I Met My Love Again (1938)

One of the things I find amusing about classic films is how quickly the characters fall in love then get married. I can remember sitting through a film class in college and the teacher was showing us King Kong. He paused the scene where Fay Wray and Bruce Cabot talk on the boat and he admits he likes her after all the times he kept saying that women should not be allowed on ships and my teacher said “they fall in love so quickly in the movies.” The whole class laughed because it is true. The characters fall in love so quickly and then have a fall out just as fast that is usually due to a misunderstanding or impatience. The 1938 film I Met My Love Again starring Henry Fonda and Joan Bennett contains both scenarios in this drawn out soap opera.

            The film starts off in 1925. Julie Weir (Bennett) wants to marry Ives Towner (Fonda) right away after he proposes to her. He asks her to wait while he becomes somebody. Two years later Julie and Ives are still engaged and she is tired of waiting for him. Julie throws a Christmas party at her house but she does not show. Everyone is worried about her she went out sleigh riding during the day and has not been back since. Fortunately Julie is safe she found a cabin in the woods where a man named Michael is staying. He is there from New York City to work on his book. They talk the entire night.

            Julie and Michael elope. Her aunt wants Ivers to go to New York to try and bring Julie home before she makes a bigger mistake. Ives’s mother tries to tell him he is better off without Julie because now he can accomplish as much as he wants. He gets upset with his mother and stalks off to New York. Once there he sees how happy Michael and Julie are together.

            Michael and Julie move to Paris. Michael goes off the handle having a good time. At a party he pretends to have a duel with someone. They both thought their guns were empty. Unfortunately the other man’s gun was loaded and Michael dies. A few years later Julie is still living with her daughter in Paris. She feels she cannot go back home and does not want to. Her aunt sends her a check part of which she wants Julie to use to come and visit.

            Ives is not a teacher at their old university. His mother calls him in the middle of his class to tell him that Julie is back in town. He is still in love with her. Ives and Julie meet each other in the woods by accident. Their reunion is awkward.

            A student in his class named Brenda is in love with him. Ives does not like the idea of a student liking him and asking him to go out with him but he gives in and has a good time with Brenda. His mother thinks she knows her son so well and thinks he is out with Julie all night. The mother goes over to Julie’s house to have a talk with her about seeing Ives. Ives’s sister has an idea he has not been with Julie.

            Brenda calls her father telling him she might be getting married to Ives. She wants her father to give him a job. She tells her father that this is not the same thing as when she was in love with the chauffer.

            There is a family dinner at Ives’s house. His mother overhears someone asking him who he might bring since it has to be an alumnus. His mother butts into the conversation and says that Julie will not be going to the party her aunt is sick. He calls and asks Julie and she goes. That night Brenda goes to Ives’s house to speak to his mother. The mother tells Brenda to go Ives quickly to get him away from Julie. Brenda is outrageously jealous of Julie. At the party she throws water in Julie’s face. Julie runs out into the storm. Ives runs after Julie. She tells him she still loves him. They run to her aunt’s house yelling that they are going to be married that night. Julie’s daughter is not happy about her mother getting married when she overhears outside her door. Ivers’s mother, sister, and her husband come to Julie’s house. He tells his mother he knows what he wants and he wants Julie.

            Ives hears that Brenda tried to kill herself because him. With everything going on Julie says they cannot go back home if they run away to get married everyone will think they are selfish.

            Julie takes the car that Brenda is in. She asks Brenda if she really loves Ives and she does. Julie takes off speeding down a road where a bridge is out. Scared, Brenda confesses she did not really try to kills herself. When Julie gets back she and Ives run away and get married.

            I so wish that Henry Fonda and Joan Bennett were in a better film together. They were very good paired together but their characters and the story were not good. The one who played Ives’s mother was totally annoying you wanted to hit the mother she was awful.

            I Met My Love Again was a boring soap opera. The plot with Brenda was terrible and annoying. It was just funny to watch how quickly the characters fall in and out of love. Only watch I Met My Love Again if you are a fan of Henry Fonda or Joan Bennett or both like I am otherwise just skip it.

 

The Return of Frank James (1940)

"If we are ever going to have law and order in this part of the country, we got to take vipers like those Fords and that slimy railroad detective Runyon and shoot 'em down like dogs."

