For You I Die

Another in the list of solidly made B movies, FOR YOU I DIE is very much worth seeking out. This taut little Film Noir has good actors and a fine, dark atmosphere. Paul Langton is excellent as down-and-out Johnny Coulter, newly escaped from prison, but basically a decent guy. His companion, seen briefly in the film's shadowy opening, is Mac (Rory Mallinson), a hard-as-nails con-type who instructs Johnny to head alone to the restaurant where Mac's girlfriend Hope works. Nervous Johnny arrives and is immediately misled by floozy Jane Weeks as Georgie, who pretends to be Hope in order to seduce handsome Johhny. As the real Hope (symbolic name, no doubt), Cathy Downs is a standout, avoiding all the good-girl clichés and creating a believable character. Other very good performers in the film are Marion Kerby, Mischa Auer and Roman Bohnen. These actors give their all in what was most likely just a low-budget production. Director John Reinhardt keeps the pace fast and the details interesting, and William Clothier does some nice things with obscure, Noir lighting effects. A top-notch minor Noir, whose theme is the enjoyment of what life offers for free.

Actually, For You I Die is kind of a sweet movie, though very low budget, directed by John Reinhardt. The biggest name in the cast is Mischa Auer, though Cathy Downs became well known in sci-fi circles and Paul Langton became known on the TV show Peyton Place.

Langton plays Johnny, a prison trustee with one year left on his sentence when he is forced to take part in a prison escape. The convicts separate - Matt (Don C. Harvey), the ringleader, sends Johnny to a road house where his girlfriend Hope (Downs) works with a message for her.

Upon arriving, Johnny mistakes the floosie-ish Georgie (Jane Weeks) and identifies himself. But then he realizes that the girlfriend is Hope, which surprises him as she doesn't seem the type to have the coarse Matt as a boyfriend.

Hope has found a home at Maggie's, as have some others. Maggie (Marian Kirby) is maternal and caring. Soon Hope and Johnny fall in love. The police, also Maggie's patrons, haven't recognized him, but Johnny knows he is on borrowed time, and Matt will be showing up any day.

Wish it had been better directed with more money behind it. It had some good elements and nice acting. Mischa Auer provides the comedy.

This is one of those great B-features with only B-actors that achieve a better result than most A-features. The acting is perfectly natural and convincing, the story Is as fascinating and sustained as any noir, and this is yet another testimony of the fact, that the art of the film reached in the noir genre a higher level of sustained drama and quality than almost any other cinema genre. To this is added the very special quality of Mischa Auer, a great comedian with dark undertones, who here as usual shows off his musical abilities. The music of the film is surprisingly good, there is even an excellent performance by Cathy Downs with castanets, dancing to Schumann's "Aufschwung" played on a primitive gramophone but nevertheless conducted by Mischa Auer. This is a great minor thriller, and just the beginning promises in its very dramatic tension something of a classic. It is minor, but nevertheless outstanding.

Its basically the old story of some prisoners on the run but manages to rise above what you would expect. The leads, little known Paul Langton and beautiful smoky-voiced Cathy Downs, are terrific together and deliver quality performances. All of the acting is generally good and as the film progresses you will get interested in the characters and what happens to them.

Much is said about the darkness of the film's available prints but it takes place mostly at night and to me the dark nature of the story is suitable for old faded dark film stock, but yes it does need a good restoration someday. The copy I bought was viewable and good enough.

Somehow this film, rather than the usual claustrophobic look of many studio-bound cheaply made films of the era, has managed to convert the closeness and night into an intimacy and immediateness that uses the "smallness" to its advantage. Very few small films are able to achieve this.

Taught and well-acted by an ensemble cast, "For You I Die" breaks out of the black and white cheapie mold and is far above being just another obscure second bill throwaway.

Very classic film noir,but with interesting characters:Marian Kirby , as the matronly owner of an eating-house , who acts like a mom for two losers;ditto for Ronan Bohnen as Smitty , who left his family and whose solitude has become too hard to bear ; Cathy Downs is the next-door girl , the gentle but determined girl Teresa Wright style ; she too ,has a racy past ,and she winds up in Maggie's restaurant to forget it. Paul Langton is a convict forced to escape willy nilly because an inmate "stuck a gun in his guts" ; he soon considers Maggie -who calls him "son"- his mother ;both Hope (what a well-chosen first name) and johnny are losers and think that their love is already doomed ; they go out on a limb because Matt , the other convict ,is Hope's former evil genius and may return any day now to find back his girl .It all begins in a sewer ,where Paul and Matt hide from the police; the ending seems a little hurried and botched, but it's a low budget movie ,and it generally makes the best of it.