Jeunesse triomphante

Optimism and hope versus cynicism and despair. Depression era tale of a wrongly accused ex-con taking on a society that never seems to give a guy an even break. Although he is given quite a few, fate intervenes and knocks him off his feet.

Broke and running (once again) from a crime he did not commit, this time he has a companion (guardian angel) that understands him and guides, then forces, the troubled soul on a path of belonging to a world that can offer peace and a place to hang their hats.

A very good, if typical, movie that during the depression was a fitting try at uplifting the downtrodden. An idealistic, progressive endeavor from a studio that could deliver a message and a Star that epitomized method acting before there was method acting.

Although at times a bit over written and assuming it is a time capsule that stands the test.

Garfield is excellent as falsely-accused Joe Bell escaping to try to prove his innocence. Priscilla Lane is excellent in a character type she repeated three years later, virtually word-for-word, in Saboteur with Robert Cummings. But, this film stands on its own merits, even without the Hitchcockian camera angles or the Statue of Liberty. It is soulful, well-scripted, and tense.

I highly recommend it.

Poor Joe Bell, the typical anti-establishment loser stereotype role that John Garfield made famous. With the beautiful Priscilla Lane as he girl and the fabuous Warner contract players including the great Allan Hale Sr, the film although predictable, is still a classic of the torn, raw emotions of young love and fighting for vindication against being wrongfully accused of a crime he didn't commit. I have always liked Garfield, especially during the 1948 Senate whitchunt for communists. Garfield wouldn't talk and was blacklisted. This same attitude personified his conviction for the roles he played in most of his films except Humerques. The film contains a haunting melody that is sung on a phonograph record " Dust Be My Destiny" It really sets the theme for the emmotions of both Garfield and Lane that if they can't get a break in their life they might as well be dead! The melody for the tune plays throughout the picture and is aranged and directed by the great Max Steiner. The next time it plays on TCM, do yourself a favor and watch it with a friend!!

A routine John Garfield film that Garfield really didn't even want to do. It starts out with Garfield serving thirteen months in jail for a crime he didn't commit and as soon as he's back on the streets, he gets on a train with two of the dead end kids and winds up getting in a fight with Ward Bond, who is hiding out from the cops. The cops arrest all of them and Bond says Garfield helped him when he committed the crime and he's sent up again for a crime he didn't commit. He's given 90 days on a work farm and he and warden take a disliking for each other immediately. That's when he meets the warden's daughter and there is a lot more plot to the movie but you can find that out for yourself.

John Garfield and Priscilla Lane always made a good team and this is one of their best pictures. Being a Warners film the subject of a young couple in love and on the run is given the gritty treatment that suits the story and the pair do very well in conveying the hardships faced. The wedding scene is particularly well played by both. As with most of the studios films at the time it looks at the problem through the lens of current events and society's ills. Not a timeless classic like Priscilla's Saboteur or Garfield's The Postman Always Rings Twice but a solid film with excellent work by the stars as well as the supporting cast.