Event Details
In person: cartoonist Nathan Gelgud and critic A. S. Hamrah
Before Terrence Malick’s Badlands (1973), before Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967), there was Nicholas Ray’s They Live by Night (1948), a book-to-screen adaptation about young lovers on the run. After busting out of prison, Bowie (Farley Granger) hides out at a filling station owned by a dad with alcoholism and his daughter Keechie (Cathy O’Donnell) and starts knocking off banks with his fellow escapees. After a spending spree leaves Bowie injured and vulnerable to the law, Keechie falls for him, and the couple sets off an ill-fated journey, hopeful for a new life.
In Ray’s remarkable debut feature, classic noir elements blend effortlessly with melodrama to create something entirely new, making They Live by Night a... standout of the period, realized with lived-in dialogue beautifully adapted from Edward Anderson’s source material and shot primarily on location in greater Los Angeles. The film is notable too for its innovative camera techniques and tracking shots, especially in the driving sequences. This warm-up for Rebel Without a Cause (1955) finds Ray arriving on the scene fully formed with a confident and inimitable style.
A favorite of cartoonist Nathan Gelgud and critic A. S. Hamrah, the screening is followed by a conversation about Ray and his oft-overlooked influence on American filmmaking. In a separately ticketed event before the film, Gelgud and Hamrah sign copies of their newest books.
Programmed and note by K.J. Relth-Miller.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
1948 | 95 min | USA | Black-and-white | English | Not Rated | 35mm
DIRECTED BY: Nicholas Ray
PRODUCED BY: John Houseman
WRITTEN BY: Charles Schnee, Nicholas Ray
WITH: Cathy O’Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen