They Live by Night

Arthur "Bowie" Bowers, a 23-year-old serving a prison sentence for a murder he committed at the age of 16, escapes from prison with two older bank robbers, Chicamaw and T-Dub. The men take shelter with Chicamaw's brother, who operates a service station, and niece Catherine "Keechie" Mobley, who works there. Hoping to also free his incarcerated brother Robert, T-Dub concocts a plan to rob a bank and use the funds to hire a lawyer to prove a wrongful conviction.^[5]

The robbery goes smoothly. However, shortly after Bowie crashes his car, Chicamaw kills a police officer who had arrived at the scene. Chicamaw leaves an injured Bowie in the care of Keechie and joins T-Dub in another town. The sheepish Keechie swiftly grows fond of Bowie, who is also shy. They bond over their lack of experience in the world and soon develop a romance. Meanwhile, the press reports heavily on Bowie, wrongly pinning him as the ringleader of the robbery. Bowie and Keechie leave town by bus. Late one night, they find a chapel that performs quick marriages for $20. Bowie asks Keechie to marry him, and she agrees. Hawkins, the local justice of the peace, performs the ceremony and sells the couple a convertible car.

Bowie and Keechie travel to a remote mountain resort where Keechie once stayed during her childhood and rent a cabin there, dreaming living openly together. Chicamaw arrives at the resort after tracking the couple there. He has gambled away his money and wants Bowie to help him and T-Dub commit another robbery. Bowie reluctantly agrees, but Keechie, fearing that Bowie will be killed, gives him his Christmas gift early, a wristwatch. The three men commit another robbery, but T-Dub is killed. Bowie and Chicamaw flee the scene by car. While driving, Bowie learns from a drunken Chicamaw that he is jealous of all the press attention that Bowie and Keechie have received. Bowie eventually forces Chicamaw out of the car at gunpoint.

When Bowie returns to the resort, he learns that Chicamaw was killed in a liquor-store robbery. In radio broadcasts, Bowie is again described as the ringleader of the robbery. Keechie reveals that she is pregnant. The couple depart the resort and head east, traveling mainly at night to not be seen. However, they spend a leisurely time in public, visiting a park and then a nightclub. In the club, Bowie is recognized by a gangster who orders him to leave town. Bowie suggests escaping to Mexico, and Keechie agrees.

Keechie becomes very ill, and they seek refuge at a motel owned by Mattie, T-Dub's sister-in-law. Mattie reluctantly allows them to stay. Bowie visits Hawkins, seeking help to cross the border, but Mattie reluctantly strikes a deal with police to identify Bowie's location in exchange for the release of her convicted husband Robert. Hawkins tells Bowie that he is unable to help him, and Bowie returns to the motel and informs Mattie that he will leave by himself to ensure the safety of Keechie and their unborn child. Mattie is wracked with guilt over her deal with the police but urges that Bowie say a final goodbye to Keechie, hoping to delay him long enough for the police to arrive. He agrees and writes a farewell letter to bring to Keechie. As he is about to enter the cabin, police descend on the scene, provoking Bowie to draw a gun. In response, the police fire, killing Bowie. Keechie, kneeling over Bowie's dead body, reads the farewell letter.

The novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson had been acquired by RKO in 1941 for $10,000 (equivalent to $207,100 in 2023^[3]). Numerous writers unsuccessfully tried to adapt the story as a screenplay. According to producer John Houseman, "I found the book and gave it to Nick to read, and he fell madly in love with it–as indeed I did, but Nick particularly was very familiar with that territory. He'd been there when he worked with the Lomaxes, he'd been there when he worked for the Department of Agriculture, and so on. And that whole Depression stuff was terribly his stuff. So he sat down and wrote the treatment. I'd come home at night and we'd go over it; I'd edit it a little, that's all, and it was very, very good."^[6] Houseman, who had considerable authority as a producer, repeatedly submitted treatments created by novice director Nicholas Ray.

RKO saw no commercial value in the story, especially because Ray lacked experience as a director. In early 1947, producer Dore Schary became RKO's production chief, hoping to transform it into Hollywood's most adventurous studio. Schary read Ray's treatment and signed Ray to a studio contract.

Houseman hired Charles Schnee to write the screenplay, but Houseman did not want Schnee to alter Ray's treatment. Ray and Schnee worked together to adapt the treatment into a completed script, which was submitted to RKO in May 1947.

Houseman arranged for Farley Granger to test for RKO, and Ray was convinced that he had found Bowie. Granger suggested Cathy O'Donnell for the female lead part. Both Granger and O'Donnell were under contract to Samuel Goldwyn and had limited acting experience. Granger had appeared in just two films before his World War II service, while O'Donnell had just made the classic The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Ray insisted on the casting of Granger and O'Donnell. Granger later said: "Ray and John Houseman were among the few people who fought for me in my career. They said no, we will not make the film without him. When Nick believed in you, he was very loyal."^[7] In his autobiography, Granger listed They Live by Night among his favorite films.^[8]

Many of the supporting cast and minor characters were played by friends of Houseman and Ray. RKO contract player Robert Mitchum wanted the part of Chicamaw, but as he was a rising star who had recently received an Oscar nomination, RKO deemed the role of a bank robber unfit for him. The role of Chicamaw went to Howard Da Silva, who had made an impression in Marc Blitzstein's musical The Cradle Will Rock (1937), produced by Houseman. Other minor roles were played by people whom Ray knew from the New York theater, including Marie Bryant from Beggar's Holiday as a nightclub singer, Curt Conway and Will Lee, who would later play Mr. Hooper on the children's television series Sesame Street.

Filming began on June 23, 1947, with the opening scene, a tracking shot of Bowie, T-Dub and Chickamaw escaping from prison in a stolen car. The action sequence was filmed from a helicopter, making They Live by Night the first major studio production to do so, predating James Wong Howe's celebrated final helicopter shot in Picnic by eight years. Four takes were required, and the second take was used in the final cut.

As Orson Welles had done in his directorial debut, Citizen Kane (1941), also made at RKO for Houseman, Ray experimented with sound and cinematography. Ray's biographer noted: "Only Welles similarly tried to define acoustic and even verbal textures as much as the visual."^[9] Renowned film editor Sherman Todd also urged Ray to experiment and defy convention. Exteriors were filmed both on location and at RKO's movie ranch in Encino, but Todd's editing blended the sequences well.

Filming completed in October 1947. Despite an excellent preview, RKO was unsure about how to market the film and studio head Howard Hughes shelved it for two years before releasing it to a single theater in the UK to enthusiastic reviews. The film was finally released in the U.S. in November 1949 under the title They Live by Night rather than the source novel's title of Thieves Like Us. The title was determined by audience poll and was favored by Hughes.

The film recorded a loss of $445,000 (equivalent to $5.7 million in 2023^[3]).^[10]

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther called They Live by Night a "commonplace little story" and wrote: "Although it—like others—is misguided in its sympathies for a youthful crook, this crime-and-compassion melodrama has the virtues of vigor and restraint ... 'They Live by Night' has the failing of waxing sentimental over crime, but it manages to generate interest with its crisp dramatic movement and clear-cut types."^[11]

The film was issued on Blu-ray and DVD by the Criterion Collection in August 2017.^[12]

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to They Live by Night.

• They Live by Night at IMDb
• They Live by Night at AllMovie
• They Live by Night at the TCM Movie Database
• They Live by Night at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Collection of reviews on the film at Indiewire
• 2002 Article on film at Senses of Cinema
• They Live by Night: Dream Journey an essay by Bernard Eisenschitz at the Criterion Collection