Now, back to America for Fritz Lang’s YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE. I usually only stumble across the great Fritz Lang during Horrorfest, so it’s not to see him show up for Romancefest, as well.
This gangster flick stars Henry Fonda as an ex-con engaged to marry the public defender’s secretary (Sylvia Sidney). The would-be happy couple finds their dreams of domestic bliss interrupted when they realize how difficult it is for an ex-convict to assimilate back into society. After a series of misunderstandings, Fond finds himself back in prison, this time on death row. After a series of even more misunderstandings, Fonda escapes and soon the couple is on the run.
Like some of Lang’s earlier films, YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE is considered an early example of noir. This flick’s pretty brutal, and if you can get past the heavy-handed moralizing, it’s a pretty entertaining yarn.
In this flick you can see the genesis of several “criminal lovers on the run” flicks to come, like BONNIE & CLYDE, NATURAL BORN KILLERS and even WILD AT HEART from earlier this Romancefest.
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