            The Return of Frank James leaves off right where Jesse James ended. Jesse has been shot and killed in the back by Bob and Charlie Ford. Word gets to Frank (Henry Fonda) that his brother has been killed. He let people believe that he has been shot and killed and now he lives in the hills with Pinky and a kid named Clem (Jackie Cooper) whose father was killed in the last bank robbery with Jesse. Clem asks Frank is he is going to go after the Fords and if he can come with him to do so. Frank does not want to go killing the brothers he tells Clem that the law will get the Fords.

            They find out later that Fords were captured and found guilty but were then given a pardon and the reward money that was put out for Jesse. When Frank hears this he decides to go after Bob and Charlie. The Fords were in a bar when the Major (Zee’s uncle from the previous film) walks in. He scares them saying Frank has a way of turning up when they least expect him to. The whole town is upset with the Fords because they were all friends of Jesse’s and especially because Bob shot Jesse in the back when he was not looking. The Fords wind up leaving town.

            Pinky finds Frank and tells him that Clem has run away. Frank decides to steal from McCoy the man who runs the railroad and gave out the reward money. As he was stealing the money Clem walks in. Clem accidentally shoots off his and gets the town in an uproar. The night watchman is accidentally shot and killed by the men shooting outside.

            Frank and Clem make it out west to Denver. They spread the rumor that Frank James was killed in Mexico for trying to steal chickens. Reporter Eleanor Stone (Gene Tierney) hears the news. She works for her father’s newspaper and wants desperately to write a good story that will make her father realize she is not just a woman but a good reporter who should stay on at the paper. This story would be a big scoop for the paper. Eleanor sits down with Frank who is going by the name Ben Woodson. Clem tells the whole story and Frank watches how Eleanor is so excited at what she is hearing. Soon through her father’s paper the story reaches the entire country. Eleanor’s father still thinks she should just go to college and then settle down to a man and marriage.

            The story was a way for Frank to bring the Fords out into the open so he could scare them. The town is putting on a play with the Fords and how they killed Jesse James. Frank gets a spot in the balcony right in their line of sight. When the brothers see him they start shooting. Clem and Frank go after the Fords but they do not catch them.

            McCoy had hired a private detective to track down Frank and Clem. The detective talks to Eleanor and he tells her the truth of who Ben Woodson really is. Eleanor finds Frank and tells him that Pinky has been arrested on charges of having been at the bank robbery. Frank knows what McCoy and the detective are doing they are trying to bring him out in the open he knows that Pinky has never even so much as stolen a chicken in his life. Frank is now determined to find the Fords he has to get to them before Pinky is sentenced to hang. If he cannot find the Fords before that time he will turn himself in.

            Frank is unable to find the Fords before Pinky’s hanging and turns himself in. Eleanor gets herself down to Liberty to be at the trial. The detective thinks Eleanor is there to break Pinky out of jail and the mayor has a fit before she explains that she is just down there as a reporter. The trial is a bit like a circus. A judge from another town with no ties to Liberty or the James or Ford brothers is brought in to preside. The lawyer for McCoy feels personally involved and gets too bias with his questioning. The Major is defending Frank; he used to be a lawyer before he was the owner of the town paper. Eleanor feels like it is all her fault for all of this Frank would have come back anyway if she had not said something.

            Frank is found not guilty by the jury on any of the counts he was convicted of. All the sudden Bob Ford walks into the court room. As soon as Frank hears the sentence he leaps over the divide and runs after Bob. A shot is heard outside. Clem is down on the ground near a tree. He has been shot but he was able to shoot Bob Ford. Ford has gone into a warehouse. Frank goes in there. None of the townspeople get in his way. Frank finds Ford he is wounded and winds up dying from Clem’s shot.

            Henry Fonda was great as Frank. Frank was a character that was calm and had a lot of reserve much like Fonda himself. The character of Frank was very well written he was out for revenge but he was not blinded by it. This was Gene Tierney’s first film. She was so ridiculously adorable and incredibly beautiful. She was only nineteen years old when she made this. I find it interesting that Tierney was so excellent in this film and then in her films after this until maybe Rings on Her Fingers (which also stars Henry Fonda) six films after The Return of Frank James she was so terrible that it is hard to watch her. I am just going to put down he bad acting as the fault of the directors of the films.

            The Return of Frank James I found to be ten times better than Jesse James. I liked this story much better and it moved along at a better pace there were no slow scenes. I also liked how Frank and Eleanor were not a romantic item. According to IMDB the relationship did not happen because Frank James’s wife and son were still alive and the studio did not want to be sued. Good think I liked how Eleanor was concerned for Frank as a friend.

 

Jesse James (1939)

“I ain't aimin' to do nuthin'. I'm doin' it. I'm holdin' up this train.”

