You Only Live Once
A classic performance from Henry Fonda and the masterful touch of director Fritz Lang make this a classic of the film noir genre.
Eddie Taylor (Fonda) is a small time crook who has just completed his third stretch in the pen. He faces a life sentence if he re-offends, and that is exactly what everyone expects him to do. Only the saintly Joan (Sidney), his fiancee, has faith in him, and with her support Eddie is determined to go straight. But events turn against him and he finds himself on death row.
The predictable trajectory of a "social problem" studio film quickly dissolves in the fog and rain with which director Fritz Lang fills the frame; what emerges is a complex and tragic portrait of the plight of an individual in a society that is intent on hounding him to his doom. Fonda's incendiary performance combines with Lang's haunting images and grimly fatalistic world view to create an unforgettable work of pulp fiction. All this, and the best ever screen performance by two frogs as star crossed lovers. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]