Dust Be My Destiny

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.

John Garfield stars in "Dust Be My Destiny" from 1939, also starring Priscilla Lane, Alan Hale, Billy Halop, Frank McHugh, Henry Armetta, and John Litel.

Garfield is Joe Bell, who is released from prison when someone else finally confesses to the robbery he was accused of engineering. Riding the rails, he's arrested again and sentenced to a prison farm for 90 days. There he meets 19-year-old Mabel (Lane), and they fall in love.

Mabel's stepfather is a drunk with a bad heart. He catches Joe and Mabel in a clinch; they run. He chases them, has a heart attack, and collapses, dead. Joe is sure it's no use telling the truth - he's going to be accused anyway. He has to go on the run again, this time with a determined Mabel.

Along the way, Joe and Mabel marry. They meet some decent people, and they actually start to settle down. However, another incident makes Joe want to run again, and this time, Mabel has had it with the authorities looking for them.

Good movie, with Garfield and Lane an attractive couple. This was not an unusual role for Garfield, as he often played tough, bitter guys in need of a break. He is very effective. Good performances along the way by Alan Hale and Henry Armetta.

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.

Down on his luck John Garfield finally sees his fortunes improve, and I do mean improve, when he teams up with Priscilla Lane. But the bad luck returns and the two end up on the lam for what turns out to be a pretty good movie.

A few scenes shot on location spice things up a bit and there are some very nice supporting performances as well.

The lead actors, John Garfield and the beautiful Priscilla Lane, work well together, as evidenced in their previous work on Four Daughters and Daughters Courageous.

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!!