marktayloruk
I doubt if there's any jail on earth where the grasses operate openly. It's a pity that we didn't know what Stacey was in four-murder,at a guess? In reply to another poster-the reason why bastards like Pete Kassock didn't get what was coming to them was that, in this state, the penalty for that or escaping was life in the hole-handcuffed to the bars for eight hours a day,living on bread and water. Nobody should be treated like that! I hope Ross followed his release by exposing prison conditions and getting things improved. Yes,I was on the cons' side in the riot.
kapelusznik18
***SPOILERS*** Brutal 1930''s prison movie with framed reporter Frank Ross, James Cagney, sent up the river for a crime he didn't commit when he was getting too close to expose D.A Jesse Hanley's, Thurston Hall, dealings with and payoffs from the mob. Given a 1 to 20 year sentence for a phony DUI charge that killed 3 people Ross is determined to prove his innocence by exposing the man who framed him D.A Hanley. To rub salt into a wound in was in fact Hanley who prosecuted him at his trial. It's when Ross gets friendly with lifer Hood Stacy, George Raft, the two concoct a perfect plan for escape. Willing to spend a month in the "Hole",solitary confinement, so he can stand trial Stacey has Ross rat him out as the person who did in stoolie Limpy Julien, Joe Downing. It was Limpy who had previously tried to knife him which Ross prevented or tripped him up him from doing. For doing that Stacey promises that he, with his outside mob connections, will find out who framed him and get him freed from prison. It's while he's to stand trial that Stacey plans with the help of his hoodlum friends to make his escape.Everything goes smoothly until at his trial, with Ross as a witness against him, that Stacy makes his escape jumping out of a three floor window and into a getaway car. But in Stacey feeling that Ross betrayed by tipping off his friends at the paper he worked for to be there to get the big scoop that could have jeopardized his escape plan. Now feeling that he owes Ross nothing, in finding out who framed him, Stacey goes on his merry way as Ross, who's suspected in setting up Stacey's escape, is left hanging.***SPOILERS*** It's Ross' girlfriend and fellow reporter Jane Bryan, Joyce Conover, who gets Stacey to change his mind about Ross and thus now plans to give himself up and get a chance , while behind bars, to set things right or kiss and make up between him and Ross. This soon leads to a prison brake where almost the entire prison population ends up getting gunned down by the police and national guard that finally has a fatally wounded Stacey get the person who framed Ross a hood named Carlisle, Alan Baxter. It's Carlisle who just happened to be one of the inmates in the prison! I guess former D.A and now Governor Hanley couldn't or wouldn't give him a pardon. With his job in forcing Carlisle to confess to the prison warden Armstrong, George Bancroft, who was being held hostage Stacey ended his good deed by proving Ross innocent and ends up going down for the count in a blaze of police and national guard bullets.P.S Believe it or not "Each Dawn I Die" just happened to be Soviet Dictator Joseph "Uncle Joe" Stalin's favorite movie. Stalin must have enjoyed it so much because it reminded him of the prison or gulag system that he had set up in the Soviet Union that he loved so much.
ferbs54
Released in the summer of 1939, near the tail end of a decade's worth of hugely popular and influential gangster films from Warner Brothers, the studio's "Each Dawn I Die" is perhaps best remembered today for one reason: It is the only film to feature James Cagney and George Raft as costars. Raft HAD appeared in cameo parts in the 1932 Cagney films "Taxi!" and "Winner Take All," but those roles were nothing compared to the part he enjoyed in "Each Dawn I Die," in which he gets to completely dominate the usually irrepressible Cagney, and even emerge as the hero of the film. Rapidly paced and ultimately fairly moving, the film packs quite a bit of action and story into its 92 minutes, did justifiably great business at the box office, and remains yet another gem from "Hollywood's greatest year."In the film, Cagney plays an investigative newspaper reporter named Frank Ross. After writing a story about the town's crooked D.A., Ross is knocked out by thugs, splashed with booze, and set behind the wheel of a moving car. Three people are killed in the resultant smash-up, and Ross, effectively framed, is sent to the Rocky Point Penitentiary, doing "one to 20 years" for vehicular manslaughter. In the prison, he is assigned to hard labor in the twine-making factory, where he encounters "Hood" Stacey (Raft), a lifer with whom he bonds. To make a long story short (and "EDID" DOES feature a rather complex plot; this is a prison film with more on its mind than the usual big-house set pieces), Ross actively abets in Stacey's escape from the "Graybar Hotel," so that Stacey might use his underworld connections to prove Ross' innocence. But is there really honor among thieves, and will Ross be released before his imprisonment transforms him for the worse? In an increasingly suspenseful story line (based on the novel by Jerome Odlum), these are the main questions that come to the fore....Fans of Cagney's cocky, pugnacious tough-guy roles of the 1930s may be a bit surprised at how "EDID" spools out. His Frank Ross character may start out that way, but life at Rocky Point has a way of finding the cracking point of even the sturdiest nuts. Indeed, Cagney's sobbing breakdown before the parole board is simply stunning, and audiences would have to wait a full decade to see Cagney do a similar prison freakout scene of such affecting power (I am referring, of course, to Cody Jarrett going bonkers in the mess hall, in 1949's immortal "White Heat"). Cagney is aces in the film, despite playing the more passive role; his Frank Ross suffers terribly while doing time, and the viewer wonders if he will ever emerge the same man that he was at the film's opening, or become toughened and animalized, as was the case with Paul Muni's James Allen character in the superb Warners film "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang" (1932). Raft, surprisingly, matches Cagney scene for scene, and I only say "surprisingly" because Raft is apparently held in low esteem, in many quarters, for his thespian chops. But he is just terrific here, and his real-life association with gangsters gives him an air of verisimilitude that easily brings him up to Cagney's level. Cucumber cool, he easily emerges as the film's most admirable and resourceful character (viewers would have to wait a full 20 years to see Raft essay an equally likable gangster role, as Spats Columbo, in "Some Like it Hot"), while the growing admiration and friendship between the two men is very much the heart and soul of this picture. Cagney, a product of NYC's Lower East Side, and Raft, who was raised in NYC's Hell's Kitchen, make a marvelous team in this, their only real pairing. They are hugely abetted by a roster of great supporting actors, including pretty Jane Bryan as Cagney's sweetie; George Bancroft as the ineffectual warden; Maxie Rosenbloom as a fellow convict, who gives the film what little humor it possesses; and the dependably hissable Victor Jory as the crooked assistant D.A. and later, stunningly, the head man at Ross' parole hearing. