They Live by Night

Ben Mankiewicz introduces They Live By Night, 1949.

Noir Alley host Eddie Muller’s introduction and comments following They Live By Night, 1949.

Noir Alley host Eddie Muller’s introduction for They Live By Night, 1949.

Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell) fetches Bowie (Farley Granger), injured and left behind after the jailbreak, to his fellow thieves, her uncle Chickamaw (Howard da Silva) and T-Dub (Jay C. Flippen), and her own crook father (Will Wright), the first meeting of the principals, in Nicholas Ray's They Live by Night, 1949.

Bowie (Farley Granger) and Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell), now fugitives and separated from his gang, make some quick decisions when their Greyhound stops at a diner, in Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night, 1949.

Innocent Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell) gets friendlier with fugitive Bowie (Farley Granger) while the leader of his prison-break gang, her uncle Chickamaw (Howard da Silva), moves things along, in Nicholas Ray's directing debut, They Live By Night, 1949.

The unorthodox and violent opening from the first feature directed by one of Hollywood's least conventional directors, Cathy O'Donnell with Farley Granger, then Howard da Silva and Jay C. Flippen, in Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night, 1949.

RKO’s trailer is not far off the mark for director Nicholas Ray’s eventually-acclaimed debut feature, They Live By Night, starring Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell.

Nervous escaped convict Bowie (Farley Granger), injured again in another misadventure with the gang led by her fugitive uncle, is nursed again by innocent Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell), remembering he bought a gift for her, in Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night, 1949.