You Can't Get Away With Murder (1939) +
This unknown gem was a surprise Double-Feature for me when it popped up after
Romeo and Juliet, and without looking it up or researching it, I simply ran with it, knowing nothing of the plot as I experienced it.
It seems the Studio rather liked hooking up Bogart with the Dead End Kids since this one had him with the leader of the gang, Billy Holap as a somewhat good kid, Johnny, who prefers to hang out with gangster Frank Wilson (Humphry Bogart). Regardless of how his older sister (Gale Page) and her engaged beau, a Security guard (Harvey Stevens) worry and fret.
Sh#t goes sideways after Johnny steals Stevens' gun and goes on a crime spree with Wilson. First, robbing a gas station, and then a jewelry store where the owner, an old man, is killed by Bogart and leaves the gun behind to frame Stevens.
All of this occurs in the first third of the movie. Including the two of them arrested for the gas station, and Stevens is sent to Death Row for murder.
The next two-thirds of the film goes down in Sing-Sing prison in New York. And Holap's character is torn between his loyalty (and fear) for Bogart as the Day of Execution draws closer.
A bonus to this movie is Henry Travers as Pops. Playing a more rough around the edges "Clarence" as he would in '46 in
It's a Wonderful Life. Playing the angel on Holap's Johnny's shoulder.
Another aspect that I could not confirm was the similarities between this film and a few character points in
Shawshank Redemption. With a kind old man running the library, and there's even a character named Red
WARNING: "who," spoilers below
on the morning of his Release is denied Parole. The source of Morgan Freeman's nickname Red for the red stamp used when denying Parole.
on the morning of his Release is denied Parole. The source of Morgan Freeman's nickname Red for the red stamp used when denying Parole.
They are distant points, but I couldn't help but feel there may have been some inspiration or a minor tip of the hat by the author to a possible old-time favorite crime film.
And quite a crime film it is.
The cinematographer Sol Polito, who did countless films such as
Now, Voyager,
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang,
42nd Street,
The Charge of the Light Brigade, to name a small few, several times, truly stood out in this film. There is a scene in prison with a fistfight with prison guards done with shadows on the floor that included the prison bars. I was very impressed with the creativity of hiding the violence while still invoking the danger of it. It played out brilliantly. Understanding how well used "shadow play" is used as a device, it was STILL a well-used and clever device, all the same.
While the opening setup of the two lovers making plans for a future felt a bit sappy, it set the framework for this very intense, dark crime film packed with dangerous, untrustworthy characters and the emotionally distraught conflict that tears and gnaws at young Johnny.
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