They Live by Night / Side Street (Film Noir Double Feature) |  | Directors: Anthony Mann, Nicholas Ray
Actors: Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, James Craig, Paul Kelly, Jean Hagen
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $20.98
Buy New: $9.98
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Rating:  8 reviews
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), Turkish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 177 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 115027
UPC: 085391150275
EAN: 0085391150275
Theatrical Release Date: March 23, 1950
Release Date: July 31, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | In love. in danger. Thugs force lovebirds Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell to be accomplices in They Live By Night. And in Side Street, the duo returns as struggling Manhattan marrieds who unwittingly get their hands on mob dough. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR Age: 085391150275 UPC: 085391150275 Manufacturer No: 115027 |
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Product Description
In love... in danger. Thugs force lovebirds Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell to be accomplices in They Live By Night. And in Side Street the duo returns as struggling Manhattan marrieds who unwittingly get their hands on mob dough.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085391150275 Manufacturer No: 115027
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
2 Decent Noirs With Granger & O'Donnell May 6, 2009
Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
Here are two movies on one disc that both feature Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell. They're pretty good, too!
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT - This was the first pairing of Granger and O'Donnell and it was successful enough so that the two worked together two years later in "Side Street," the other movie on this DVD, which is part of a film noir set.
Granger and O'Donnell didn't really dominate the screen until after 40 minutes but after that, it was mostly them. Frankly, I enjoyed the first 40 minutes best when Howard da Silva and J.C. Flippen shared the screen time. They were great film noir characters in this movie (and they did come back in the second half, livening up the film again.) I liked their names in here: da Silva was "Chicamaw." and Flippen was "T-Dub." In most of the second half of this movie, it went from a noir to a romance. but that's not surprising knowing the director was Nicholas Ray.
O'Donnell is impressive here with a fine performance and a nice '40s look to her. She had a strange character name, too: "Keechie." Granger ("Arthur Bowers") does a nice job, too. For an uneducated thug, he sure comes across as a really nice guy. He reminded me of John Dall in "Gun Crazy" (1950). Some of the camera-work also reminded me of "Gun Crazy."
Like a lot of good film noirs, this also has some very good supporting actors who play weird people, and say weird things. Some of the dialogue in this movie is fascinating because it's so odd. One example is the guy who marries the couple for $20. Another is Keechie's father. This is a odd little "B" noir/melodrama and definitely one that film noir fans should check out. Romantics will like it, too.
SIDE STREET - Although not as interesting as the above film, this recently-released film noir features one of the best noir directors: Anthony Mann, who always makes sure we get some great visuals. Good angles, shadows and light and a great big-city feel of New York help make this a visual treat.
Along the way, we get a not-untypical noirish tale of an basically-good guy who makes a dumb move and pays for his sins even after his conscience gets the best of him and he tries to atone. This winds up to be a story of a man chasing the real crooks, while the crooks and the police chase him! They still make films with these kind of plots and they are almost always interesting.
Granger does a fine job in the lead as the dupe, "Joe Norson," who is too weak to pass up easy money and pays for it. O'Donnell is his wife and gets second billing but she really doesn't have that big a role. A bunch of other actors really share "supporting cast" status as Granger rules the roost here, lines-wise.
The city of New York might be the real second star of this film. There are many shots of it and its skyscrapers, from above and street level looking up. I love those old cars, too!
 Noir double feature July 14, 2008
Ronald E. Weber (Springfield Ohio)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an excellent package, combining a true classic of the genre with a rarer piece with which it shares a lot of common connections.
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT is the first screen telling of the novel, THIEVES LIKE US, remade in the 70s with great skill by Robert Altman, This one has a more conventional style from the late forties, but both are totally effective depictions of a pair of young lovers on the lam.
Very moving, tragic. Well performed, all around. The Altman version is one of the best 70s films and this one is every bit as impressive. A lot has been made of its connections to BONNIE AND CLYDE, but unlike those outlaws, these two kids are total innocents, and the two actors are completely believable.
The commentary is good, although not extraordinary. The film historian brings up good points, but Granger doesn't really have many meaningful things to add. Still, it's worthwhile; I'm very glad they chose to have a commentary track.
SIDE STREET is an MGM "B" that had the same two actors, filmed in 1950, two years past NIGHT. It's very nice;
again the leads are totally innocent-types who end up in a maelstrom of trouble due to one false step. It was totally new to me, so I found it to be a perfect bookend to the earlier film. Commentary here was fine, too.
A masterpiece and a mediocre noir April 22, 2008
Quilmiense (USA/Spain)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm not a great fan of Nicholas Ray but he made in "They Live by Night" a truly classic film. The film has its lacks, or rather annoyances, but they don't take away from the overall feeling of watching Granger and the girl (sorry I forgot her name just now) playing the best "Romeo & Juliet" ever seen on film. Romeo/Juliet on its poor and Southern version, not the rich and glamorous. They just look so natural and the camera is right where the viewer wants to be.
The story is not that awesome, a typical story of an amateur gang of bank robbers, the young man who falls in love -while on the run- with a beautiful, gentle, and lovable country girl. His fate is sealed from the beginning, we sense it, but we follow their adventures and dreams of family happiness nevertheless. But the law is merciless and makes no distinction between the hard-hearted gangster and the harmless kid who makes bad choices. Sometimes character exaggeration becomes a little aggravating, like with the heartless policemen or the nosey bystanders and shop assistants.
But the intensity of the love relationship between the young married couple is mesmerizing.
The second feature is just a nice extra. Directed by Anthony Mann, who's better with Westerns, has some nice shots of the streets of naked NYC, with persecutions and some tension. But the story lack quality and interest. Granger plays another innocent and recently married guy who steals some big money from an office while delivering mail; his fate is sealed again, and we follow him the other 3 quarters of the film in his misadventures. One keeps thinking how foolish he was, and how well he deserved all his troubles. The girl here plays a less conspicuous role.
 They live by night / Side street April 14, 2008
ROC VILLAS VENTURA (BARCELONA, Spain)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I would have liked to submit a review on this title. Only I can't, because inside the case there was a different DVD, with a completely different noir double feature.
I decided to keep it, when I saw it was interesting as well. So, it has become a funny item in my collection, with "They live by night / Side street" on the cover, and "Where danger lives / Tension" in the interior.
NICHOLAS RAY, OPUS 1 March 6, 2008
wdanthemanw (Geneva, Switzerland)
****1/2 1948. THEY LIVE BY NIGHT is an adaptation of Edward Anderson's Thieves Like Us. Co-written and directed by Nicholas Ray. An escapee falls in love with a young girl, marries her and tries to reach a place where he could start a new life. Nicholas Ray's first movie is a one of a kind film noir that should be in every movie lover's library. The director is more interested in the description of the relation between Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger than in the usual film noir clichés; for instance, note that none of the two bank heists are shown to us. Indispensable.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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