 “The whole train?”

            Jesse James is a character from American history that has turned into a myth. I have not ever really researched the man but just from the films that have been made over the decades about him it is obvious that America has mythologized this Midwestern outlaw hero. Twentieth Century Fox took a turn at portraying the outlaw starring Tyrone Power as the titular character, Henry Fonda as his brother, and Randolph Scott as the friendly US Marshal.

            A railroad company has sent men out to buy land from families so they can build their new rail line through them. The men that have been sent out are bullies they tell the people they want land from that if they do not buy the land from them they will get the sheriff to settle the matter and just take the land away without payment. They get to the home of Jesse and Frank James. The one man Marsh begins to bully the mother. Her sons are not taking any of his bullying especially against their mother. Frank starts to fight Marsh, Marsh goes to grab a scythe. Jesse shoots Marsh in the hand before he can hurt Frank. Marsh is furious and rides away into town with his posse. He has the sheriff of the town swear him in as a deputy so he can go and arrest the brothers. Frank and Jesse have fled leaving their mother alone in the house. Marsh comes back looking to bomb the brothers to come out of their home. He sees the mother moving around inside. Thinking the movement is coming from Jesse and Frank he throws the bomb. The poor mother dies.

            Jesse and Frank hear of their mother’s death. They find Marsh in a saloon and Jesse shoots him dead. No one is upset with the shooting except for the rail line. To get back at the rail company even more the brothers and a posse begin robbing trains on the line. US Marshal Will Wright has been assigned to find the James brothers. Jesse likes a woman named Zee. Her uncle is the town’s newspaper editor and one of his supporters. He goes to see Zee one night. Will comes over. They pretend not to realize who the other is. When Will leaves he waits outside to see if Jesse will do something. When he does not Will leaves him and Zee alone.

            Jesse and Zee eventually get married. She begs Jesse to turn himself in since Will has gained a pardon from the governor. He does turn himself in but the head of the railroad wants a full trial and Jesse hanged and gets his way when he has Jesse arrested. Frank has a letter sent to the jail that if his brother is not released by midnight he is coming to get him. An old man in the jail tells the head of the railroad that he has known Frank since he was young and that Frank means what he says. Frank gets himself caught. The two men that bring him in are friends of his that were sworn in as deputies that day by Will. The brothers pretty much walk out of the prison.

            Jesse and Zee live out in a cabin in the woods. He is barely home anymore he is always out robbing trains and banks. She gets very upset at her husband when he is not there for the birth of their son. Zee realizes that Jesse will always be an outlaw they will always be on the run and afraid. She does not want to live like that anymore she wants her uncle to take her back to town. When Jesse comes home his wife and child are gone. His servant Pinky tells him that it is better that he does not come back Zee could be happy. Jesse does not want his son to know about him.

            Years later Jesse is a wreck. He is making his men take riskier chances they do not want to take. He plans on robbing a bank in a small town during the day. The men have talked and they do not want to do the job. Jesse is furious with them. Frank has a talk with his brother about what he is doing to his men making them chances that could get them killed. The job winds up going wrong and some of the men are caught.

            Jesse somehow returns to his old home. He crawls up to his bedroom. Zee comes in to take care of him. She brings their son upstairs. Jesse swears he is done with what he is doing. He does not want to be on the run anymore. The Ford brothers from the posse have become double crossers. They go to see Jesse saying that Frank wants to see him in the hills for one more job. Jesse is tempted but he has promised Zee they would go to California to start a new life. The brothers leave but Bob Ford sneaks back into the house and shoots Jesse in the back killing him.

            I am not a huge fan of Tyrone Power but he was excellent in this film. I am so used to seeing him as sweet romantic good guy characters. It was nice to see him roughed up a bit and being bad guy. Henry Fonda was not in the film very much. I think out the entire 106 minute run he was in it for probably a combined twenty minutes if that. He was good though Fonda was just good in anything he was cast in. Randolph Scott I love more and more with each film I see him in. He always played a nice gentleman with this perfect tough side that was totally believable. The actress who played Zee was horrible. I hated seeing her in scenes and could not stand when she opened her mouth. The studio could have gotten someone ten times better for the role.

            Jesse James was a good film. There were some scenes that dragged but for the most part the story moved along nicely. 

On Our Merry Way (1948)

I was reading a review for On Our Merry Way and the reviewer said that the film is like when you read a book that you cannot get into but you have to see the whole way through to see how it ends even though the ending is predictable. I completely agree with argument on that review. The only reason I even bothered to watch this film was because Paulette Goddard was the first billed. I adore Paulette Goddard and I have already watched her in anything and two of three of those anythings have not been good. On Our Merry Way included. She was not even in the film that long.

