You Only Live Once (1937)

Well, another Sunday means it’s time to continue on in the alphabet. And here we are with only two installments left in the first half of the A-to-Z challenge. Finding a first-time watch for the letter “Y” was a little trickier than I imagined. But one particular streaming service came through in the clutch. Let’s get to it with You Only Live Once (1937).

Title: You Only Live Once

Director: Fritz Lang

Released: January 29, 1937

Runtime: 1 hour 26 minutes

Available to stream on: Tubi

IMDb synopsis: The public defender’s secretary and an ex-convict get married and try to make a life together, but a series of disasters sends their lives spiraling out of control.

Joan (Sylvia Sidney) is a secretary for the public defender’s office. She has a thing for Eddie (Henry Fonda) and Eddie has a thing for breaking the law. Despite the fact that Eddie has made being a criminal his career, Joan is head over heels for him. With help from those in the office, she’s able to get Eddie out early. All of Joan’s friends have tried to get her to realize that Eddie isn’t good for her. So naturally, they run off and make the sensible decision to get married. What could possibly go wrong?

If you watched the scene embedded above, you might have caught yourself saying, “Hey, look! It’s the Wicked Witch!”. And you’d be correct. After their marriage, Joan and Eddie are staying in a tavern run by Hester (Margaret Hamilton) and her husband. Realizing that Eddie is a convict, they kindly ask for both Eddie and Joan to leave. Eddie appears to be on the up-and-up and landed himself a job as a driver. However, the string of bad luck is just beginning as he shows up late and is fired on his first day.

When a bank robbery goes sideways and six people wind up dead, Eddie is the primary suspect. No, he wasn’t there and no he didn’t take part in the robbery, let alone kill anyone. But Eddie’s hat with his initials was found at the scene. A jury finds him guilty, and he’s sentenced to death by electric chair.

Flash forward to the eve of Eddie’s execution and Eddie is ready to make a run for it. He’s got a plan to escape and sets it in motion. Meanwhile across town, the bank trunk that was used in the robbery/murder is found at the bottom of a lake with the real guilty party dead behind the wheel. Eddie is cleared of any wrongdoing and is free now a free man. One small probelm…Eddie is already working on breaking himself out.

The prison warden begs with Eddie to drop his gun. Trying over and over again to explain to him that he’s now a free man. Cleared of all charges. Eddie, rightfully so, is incredibly skeptical of the situation and doesn’t believe the warden. So, the warden calls in the chaplain who is a friend of Eddie’s. Still, Eddie does not believe that he’s a free man, rather that this is all an elaborate trap. In the heat of the moment, Eddie fires his gun and hits the chaplain, killing him.

Who would have guessed it, Eddie Taylor is now on the run from the law yet again. This time Joan is with him, and they agree to make a run for the border. No, not that one. They flee for Canada and manage to get blamed for a string of robberies that just happen to occur along their travel route.

Given his track record, it’s only a matter of time before the police manage to catch up with Eddie. But is Eddie’s run of bad luck finally over? Or does he manage to take Joan down with him this time?

Honestly, the way that this movie starts out, I thought I was in for a long eighty-six minutes. Luckily, once things get moving you kind of forget about the first 4-5 minutes and the random man who is complaining about an apple thief.

The camera work from Leon Shamroy is one of the biggest highlights of the movie. There are some scenes that almost instantly make you think of Hitchcock. The pacing of it keeps you engaged and not picking up your phone or checking the time. Yes, some aspects of the story show their age. But as a whole it holds up incredibly well after eighty-six years. Is it now one of my favorite film noir movies? No, but it’s an enjoyable watch and deserves at least one viewing.

Well, those are my thoughts on it. But what did you think of You Only Live Once (1937)?

Tell me your thoughts in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!

Next week we reach the end of the first half in our A-to-Z challenge with the letter “Z”. Keep an eye on my Twitter and Instagram Wednesday for the reveal of what the movie will be.