They Live by Night

They Live by Night
They Live by Night
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nicholas Ray
Screenplay by	Charles Schnee; Nicholas Ray
Based on	Thieves Like Us; 1937 novel; by Edward Anderson
Produced by	John Houseman
Starring	Farley Granger; Cathy O'Donnell; Howard Da Silva
Cinematography	George E. Diskant
Edited by	Sherman Todd
Music by	Leigh Harline
Production; company	RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release dates	August 1948 (London); November 5, 1949 (U.S.);
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

They Live by Night is a 1948 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray in his directorial debut, starring Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger. Based on Edward Anderson's Depression-era novel Thieves Like Us, the film follows a young convict on the run who falls in love with a woman and attempts to begin a life with her.^[2]

The film opened theatrically in London in August 1948 under the title The Twisted Road, before it was released in the United States by RKO Radio Pictures as They Live by Night in November 1949. Though it received favorable reviews from film critics, it was a box-office failure, losing the studio $445,000 (equivalent to $5.7 million in 2023^[3]).

Although the film is considered by many to be the prototype for the "couple on the run" genre, and is generally seen as the forerunner to the movie Bonnie and Clyde, the first telling of the story was actually Fritz Lang's 1937 film You Only Live Once, starring Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney. Director Jim Jarmusch cites it as one of the influences on No Wave Cinema and his work in general.^[4] Robert Altman directed another adaptation of the novel in 1974 using the original title of the novel, Thieves Like Us.

^ ^a ^b "They Live by Night". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019.
^ [1] They Live by Night at Criterion
^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
^ Video Interview with Jim Jarmusch on KGSM MediaCache

[afi-1] "They Live by Night". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019.

[2] [1] They Live by Night at Criterion

[inflation-US-3] 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.

[4] Video Interview with Jim Jarmusch on KGSM MediaCache

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