            On Our Merry Way is about a newspaper writer named Oliver Pease ( Burgess Meredith). Well, he is not really a reporter he writes the pages for lost pets. He has never told his wife of seven months that he writes ads for lost pets. He has Martha (Goddard) believe that he is the roving reporter making fifty bucks a week. Martha gives Oliver the question for what she thinks is his next roving report- “Has a child ever influenced your life?”

            Oliver goes into work and pretends to be someone from the head office and convinces his boss to let him write the roving section. Before Oliver walks out the door he is hunted down by a goon working for a bookie. Oliver had placed a few bets and lost a lot of money. So not only is he running around town looking for stories he is now running away from some goon trying not to get the crap beat out of him.

            Trying to get away from the goon he runs into a bar. He sees two musicians Lank (Henry Fonda) and Slim (James Stewart) and asks them a question. They go into the story of how their car broke down when they were on the road. They came up with the idea to hold a band contest but the mayor’s kid that they ran into said his father would not have any because the kid would never win. Lank and Slim plan to have the kid win so they can keep the money from the show but the mechanic has another idea. His “baby” daughter Gloria is a beautiful young lady who can play all kinds of instruments. Lank and Slim were going to be the judges so the mayor’s son would win but the mechanic found Harry James and had him be the judge. So obviously the whole thing for Slim and Lank goes south and the “baby” Gloria winds up winning and going out on the road with the band.

            The next person Olivier runs into is a priest at a church. Reverend John B. Dunne (Charles Laughton) regales the story how a number of years ago he realized he was not a very good priest. People were leaving his church and he could not get through to anyone. He decided he was going to resign and leave the parish. As he was waiting a little boy came up to him saying that John had to follow him someone needed him. John was reluctant at first but he followed the boy to a house. Before John could get the boy’s name he disappeared. John was brought upstairs to a man who seems to have asthma and thought he was going to die. The man was extremely angry with John for being a priest he did not believe in religion and is outrageously bitter. The man calls John weak and John agrees with him but the man says something else that makes John turn around and begin to read the story from Kings about David and Goliath. The man is able to calm down as he listens to the story and he feels better. When John goes to leave he sees a photograph of the little boy he saw outside. The man says the little boy was his son and that he died. After this John went back to his home and tore up the letter and ever since then he has become a better priest.

            The last person Olivier comes across is a guy named Al (Fred MacMurray). Al and his friend Floyd were traveling down to Florida when they had gotten arrested and were brought over the county line by two sheriffs. When the sheriffs leave Al and Floyd think they are being held up by a gangster. They turn around and see it is a little kid called Sniffles who likes to think he is a gangster. He takes the two men to his mine where he has been living. Al asks if he has any family and he says only a rich uncle who does not like him very much. This gives Al the idea to try to find out who the uncle is so they can get money for bringing the kid back. For the few days Floyd and Al are with Sniffles he tortures them to no end with his crazy tricks. Al eventually goes into town and finds Sniffles’s uncle. The uncle has been driven to insanity by Sniffles and does not want the kid back. After some negotiation and lying Al gets Sniffles back to his uncle but the uncle wants to bring Floyd and Al up on extortion. Sniffles suggests they work their money off and Al has no problem with that once he sees the sister.

            Oliver rushes back to the office but his boss has found him out. He tears up Oliver’s write up for the Roving Reporter and fires him. As soon as he steps out of the building the goon beats up. The police bring Oliver back to his apartment. Martha brings him inside and tells him she knew all along that he worked for the lost pets pages and she was trying to push him to make more money. She tells him the reason she pushed him and gave him the question was because she is going to have a baby. In the midst of their furniture being taken away the boss comes in after having read Oliver’s report and tells him he loved it and will take him back.  

            So there you go now you do not have to watch the film. Please spare yourself the one hundred and five minutes watch another film that is better.

            Paulette Goddard only got top billing because she was married to Burgess Meredith at the time and he produced the film. She is only in it for the first ten minutes if that and the last ten minutes if that. Henry Fonda and James Stewart seemed a little out of their element doing comedy but I loved them they were so funny together. Dorothy Lamour played the “baby” in their story. I have never seen her in anything before she was not bad. Charles Laughton’s scenes depending on which version you see were originally cut because it was not comedic enough with the rest of the film. Fortunately I saw the version where his scene was kept in and I really liked him and the scene. It was the only watchable one. Fred MacMurray’s part was boring as sin. I think by the time his scene came on I had enough of the film.

