They Live by Night

Not my favorite film noir. (It's *kind of* noir.) It's more about the doomed romance of Farley Granger's character and the woman he marries. It is, however, a film that effectively conveys the innocent quality of Farley Granger as an actor. The two hardboiled characters that Granger's character runs around with—Chicamaw and T-Dub—are appealing in their nastiness, however. The film also appealingly depicts some eccentricities of small town American life—the guy who performs the weddings by the bus stop; the woman who works in the diner; the guy who rents Granger's character the cabin. The Criterion edition contains an "Audio commentary featuring film historian Eddie Muller and actor Farley Granger". Eddie Muller has some insights, but Farley Granger sounds rather old and generally forgetful about making the film. They both make the case that Nicholas Ray treated actors well. Eddie Muller points out that this film, Nicholas Ray's first, involved a number of people involved with making *Citizen Kane*, another first film. He argues they are the two best first films. (Maybe in Hollywood, although he doesn't say so explicitly.)