Avaliações de usuários

Upon release from prison an ex-con (Henry Fonda) tries to go straight and start a decent life with his new wife (Sylvia Sidney). However, he is sacked by his former employer and increasingly desperate considers returning to a life of crime.

An impressive film with excellent direction by Fritz Lang who brings his unusual camera angles to bear on a bleak story. The film is said to be somewhat inspired by Bonnie and Clyde, but more than anything is an interesting exploration of how fate and circumstance can lead to disaster and tragedy. Moving at a crisp pace the film delivers plenty of suspense and surprises as Fonda is framed for murder not long after his release and, interestingly not long after he is fired, threatens to return to his miscreant ways. This keeps the viewer guessing as to whether Fonda's proclamations of innocence are true when he is arrested. The film is quite bleak for its time and contains quite an uncharacteristic performance from Fonda as a man desperate and disgusted by the callous treatment given him by society. Fonda doesn't entirely convince, but the film is still very good.

Joan Graham (Sylvia Sidney) is the efficient secretary of a public defender Stephen Whitney (Barton MacLane) and is in love of the smalltime criminal Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda). Her boss and friend Stephen helps Eddie to leave the prison on probation, Eddie promises to have a straight life and immediately get married with Joan. He finds a job as truck driver, but is unfairly fired on his first day. While trying to find another job, there is a heist in a bank with six victims and Eddie is accused. Joan convinces him to go to the court and prove his innocence, but based on circumstantial evidence and prejudice of the jury, Eddie is sentenced to the electric chair. On the night of his execution, the FBI finds the real criminal and Eddie grants an indulgence. However, Eddie is trying to escape from prison in a hostage situation, and kills his friend Father Dolan (William Gargan), who was trying to help him. Eddie meets Joan and together they try to reach the border and escape from justice.

"You Only Live Once" is the second American movie of Fritz Lang and a tragic melodrama. The depressive story of love and prejudice discloses a tough criticism to a very unfair, corrupt and hostile society, where losers do not have the chance to recover their dignity and common people are corrupt. The screenplay is visibly influenced by Bonnie and Clyde, who died on 23 May 1934, ambushed in their getaway car - therefore less than three years before the release date of this film. Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney show a great chemistry in good performances in this minor movie of this great director. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Vive-se Uma Só Vez" ("You Only Live Once")

Fritz Lang did a great job with this well-acted, uniquely photographed drama from the '30s. It's not anything to see if you're looking for a lift, though. Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney, so young it's unbelievable, play a husband and wife escaping the law. Sidney is a secretary who falls in love with a convict and marries him as soon as he gets out of prison. He's a three-time felon and has a tough time getting back into society. Ultimately, he's convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to death row. He escapes with Sidney and they become sort of a Bonnie and Clyde on the run for the Canadian border.

There are some plot problems, for instance, how Fonda got the gun in order to escape. Also, the boss at the trucking firm where he works is over the top in his dislike for Fonda and refuses to give him another chance.

The acting is very intense from both Sidney and Fonda. Looking at the young Fonda, one can really see where Jane got her looks. This isn't a big film, nor is it a happy one, but it's worth seeing.

Joan Graham is the secretary for Stephen Witney, an honest and dedicated public defender, who succeeds in doing something he would almost rather not do: get Joan's sweetheart, Eddie Taylor, out of prison. Eddie is a good man, but Joan's sister, Bonnie, and Stephen both agree that he is no good for Joan. Eddie was born trouble. Joan and Eddie get married and set out to prove the naysayers wrong. Eddie gets a good, steady job as a truck driver; but a series of disasters sends his life spiraling out of control and the fiercely loyal Joan's along with it.

Fritz Lang directs this hard-hitting melodrama and, as always, fills it with striking images. The shot of Eddie (Henry Fonda) in his cell, with the shadows of the bars reaching out to meet the bored and uninterested guard, stands out. The shots of a wide-eyed and desperate Fonda asking Joan (Sylvia Sidney) for a gun are a triumph for Lang, Fonda and Lang's cinematographer, Leon Shamroy. Lang also gets excellent work out of his editor, Daniel Mandell, who helps Lang to juxtapose images in a suggestive way, e.g. the shots of the frogs with shots of Joan and Eddie.

Standing back from the film and looking at is as a whole makes it something of a marvel. We begin with light comedy, proceed to an adorable romance and then follow the characters as their lives - and the film itself - grows steadily darker.

You Only Live Once is directed by Fritz Lang and written by C. Graham Baker and Gene Towne. It stars Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon and William Gargan. Music is by Alfred Newman and cinematography by Leon Shamroy.

He has been pounding on the door of that execution chamber since the day he was born.

