J'ai le droit de vivre

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")

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 stands the test of time as the story of a man trying to become someone else and a woman's loss of faith in justice. Lang's comment on the difficulty of the romantic couple may stem from his former wife's transition to a Nazi, but the strong relationship between Eddie and Joan is both beautiful and disturbing. This film is meticulously shot, with perfect casting (who knew Henry Fonda was ever young?). It's always enjoyable to watch the old Hollywood movies with no blood, and very strange looking kisses.... Superb example of a Lang film and film noir. Worth watching on DVD for a quality restoration.

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.

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