They Live by Night is a 1948 American Film Noir directed by Nicholas Ray, in his directorial debut, and starring Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger. The film is based on Edward Anderson's Depression-era novel Thieves Like Us.
The story follows the tumultuous and tragic love affair between two young fugitives, Bowie and Keechie. Bowie, played by Farley Granger, is a naive and misguided young man who becomes involved in a series of robberies and violent crimes. After a botched robbery, Bowie and his accomplices are on the run from the law. While hiding out, Bowie meets Keechie, portrayed by Cathy O'Donnell, a gentle and kind-hearted young woman. The two quickly form a deep bond and fall in love, despite the circumstances that brought them together. As they struggle to escape their criminal pasts and start anew, their relationship becomes the emotional core of the film.
Remade in 1974 as Thieves Like Us.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Mobley. When he sends him to buy a car and pick up Mattie, his Brother Chicamaw one repeated instruction to him is to stay sober. When he gets back, he is drunk and crashes the car into an oil barrel. It may run is the family as when he Chicamaw turns up at Bowie and Keechie's cabin, he is desperate for a drink and reluctantly accepts candy when he learns there isn't any booze. After the botched Bank Robbery where T-Dub is killed, he is desperate for a drink and is later killed trying to rob a liquor store after Bowie throws him out the car.
- Alcoholic Parent: Keechie's father Mobley is an alcoholic, and is one of the reasons she decides to run away with Bowie.
- Bank Robbery: T-Dub and Chicamaw specialize in robbing banks, and recruit Bowie as the third man in their operation after they bust out of prison.
- Berserk Button: Chicamaw flies off the handle every time someone describes him as 'one-eyed' (he is blind in one eye).
- Cigar Chomper: Veteran bank robber Chicamaw smokes cigars, and lights one up whenever celebrating or stressed. When Keechie arrives home and sees a cigar in the ashtray and knows Chicamaw has been there to visit Bowie.
- Crowbar Combatant: Chicamaw swings at Bowie's head with a tire iron, misses and cracks the car window. The fight comes to screeching halt when Bowie pulls a gun on him and forces him out of the car.
- Disappeared Dad: Bowie tells Keechie how his murdered during an argument in a pool hall when he was boy.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: T-Dub's motive for committing the bank robberies is too raise enough money to get his brother Robert out of prison.
- Fiery Cover-Up: After the bank robbery, the gangsters change the escape car and before getting into the second one, the relay car; they burn the one they used to pull the heist.
- Killed Offscreen: Both T-Dub and Chicamaw are killed offscreen. T-Dub is killed during a botched robbery, with his death being revealed by a radio broadcast as Bowie and Chicamaw are driving away from it. After ditching Chicamaw, Bowie returns to the resort, he learns from Keechie that Chicamaw was killed in a liquor store robbery.
- Missing Mom: Keechie's mother ran off with a man who man who ran a Medicine Show, leaving her to be raised by her alcoholic father.
- No Honour Among Thieves: Keechie grows ill, and the couple seek refuge at a motel owned by Mattie, T-Dub's sister-in-law. Mattie reluctantly allows them to stay. Bowie visits Hawkins, hoping he can help him and Keechie cross the border, while Mattie makes a deal with police that she will turn over Bowie in exchange for Robert's release.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: All the main characters are only ever called by their nicknames. Bowie and Keechie's real names are revealed mean they get married (Bowie is Arthur Bowers and Keechie is Catherine Mobley) and T-Dub and Chicamaw's names are mentioned in the article describing their escape (Henry "T-Dub" Mansfield and Chicamaw "One-Eye" Mobley).
- Outlaw Couple: The film is considered by many to be the prototype for the "couple on the run" genre and is generally seen as the forerunner to the movie Bonnie and Clyde.
- Raised by Dudes: Keechie was raised by her alcoholic father after her mother ran off with another man, which explains why she is not very secure in her femininity. When Bowie is talking to her and asks about other girls, she snaps that she doesn't know how other girls do things.
- Run for the Border: Bowie visits Hawkins, hoping he can help him and Keechie cross the border. When Hawkins tells Bowie he is unable to help him, a bereft Bowie returns to the motel and informs Mattie he is going to leave by himself to ensure the safety of Keechie and their unborn child.
- Screaming Plane Baby: Bowie is seated next to a screaming baby on the bus when he and Keechie run away together.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Keechie is pregnant when Bowie is shot and killed by the police attempting to leave her a note before he heads for Mexico.
- The Trope Kid: After Bowie is mistakenly identified as the leader of the gang, the press starts referring to him as "Bowie the Kid".
- Wrench Wench: Keechie helps run her father's gas station (and, given he is The Alcoholic, she probably does the bulk of the work), and spends the early part of the film dressed in greasy coveralls.