One of Fritz Lang's first American productions is a cracker-jack proto- noir, a leading light (darkly shaded of course) in the sub-genre of fugitive lovers on the lam pictures. Story leans on the legend of Bonnie and Clyde and finds Fonda as three times jailbird Eddie Taylor. After strings are pulled and promises made, Eddie gets released into the arms of his adoring gal, Jo Graham (Sidney). Determined to go straight and settle down with Jo, Eddie finds a society not ready to forgive and forget, worst still, he's old comrades in criminal arms have cooked something up and it's not going to be good news for Eddie. Cue the Romeo & Juliet factor as two lovers love each other so much they will stop at nothing to be together and to try and make the other one happy.

Lang brings his expressionistic bent to the tragi noir tale, drifting fogs, mists and spider web shadows across key scenes. Canted angles feature, reflections in a psychological eye also play their part, while the protection of animals theme – and the continuing frog motif - further strengthens the otherworldly – cum - nightmarish aura that so often permeated Lang's movies. The action scenes are deftly marshalled by the director, with a smoke grenade led robbery and a prison escape particularly worthy of luring you to the end of your seat.

Lang also gets fine performances from his lead actors, Sidney is not done too many favours by the screenplay, where she is saddled with one of those compliant love interest roles, but she brings a quality to her scenes with Fonda that earns respect. Fonda is great in what is a two- fold role, shifting skilfully between a tender lover to an embittered man, he's a triumphant fulcrum for all the various strands that Lang is weaving together. It has been argued that it's a film that's too morally grey, but as film noir lovers will tell you, this is no bad thing, especially when Lang marries up his superb visuals with alienation, fatalism and pessimism.

Historically important to film noir and Lang fans, You Only Live Once is an ambiguous gem. 9/10

In Fritz Lang's second American movie, 1937's "You Only Live Once" (not twice), Sylvia Sidney, aka "the Face of the Depression," plays what must be the loyalist girlfriend/wife in screen history. Her man, three-time loser Eddie Taylor (played by a pre-"Grapes" Henry Fonda), has just been released from prison, and wastes little time getting himself into all sorts of trouble again. But Sylvia is all forgiveness, and even takes it on the lam with him in her gravid condition, in one of Hollywood's earliest instances of criminal lovers on the lam...a genre that would later produce such classics as "They Live By Night" (1949), "Gun Crazy" (1949), "Badlands" (1973) and, of course, 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde." Although "You Only Live Once" creaks a bit here and there, I must say that this in one very involving film. Sidney and Fonda make a marvelous team, and it is nice to see Barton MacLane playing a nice guy for a change, instead of his usual growling bully. Lang's roots in German expressionism are evident here, as shown particularly in the design of Fonda's isolated prison cell, during a fog-enshrouded prison break, and in that final, heavenly shot. The film is a bit bleak and depressing, as decent characters fight futilely against their fates, but the filmmakers leave little doubt whose side they're on. And, to its credit, the film shows very vividly how dangerous it can be to give in to the temptation to purchase a pack of smokes! Oh...this DVD is in fair condition at best, revealing a damaged print source, and with zero extras to speak of. If ever a film warranted a restoration...

Director Fritz Lang helms this well mounted drama of a struggling couple. Henry Fonda is a petty crook attempting to reform when he is framed on a murder charge. He eventually breaks out of prison and tries to escape to Canada with his wife (Sylvia Sidney) only fate seems to be against them. A nice blend of drama and romance with Fonda and Sidney most impressive in the starring roles. The fine supporting cast includes William Gargan, Barton MacLane, Margaret Hamilton, and Ward Bond. Unfortunately this gem of 1937 is not available on video and is seldom shown on TV anymore.

This is quite a well known film with Henry Fonda playing three time loser Eddie Taylor. Much of the plot is improbable, indeed the prison bust-out is Fantasy Island stuff because even in the 1930s security for a man under sentence of death in the United States was an order of magnitude stronger than depicted here, but this is a film that was clearly produced as a social document as much as for entertainment.

Eddie Taylor is a most unappealing character, one whom even an actor of Fonda's stature cannot inject with empathy, added to which if he'd had so much as a shred of decency he would never have dragged down his girl with him, would probably not have married her in the first place. Nevertheless, the question remains, how does society deal with even the repentant habitual criminal? Seventy and more years on, little if anything has been done to address that problem, certainly in America with its enormous prison population and the continued destruction of unskilled jobs which reduce almost to nothing the prospects of the underclass – criminal or otherwise – of making an honest living.

A Fritz Lang film starring Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda sounds like it can't miss. But it does. People react so absurdly that the story is just not believable. A trucker fires Fonda without any rational reason. Fonda is convicted of heinous murders only because a hat with his initials is at the scene of the crime. (No wonder Lang doesn't show the trial on screen.) A miraculous gun followed by any even more miraculous pardon. And then the epitome of inexplicable actions: Fonda callously murders the only person besides Sylvia Sidney that he loves and trusts! Please! This is just a bad movie. Maybe in 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, it was accepted. But today, it's a joke despite its director and stars.

