good news for Eddie. Cue the Romeo & Juliet factor as two lovers love each other so much they will stop at nothing to be together and to try and make the other one happy. Lang brings his expressionistic bent to the tragi noir tale, drifting fogs, mists and spider web shadows across key scenes. Canted angles feature, reflections in a psychological eye also play their part, while the protection of animals theme – and the continuing frog motif - further strengthens the otherworldly – cum - nightmarish aura that so often permeated Lang's movies. The action scenes are deftly marshalled by the director, with a smoke grenade led robbery and a prison escape particularly worthy of luring you to the end of your seat. Lang also gets fine performances from his lead actors, Sidney is not done too many favours by the screenplay, where she is saddled with one of those compliant love interest roles, but she brings a quality to her scenes with Fonda that earns respect. Fonda is great in what is a two- fold role, shifting skilfully between a tender lover to an embittered man, he's a triumphant fulcrum for all the various strands that Lang is weaving together. It has been argued that it's a film that's too morally grey, but as film noir lovers will tell you, this is no bad thing, especially when Lang marries up his superb visuals with alienation, fatalism and pessimism. Historically important to film noir and Lang fans, You Only Live Once is an ambiguous gem. 9/10

I'll start off by saying that this film didn't really do a whole lot for me. It wasn't badly made it just was one of those ones that so graced the 30's that was about how bad the system was and no one could get a fair shake...i.e...the little guy can't win...problem is, this guy in this one over reacts to everything and just about gets what he deserves in the end.Sure in a perfect world the judicial system wouldn't be wrong ever. We don't live in that world. We're suppose to feel sorry for this guy who's a 3 time loser who goes through a few breaks after he gets out of prison but consistently makes bad decisions that get him back in prison. Of course he goes back to prison to get a death sentence for a crime he didn't do.To get him the point he gets to at the end of this film he first gets a job and in the first few days he gets out he decides to stop and look for a house for him and his girlfriend. He doesn't even consider that he's 90 minutes late checking in for his truck route. The boss fires him and he can't get a job. He starts to hang around his old cohort but doesn't go back to his life a crime. His cohort robs an armored car and kills 6 people. This friend of his decides to steal his hat before the crime and it's left at the scene to implicate him.From here on out we get "The Wrong Man" and "Bonnie and Clyde". If you were anything like me you won't feel a bit sorry for Eddie and his girlfriend in the end. It seems like they just walked into all of this by bad decisions.Decent film but it wasn't very moving. Try "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang " or "Each Dawn I Die" for a better look into the wrong man imprisoned. This one's just a time piece with Henry Fonda, Sylvia Sydney and Fritz Lang tied to it. Whether you think it's "Crime doesn't Pay" type of film or even a "Wronged Man" film...it won't matter...just an average watch for me.

This is from a time in which Fritz Lang still wanted (or thought he could) to go on making American films as he was doing them in Germany. We have a theme with social concerns, a useless attack on the morality of the system and prejudice. It's vapid, and it's superficial. Lang was good with manipulating images, with creating powerful scenery that could, by itself, pass a mood, usually an oppressive mood, maybe an advance of what nazism would become and symbolize to western civilization.But here he has to submit to his new environment. In this moment in cinema history the differences Lang might have found were probably in the kind of effective control he lost over the choices in his films. This is an American film, more than an auteur film, and watching this means understanding this fact. The outcome, in this case, is a total mess, i think. There are only a few things worth watching, but even those can be found much better integrated, and thus much more powerful, in other films: one of those things is when we feel Lang was able to create visually. Here we have two particularly interesting moments: one is when Fonda is in a cage waiting for his execution moment to come. The cage is designed for the light to go through and produce the light we see. This is enhanced by the upper position Lang gives to his camera, as he liked to do, in order to give us the sensation of some outer/superior force controlling what's beneath. The other moment is the fog with vultures walking undefined in the prison escape scene. As with the cage, it's a moment of tension and importance in the unimportant plot. I suppose Lang, not being able to cover the whole film with his vision at least tried to hold these moments. These clips are worthwhile, but i've seen them in better contexts.the other thing worth watching is Fonda. Before Marlon Brando, he is one of the few who understood what was necessary for an actor to do in order to make a film work. He is very contained, but he walks, talks, and expresses in a way which is made for the camera, for the film. It's a pleasure to watch him but again, there are better sources for us to understand his qualities My opinion: 1/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com