Review for You Only Live Once: 75th Anniversary Edition

When I think of Fritz Lang, and I do from time to time, it's always with wonder at his epic silent German films of the 20's (Dr. Mabuse or Metropolis). I forget that the poor man was driven from his homeland by the Nazi's and forced to make a living in Hollywood, which was a whole different kettle of bananas.


'You Only Live Once' was made 75 years ago, which is as good a reason as any to release it on DVD at this time. It's a slight movie when compared to Mabuse or Metropolis, though it's often cited as one of the earliest film noirs. I can see it - and in some ways I can't. It has some of the essential dark ingredients certainly, but in truth it has as much in common with weepy melodramas of the period and its low contrast, soft-focus look is hardly what springs to mind when considering classic film noir. It does have some noir-ish moments but don't expect this to be like his later outings like 'The Big Sleep' or 'The Blue Gardenia'.


After a brief spell in France, Lang made his way to Hollywood and soon got on the studio treadmill. 'You Only Live Once' was his second US outing and with all the essential popularist ingredients (romance, drama, pathos, action) it was a box office hit.


Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda) is an ex-con who has served his third prison sentence in a 'four strikes and you're out' deal where one more misdemeanour means life. With a young wife on the outside -Joan 'Jo' Graham (Sydney) - he means to go straight and stay straight. But when he's late deliverSylvia ing in his new role as a truck driver his insensitive boss sacks him on the spot; just at a moment when he's put a down payment on a new home. (After all, they'd tried renting but no one was happy housing an -ex-con). One bit of bad luck turns into another and it's not long before he's implicated in a bank robbery that left eight people dead. Though his hat, found in the getaway car, points to his involvement he swears to his wife that he has been set up. She persuades him to turn himself in to clear his name but it back-fires and he is sentenced to the chair. Eventually he escapes but, just as he is given a pardon, he shoots his one friend, the Prison Minister, in a bid for freedom. Soon he is joined by his heavily pregnant young wife on the road to ruin with predictably tragic consequences.


There is much of Lang's 'Mabuse' style cruelty in the picture. It is not enough, for example, that he is merely sacked from his job. He has to wait and endure a phone conversation between his boss and his wife arranging a social evening first - the very thing he dreams about happening for he and his wife. And of course the trade-mark Lang corruption is rife. Even the gas station attendants who report the pair when they hold them up for fuel lie about the takings being stolen too - clearly a quick way to line their own pockets.


The two leads (Henry Fonda, Sylvia Sydney) are superb in a melodramatic and stagey way, pulling at the heart-strings with their devotion to one another despite the relentless run of bad luck and the inevitability of a bad end.
There is much ambiguity in the relationship though. Is he truly to be trusted? Had he been involved in the bank robbery? These are unanswered questions that raise the movie from many of its melodramatic contemporaries.


The transfer is excellent (once you're passed the opening titles) and the extra features are definitely worth a gander. Well, the first is actually audio only but a fun listen with Lang being interviewed at the National Film Theatre in London in 1962. His sardonic wit is ever present as is his refusal to be pigeon-holed by any line of questioning throughout this hour plus piece of history, arguably worth the price of purchase alone.


Then there are some 'takes' from the filming of the picture which formed a cinema extra showing audiences the painstaking attention that went into every shot and sequence. A genuine precursor to the DVD Extra phenomenon and a welcome addition here. For Lang completists this will be a welcome no-brainer. For everyone else, well worth picking up and saving for a rainy day. Great stuff!