Not a movie to see if you're feeling depressed. Arguably, this is the darkest entry in the doomed lovers genre, and also one of the most affecting. Three-time loser Eddie (Fonda) and his pregnant wife (Sidney) are on the run after killing a priest, and after Eddie has tried his best to go straight in the face of a hostile, uncaring society. As the fog closes in, the tender couple tries to make their way to the border and freedom. What they get instead is freedom of a different kind.

Anyone doubting that cinema is basically a medium of manipulation needs to examine this grim masterpiece of early noir. From an irresistibly tearful Sidney to an unyielding fate to a relentlessly bleak photography, we're caught up in Lang's carefully crafted artistic vision. The parts fit together inexorably, driving the lovers and us toward an inevitable conclusion. The only visual missing is an onrushing train. In my book, the movie's one of the purest examples of how visual artistry can overcome plot contrivance, for there are an unfortunate number of the latter.

Too bad the sad-faced Sidney is largely forgotten. It's really her marvelously expressive range that registers the tragedy and moves the audience. Far from glamorous, her talent remains nonetheless unusually poignant. All in all, the movie's in the same league as the transcendent They Live By Night (1947), and stands as possibly the polar opposite of the giddy Bonnie And Clyde (1967). In my little book, it's Lang's most compelling American film, despite the relative obscurity.

A bit over rated, this one, I think. It certainly takes a while to get going, is a bit sentimental and has plenty of plot holes. However, this is an early noir and being of lasting influence was certainly one of Mr Lang's traits.

Some of the shots are as stunning as they are surprising and things are not overly explained, it's just that some stretches seem a little flat. Whilst I can see much of the early scenes are to make the later consequences more poignant but seventy years on these can appear ponderous.

Take nothing away for the last twenty minutes or so, though, plus the superb and heavily ironic prison yard scene.

The sad and unfortunate life of a couple living in the Great Depression era that becomes involved into a spiral of distresses with fateful results . The exiled German director Fritz Lang gives a nice fim in his American stay , following the debut with "Fury" starred by Spencer Tracy, later to become master in all kinds of genres . This is the story of an innocent man, Henry Fonda, accused for arson , he is an ex-convict who is helped by his girlfriend : Sylvia Sidney , and eventually both of whom escape .

A stirring and moving drama with an adorable love story , though some date and glum. It results to be a peculiar variation on a Bonnie and Clyde theme , though the latter were a real criminals , this couple Fonda/Sidney turns out good-natured and kind people . Here there is a feeling of deep sadness and distress, as well as inevitability of doom that was never more compellingly captured than in this exciting . Henry Fonda gives a nice acting as an ex-con wants to mend himself his ways and attempts to cross into Canada along with his sweetheart very well played by Sylvia Sidney . They are stunningly accompanied by William Gargan, Barton MacLane , Margaret Hamilton, Big Boy Williams , Jean Dixon , among others .

This shattering motion picture with brilliant cinematography by Leon Shamroy , was poignantly and competently directed by the master Fritz Lang , being impressively scripted by Graham Baker . It results to be Fritz Lang's second Hollywood film , after his German career that includes titles as "Metropolis" , "Crimes of Dr Mabuse" , "Woman in the Moon" , "Sigfried" , "Destiny" , "Spiders" . After his consolidated German career and due to Nazi uprising , he established in America where shot a lot of films with considerable successes , such as "Return of Frank James" , "Western Union" , "Hangmen also Die" , "Woman in the Window" , "Ministry of Fear", "Scarlet Street" , "Cloak and dagger" , "Secret beyond the Door" , "Rancho Notorious" , "Clash by night", "The Big Heat" , "Moonfleet", "Human Desire", "When the city Sleeps" , "Beyond a resonante doubt" , among others . Rating 7/10 . Worthwhile seeing .

This film is the perfect definition of a masterpiece. A good story (not so different from others of the same period) perfectly developed by Lang, restless, intense, beautifully played by the characters, with a memorable end.

I will always remember the image of Henry Fonda (outstanding as ever!) blaming of his fate to Sylvia Sydney just by looking at her and framed by the little window of the visiting room of the prison; it reminded me to the speechless films of Lang where all the dialogues were replaced by the looking of the characters. No words and so much being told: pure art.

Henry Fonda adds a lot of presence to this film, and it's interesting to see on an individual level how he's progressed as an actor from decade to decade in the roles he's played and the way he's been utilized as a protagonist.

This film is fine. It's a bit bleak indeed and it seems the emphasis is on the wrongs of young, responsibility-free love; how love may not always be fulfilled and experienced the right way when it is so passionate it derails from its natural path.

