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ON THE RUN

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Nicolas Ray's first film

They Live by Night (1949)

This film noir wrapped around a romance (or romance wrapped around a film noir) has a lot of original stuff--the first helicopter shots of film action)--which are now conventional.

Farley Granger is an 'innocent' for whom a life of crime seems the only option. He is also hopelessly naive.

Critics want to put a Bonnie and Clyde spin on it but I don't see it that way. I see it more as a downward spiral set in motion by the state (wrongful conviction and imprisonment) but that is more a political interpretation.

Gullible, stupid and stubbornly fixated as he is, Farley Granger is great to look at.

I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films