Bowie and Keechie from THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (1948)
Film noir and its losers...
Much like Dix and Laurel from In A Lonely Place (1950), Keechie and Bowie from They Live by Night (1948) belong somewhere other than the dirty streets of film noir. Nicholas Ray evidently liked his couples desperately in love and essentially doomed. Come to think of it, that's perfect for film noir.
Based on the Edward Anderson novel ‘Thieves Like Us’, They Live By Night starts off noir-ish enough: Arthur 'Bowie' Bowers (Farley Granger) has just escaped from prison with the help of two bank robbers, Chicamaw, played by the always great to watch Howard da Silva, and T-Dub, played by Jay C. Flippen. They stop at Chicamaw's brother's service station, where Bowie meets Chicamaw's niece Catherine 'Keechie' Mobley (Cathy O'Donnell). She and Bowie flirt a little, before the guys start talking about robbing a bank. After the robbery, Keechie is left in charge of looking after an injured Bowie and with the press and the police's attention on Bowie, the two of them decide to go on the run...
Film noir is filled with people who really should have left things alone. People who didn't know what they were getting into but wanted to believe they did. And boy, do Keechie and Bowie take the cake. They were just kids. One of them allegedly killed someone at just 16 years old, the other was privy to her family's crime antics and ended getting thrown in the mix. Their desire to get away from everything and get married, was their way of rebelling. They knew they were not cut out for this and they didn't try to fight it. Not for long anyway. Bowie tried to right his wrongs, Keechie tried to save them both.
'You trying to say I should have a fella? And that ought to be you? Is that it?'
'I guess maybe it is.' Keechie and Bowie
They fell in love in a world that wouldn't let them be in love. And even though there is indeed something to be said about the complicit nature of their involvement in this whole mess, at the very least they tried to leave it all behind and not harm anybody else. All they wanted was to be together.
And so, the two sweetest people ever in a film noir ran off. And on they went... for miles and miles... Until they couldn't go on any longer, because *checks the how-to guide of film noir* ah yes, the past always catches up to you.
'You having a good time?'
'Such a good time, Bowie' Bowie and Keechie
The foreshadowing in the last 20 minutes of the film is clear and you wish you could do something to stop what's going to happen. But you can't. And so the original noir couple on the run face their fate as their hopes and dreams are shattered in a matter of seconds, in one of the most heartbreaking endings in the genre. Good grief...
We bid farewell to Bowie and Keechie and They Live By Night. Our next loser double-crossed so many people, so many times, I've actually lost count. The film is The Killers (1946), the actress is Ava Gardner and the loser... is Kitty Collins.
See you on the sunny side of the street.
They Live By Night is available free to watch on YouTube on the YT Channel @roundmidnight.
Thanks for the recommendation, I may have watched it on TV a long time ago, the title is familiar.
Very good movie. When you said you would be discussing this film I went to the library and got out the dvd. On the same dvd was”side street “ with the same pair. It was another good film. Not sure if you’ve seen it.