Sie leben bei Nacht (1948)

Sie leben bei Nacht: Directed by Nicholas Ray. With Cathy O’Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen. An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.

“Nicholas Rayu0026#39;s first feature, in 1949, was an adaptation of the novel Thieves Like Us (which Robert Altman so memorably filmed in the mid-1970s). Itu0026#39;s a bit of a surprise to encounter the same characters — Bowie, Keechie, T-Dub et al. — in postwar black-and-white. Farley Granger and Cathy Ou0026#39;Donnell play the star-crossed lovers later rended by Keith Carradine and Shelly Duvall, and they bring a vulnerable, doomed edge to this very interesting, tragic movie. (Granger may never have been better during his brief bout of stardom). The supporting cast isnu0026#39;t quite up to the level of Altmanu0026#39;s (without Louise Fletcher and her odd little girl), but on the whole this remains an honorable and moving piece of film art — and a vital instalment, along with the same yearu0026#39;s Gun Crazy (also a tale of doomed, romantic outlaws), in the noir cycle.”