Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

They Live by Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 4, 2017

Nicholas Ray's "They Live by Night" (1948) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include a brand new video interview with film critic Imogen Sara Smith; archival audio commentary featuring film historian Eddie Muller and actor Farley Granger; archival illustrated audio interview excerpts from with producer John Houseman; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring new essay by film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The escapees

It almost seems a bit odd. No matter what the young man does it always feels like he is following a path that has been predetermined a long time ago, and despite his efforts to rebuild his life it would end prematurely. The only question that remains is when exactly and how it would end.

The film begins as three inmates escape from a state prison somewhere in Mississippi and then quickly disappear into the night. When their car breaks down, Chickamaw (Howard Da Silva, The Blue Dahlia) and T-Dub (Jay C. Flippen, The Killing) leave behind the injured Bowie (Farley Granger, Strangers on a Train) and head to a secluded farm owned by Chickamaw’s alcoholic brother. Later on, they dispatch his teenage niece Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell, Detective Story) to pick up Bowie and bring him back before the police track him down.

While Bowie recovers Keechie falls madly in love with him, but she has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he is a fugitive from justice and is even planning to participate in a dangerous robbery with Chickamaw and T-Dub. The men then raid a local bank and get away with a large load of money, and much to Keechie’s surprise Bowie vows to use his share to hire a good lawyer that would prove in court that years ago he was unjustly found guilty of murder. Relieved to discover that Bowie is actually a good man who has been dealt a bad hand in life Keechie again warms up to him, and when he eventually asks her to come with him so that they can start a new life together she instantly agrees.

But Bowie’s plan to take Keechie to Mexico and start a family with her is abruptly put on hold when Chickamaw reappears and demands that he helps him and T-Dub do one last job because they have ran out of money. Chickamaw insists that Bowie owes them one because without them he would still be rotting in his prison cell. When Keechie accidentally discovers that Bowie has secretly met Chickamaw she begs him not to go back and he ignores her, but also warns Chickamaw that this will truly be the last time they would work together. The robbery goes terribly wrong but Bowie escapes and returns to Keechie, and then in a desperate attempt to elude the police together they head down to the Mexican border.

Nicholas Ray’s directorial debut, They Live by Night, is a romantic melodrama with the stylistic identity of a classic noir film. One part of it is dedicated to the evolution of the romantic relationship between two young people that basically wish to find a safe and quiet place where they can begin a new and perfectly normal life together. So as they become more and more comfortable with each other, they essentially begin to plan their future in the same predictable manner that all young couples do. The other part of the film, however, refuses to accept them as a ‘normal’ couple. It sees them as doomed renegades that are attracted to each other only because they are desperately trying to break free from their past -- Bowie seeks justice but is forced to become a criminal so that he can actually have a chance to prove that he is innocent, while Keechie has had enough of her drunk father’s abuse and is now convinced that by running away with Bowie she is reclaiming her freedom. So here not only is their love observed from a different angle, but is completely overwhelmed by a very strong sense of noirish fatalism.

The casual tone of the exchanges and the profiles of the lovers that they help create are unusual to say the least because during the late 1940s and early 1950s the big Hollywood romantic melodramas were promoting completely different types of characters with drastically different personalities. So even though the material is different (and the film’s budget was much smaller) in a way They Live by Night is a lot like Johnny Guitar, a ‘rebel’ film that actually has the audacity to bend, rearrange and even reject various traditional genre elements and rules.

They Live by Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Nicholas Ray's They Live by Night arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from a 35mm safety fine-grain positive made from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI Film's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management.

Scanning: Motion Picture Imaging, Burbank, CA.
Colorist: Lee Kline/Criterion Post, New York."

The release is sourced from a new and very strong 2K restoration of the film. While there are select segments where minor density fluctuations can be observed -- and some are clearly introduced by the manner in which different portions of footage were shot -- clarity, delineation and depth are indeed consistently very pleasing. The darker footage also boasts wonderful nuances that give the transfer a very nice cinematic quality, defined by healthy and properly balanced grays, whites, and blacks. There are no traces of problematic degrainig or sharpening adjustments. Image stability is excellent. There are only a few slightly uneven transitions, but they are perfectly normal for a film of this age and caliber. Large and distracting debris, damage marks, cuts and stains have been removed as best as possible. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

They Live by Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The dialog is clean and stable, always easy to follow. Some minor variations in terms of depth and fluidity can be noticed, but the quality of the original audio mix is probably directly responsible for them. On other hand, at times the audio does sound slightly compressed, which leads me to believe that some extensive restoration work was done to rebalance it as well as possible because in some areas time has definitely left its mark. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report.

They Live by Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Imogen Sara Smith - in this brand new video interview, film critic Imogen Sara Smith (In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City) discusses They Live by Night and the novel by Edward Anderson that inspired it, as well as the key qualities of the film that gave it its unorthodox noirish identity. There are also some interesting observations about Nicholas Ray's image as a Hollywood outsider. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2017. In English, not subtitled. (21 min, 1080p).

• John Houseman - presented here is an edited, illustrated excerpt from a 1956 broadcast of Gideon Bachmann's Film Forum radio program in which producer John Houseman (They Live by Night) discusses his life and career in the film business, as well as the traditional role of a film producer. In English, not subtitled. (7 min, 1080p).

• "They Live by Night": The Twisted Road - this archival featurette focuses on the key themes and style of They Live by Night. Included in it are clips from archival interviews with film critic and historian Molly Haskell, film noir experts James Ursini and Alain Silver, director Oliver Stone, and film critic Glenn Erickson, amongst others. The featurette was produced in 2007. In English, not subtitled. (7 min, 1080i).

• Commentary - this archival commentary features star Farley Granger and film noir specialist Eddie Muller (Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir). It was recorded in 2007 initially appeared on Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's double-feature DVD release of They Live by Night/Side Street.
  
  1. Romance Over Crime
  2. RKO turmoil
  3. Distinctive director
  4. Bonding with O'Donnell
  5. Thieves Like Us
  6. Ray at work
  7. The screenplay
  8. Skirting the Code
  9. Lively and authentic
  10. Socially conscious movies
  11. Too many robberies
  12. Ice cream titan
  13. Subverting conventions
  14. Tonal shift
  15. Emphasizing the road
  16. Ray's life
  17. Subtle differences
  18. Howard Hughes
  19. Preparing for the part
  20. Ray's great concoction
  21. Appeal for acting
  22. "It's about love"
  23. Value of tragedy

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring new essay by film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz and technical credits.

They Live by Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What makes Nicholas Ray's They Live by Night a special film -- aside from the fact that it is truly a stunning directorial debut -- is the simplicity and effectiveness with which it rearranges major genre elements. It really has the heart of a rebel, though admittedly it is not quite as bold as Ray's groundbreaking western Johnny Guitar. Criterion's upcoming Blu-ray release of They Live by Night is sourced from an excellent new 2K restoration which represents a pretty substantial upgrade in quality over the old North American DVD release of the film that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment produced almost a decade ago. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.