You Only Live Once Movie Download

9 / 10

Society is so unforgiving.
Sylvia Sidney is the secretary to a public defender (or “offender” as one client refers to him as) who is in love with a convicted felon just about to be released from prison. Henry Fonda is that man, determined to make a new start, but unable to do so because of the judgments of society. Sidney and Fonda are married, but once they settle into a new apartment, are tossed out when the owners find out about Fonda’s past. He quickly looses his job, being verbally assaulted by his boss for his past, and in desperation, tries to keep his wife from finding out. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time has him made out to be the top suspect in a bank robbery, and he ends up on death row. By this time, it is too late, and Fonda has turned into the animal that society already believed him to be, hatching an escape plan that can’t lead to anything but doom.

Poetly brilliant, this has a moving scene between Sidney and Fonda where he comments on how a male and female frog will die almost immediately after the other one because they can’t bear to be without the other. Fritz Lang followed up “Fury” with this equally magnetic drama on the wrongs that can happen to a man trying to get past his past, and how evil judgment and unforgivingness can be. Barton MacLane has a rare sympathetic role as Sidney’s boss, obviously in love with her, while William Gargan is the prison pastor who tries to help the couple deal with their fates.

Look quickly for Margaret Hamilton as the landlady of the apartment building where Fonda and Sidney live, not even overnight, as well as a ton of wonderful character performers. This is one of those films that will stick with you long after its over, in both its comment on society and its spirituality, felt in a finale where the lovers strive to find peace on earth, but obviously won’t. As their lives become more like Bonnie and Clyde, you can see why the desperation’s of the 1930’s have continued to be felt today.Read More