Review of You Only Live Once (1937) by Adam S — 17 Nov 2011

Following "Fury", Fritz Lang continues his American odyssey into early Film Noir with this tale of doomed lovers on the run, partially inspired by Bonnie and Clyde, with sympathetic bank robber Henry Fonda dragging down sweet innocent Sylvia Sidney when a prison break goes horribly wrong and a priest gets shot.

Fonda, in one of his first starring roles (though Sylvia is top billed), is dynamic playing, in all essence, the good-bad guy, a tough stiff who just can't catch a break in the world, and when he finally does, it's mitigated by ironic circumstances (shrouded in Lang's expressionistic use of fog) leading to murder, and no way out.

Like in "Fury", there's a notion of impending doom and chaos, that no matter which way the characters turn, be it trying to go straight, trying to beat a frame up, or live long enough on the lamb to see your baby born, nothing will work, and I'm sure in 1936, having declined Hitler's invitation to run the German film industry and all it's propaganda efforts, fleeing to France, then America, Lang sympathized with the displaced and unjustly accused, and there's just enough of his home country expressionism to quell the treacly romance with necessary dread.

Lang's American output is problematic, and even this early effort, produced independently by Walter Wanger, was cut down by 20 minutes because of what was thought to be unnecessary violence, but what remains is an occasionally brilliant, occasionally clunky hard luck melodrama, evincing themes of justice, persecution, and the perception of good and bad key to the director's entire canon.