            On Our Merry Way was very boring but I had to finish it. I knew what the ending was right from the moment Paulette Goddard gives Burgess Meredith the question so no shock there. Unless you are huge fans of Paulette Goddard, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Charles Laughton, Fred MacMurray or Burgess Meredith absolutely skip the film.  

The Male Animal (1942)

There are several periods of American history that drive me nuts when I read about them: the Revolutionary War (I hear about this all the time mostly because I live right around some of the battle sites and Trenton is not too far from me), the Civil War (a teacher went over the war for way too long in my one Honors History class in high school), and the Communist scare after World War II. Out of all these three topics I absolutely despise going over the Communist scare and Senator Joe McCarthy most of all. I hate what Americans did to each other and allowed this sick man to gain so much power and influence. McCarthy destroyed so many people lives and made others look like fools. Americans who were part of the communist parties in took part during the Depression when the country was down and out and they needed and wanted to fight for something that sounded equal for all. As all history teachers will say when Communism is discussed is that it looks good on paper but it does not work when put into action. What I really hate when I read about the Communist scare is how McCarthy attacked Hollywood because he thought they were too liberal. The worst is what they did to Charlie Chaplin kicking him out of the country and thinking he was bad for America’s morals. They even attacked Myrna Loy for being a communist because she was outrageously liberal but she sued the newspaper for libel and they recanted. Katharine Hepburn got labeled a Red because she wore a red dress to a liberal gathering of some kind. No one was safe. This to me is the most embarrassing time in American history. We looked absolutely ignorant. If McCarthy had been allowed to go any further I have a feeling he would have started killing people.

            Anyway…. You must be thinking what on earth this rant about the Communist scare has to do with a film entitled The Male Animal. The film takes place in 1942 a year after America had entered World War II. If there was one thing Americans feared most even at the beginning was Communism and the film reflects this fear.

            Henry Fonda plays a college English professor named Tommy Turner. He is happy with his position at the university and with his wife Ellen (Olivia de Havilland). A student of Tommy’s named Michael has printed a story in the school paper about how the school is run by dictators who will not allow free speech of any kind. He also goes on to say how Tommy is great professor who stands up for the freedom of speech on the campus and will demonstrate that by reading a letter written by Bartolommeo Vanzetti who, depending on how you look at the case, was a convicted murderer and an anarchist. From the beginning Tommy defends his decision to read the piece as a great work of literature. No one but Tommy even really knows what the piece says.

            A second sudden slap in the face for Tommy is that weekend is homecoming and Ellen’s old boyfriend Joe Ferguson (Jack Carson) is coming into town. Joe used to be the star of the football team so everyone knows him and loves him. Right from the moment Joe comes into town Tommy feels threatened because he feels Ellen is still a little sweet on him. Joe even kisses her twice with one time Tommy seeing them do so. All day long Tommy sick of hearing about Joe and hearing him talk about football.

            By the middle of the film the whole thing about Tommy reading Vanzetti’s letter reaches the entire campus. Ellen is mad at him because he still wants to read it even though it means he may lose his job. Tommy comes up with a plan to make it easier for Ellen to leave him by playing a mind game which is too long for me to write up. But Ellen gets back at both men and plays her own little game with them.

            Tommy does read the letter with practically the whole school in attendance. One of the trustees is furious with him and the letter even before Tommy reads it. Tommy snaps back to the man that none of them know what the letter says. The letter is beautiful with no hint of communist/anarchist air. He makes everyone look like fools. Ellen is so proud of Tommy she tells him he is now the male animal she has always wanted him to be. The whole school is very proud of him as well.

            The plot gets a little jumbled and at times just drags and drags. I could have handled the film a little more if it had only dealt with the triangle of Tommy, Ellen, and Joe.  

            Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland make up for the drag with their performances. Fonda plays his usual awe shucks self but he has a drunk scene that is hysterical. He was a great drunkard! I liked him as Tommy. Having Fonda play Tommy made the character more believable. De Havilland I have to say was a little annoying in this film. Ellen is a little condescending and a bit too flighty. But de Havilland absolutely makes up for it in one scene. Tommy and Joe start fighting over her and she gets very overwhelmed and starts crying. Joe tells Tommy she will most likely get up and fall flat on her stomach crying to which Tommy says she will not. Well Joe was right and she falls on the couch on her stomach crying. Then Ellen truly has enough and goes to run up the stairs and falls. She gets up and says she cannot even run up the stairs with dignity! Hattie McDaniel plays the maid Cleota. I felt terrible for McDaniel, this was the woman who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Gone with the Wind OVER Olivia de Havilland and she plays a maid who supposed to be dumb as a stick. I hated to see her in a scene she looked worse and worse as the film went on. Jack Carson was alright as Joe he was a bit much but I think that was how the character was supposed to be.