Fritz Lang was known for his visual artistic vision and it shows here as some still-frames have a soul of their own and illustrate the aesthetics of the individual scenes a bit further, although they're nothing quite magical, they're nice touches added to the overall visual aspect.

The story is fine, the characters are globally well written and bring their own purpose to the plot. But overall, understandably for its time but still, there is a predictability and inevitability about it that are quite chronic throughout the whole picture, and that does tarnish the experience.

You Only Live Once (1937)

Ah, to see such a simple, moving, constantly changing drama with a criminal undertone (or overtone) is a treat. This isn't quite from the Warner Brother heyday in the early 1930s, where the form was established and made dark and really fast. But this is pre-film noir, strictly speaking, forming a bridge between the two worlds. In fact, like Stagecoach two years later, this is a daring William Wanger production, going out on a limb, and using brilliant German director Fritz Lang for an essentially American drama.

The innocent man fighting for his life, the loving woman who will do anything to help, the evil or doubtfully trustworthy authorities of every kind, the kindly defense lawyer, and the priest, all are archetypes used before but mixed together with brilliance. If there is a clunky moment or two, there is just one or two, and the whole thing is mostly bracing and quite beautiful. It's also a fairy tale, of sorts, the kind of moral fable where you sort of know the ending but don't mind because it's point is so beautiful.

Henry Fonda is here presaging his famous "breakout" roles in "Jezebel," "Young Mr. Lincoln," and "Grapes of Wrath," and his love-interest, Sylvia Sidney, is known for a role she had just finished in "Sabotage." Both are spot on perfect. And as their involvement goes through some surprises, it turns into a kind of "They Live by Night," which you should also see. The whole idea of two people in love against the world, which doesn't understand them, is as poignant and lasting as it gets, and Lang, whatever his usual dark sentiments, lets this part of it shine through, too.

One of Fritz Lang's (M/Metropolis) first American efforts from 1937 has Henry Fonda & Sylvia Sydney as a couple getting into dire straits. Fonda has just gotten out of stir & marries his best girl Sydney. Hoping to lead the straight & narrow he gets a job as a truck driver but due to his tendency to arrive late, gets fired after the couple have moved into a new residence. Distraught on how his forward motion has been throttled, Fonda falls back on his wayward ways by rejoining up w/his old gang to pull some jobs but unfortunately one job results in six people being killed & he's blamed for the deaths. Fonda returns to prison w/a death sentence over his head but then he manages to escape w/a smuggled gun reuniting w/Sydney as they become fugitives w/the authorities hot on their tails. What would've worked as a more streamlined narrative gets lost in occasional bouts of histrionics as the story heads to its lockstep conclusion draining the air out of the piece in light of better films, High Sierra w/Humphrey Bogart made four years later is one example, shows a similar yarn told in a better circumstances.

Saw 'You Only Live Once' as a great admirer of Fritz Lang, with his best work being influential masterpieces (have said quite a few times about loving 'Metropolis' and 'M'). It was very interesting seeing Henry Fonda paired with Sylvia Sidney, and both have given impressive and more performances. Am especially fond of Sidney and here she is in the type of role that suited her to the ground, despite being familiar with Fonda for longer.

'You Only Live Once' turned out to be quite an outstanding film and of all the films seen recently, the hard-hitting punch, irony and grit that 'You Only Live Once' had made it really stand out. While not one of Lang's most influential films, it is to me in the top end and one of the best of his US films. It also has to me some of the best work of both Fonda and Sidney, especially Sidney, and the film is a must-see for both of them and not to be missed.

What really stands out in 'You Only Live Once' is the performances of the two leads. Sidney is especially wonderful, vulnerability in this type of film is not always this tender or touching and not the easiest to pull off. Fonda also gives one of his best performances and has some frightening intensity in his best moments. All the supporting cast are fine, but it is all about Fonda and Sidney at the top of their game.

All helped by Lang's immaculate direction, capturing the bleakness and tension of the situation flawlessly. There are some very handsome production values, especially the moody lighting that is in keeping with the film's bleak tone. The music is also quite atmospheric in a haunting way without over-scoring.

The script has tight tension, irony and poignancy, while the story is increasingly hard-hitting and suspenseful as well as surprisingly poignant. The prison yard scene is magnificently ironic.

Overall, superb film. 10/10

When I first saw this on televion in the eary 1980s, I thought it a masterpiece. And it is inedeed very beautifully filmed. The Expressionistic mood is lovely and touching.

However, in light of what we read in papers now, it's hard to wonder what is the pathology of Sylvia Sidney that draws her to stay faithful to someone in prison and remina faithful even though -- albit in a situation whre he was framed -- he has killed the prison chaplain.