            The Male Animal was an alright film. I do not particularly care for sitting through films made in the 1940s because they are all about America and how America is so great. It was great for the time because America was and has never been so patriotic but looking at them now with how the whole world is struggling and knowing how the world views America I cannot find these patriotic views enjoyable to sit through. I do love how in the end everyone, including Ellen, were made to feel like such fools for protesting what Tommy wanted to read. Tommy tells them all that they are objecting to something they do not know and that he is fighting for the rights of teachers, students, and the rights of everyone to do or read or say whatever they want and not be punished for it. Besides from the two funny scenes I mentioned the speech at the end was about the only good part of the film.

            The only way I will recommend The Male Animal is to see Henry Fonda play a drunk, Olivia de Havilland crying like a little kid and falling up the stairs, and for the speech at the end. If you like films that scream America be guest and watch the film.

 

^^ Henry Fonda/Tommy Turner reading Vanzetti's letter^^

Let Us Live (1939)

Have you ever seen Henry Fonda in Hitchcock’s Wrong Man? If you have then you should already know the plot to Let Us Live. And like Hitchcock’s film Let Us Live is based off a true story of wrong eye witness testimony and poor man put through the wringer.

            Brick Tennant (Fonda) is a good honest man with a loving fiancé named Mary (Maureen O’Sullivan). They both work very hard, he is a taxi driver looking to expand his business with a new cab and she is a waitress at a local diner. One night Brick and Mary go to a car dealership to pick out a new cab. The police have a display of the guns they used next to a police car and Brick casually mentions how the guns could be used in a hold up. Well, three robbers have the same idea and when the dealership closes they come out from their hiding spots and steal the cab and the guns.

            The next day Brick takes Mary to church. He waits outside while she says her prayers. At the same time a movie theater is held up by the three robbers and one man is killed. They speed away in the taxi. The police eventually track down Brick to bring him in for questioning and for the eye witnesses to see if he is part of the robbers. Brick’s friend Joe who was staying with him is brought in also. The two men tell the police they have nothing to worry about because they are not the men. The witnesses swear that the two men are two of the robbers and the police quickly arrest them.

            The trial does not go well. Mary testifies to try to save Brick but to no use the prosecutor makes her statements sound faulty. Joe and Brick are quickly accused of murder by the jury (who are so convinced that the men are guilty as they vote two of the men discuss seeing each other after the trial) the sentenced to death.

            Mary goes to whoever will listen to her she knows that Brick and Joe had absolutely nothing to do with the robbery and murder. As she is at a neighborhood store a bank robbery occurs and an apple she brings to Joe holds the same brand of bullet used in the murder. Police Lt. Everett (Ralph Bellamy) believes Mary’s story and wants to desperately help her out. Everett and Mary with the help of the local newspaper boy and his friends find the getaway taxi and track the robbers to New York City.

            Brick and Joe are eventually found guilty and the witnesses correctly identify the robbers but Brick is not the same optimistic man he once was.

            This was a really good film. I enjoyed Maureen O’Sullivan a lot. The more I see of her the more I like her. I was surprised to see she got billing over Henry Fonda but she was in the film more than he was. O’Sullivan did over act at times but that did not take away from her character. Fonda was as always very good I like him in whatever he was in. Ralph Bellamy did was he always did best playing the good guy who helps the main guy.

The plot and story of the film is based off a true story from Connecticut. There was a robbery and a taxi driver was convicted of the robbery/murder. Columbia planned for this to be a big picture but the Connecticut police did not want this to look bad for them and there was a lot of politics involved with the script and movie and it was subsequently scaled back. When Let Us Live was released it was given very little publicity and was released as a double feature. That is very unfortunate because the story was very good as well as the cast.

            Since Let Us Live is not widely known and was not a big release the film has never unfortunately been released on VHS or DVD. TCM aired the film over the summer as part of their Summer Under the Stars series when the star of the day was Ralph Bellamy. Definitely try to see this film if TCM ever airs it again or if it can be found online somewhere. The film is very thought provoking and sad that the judicial system can do something so wrong like they did.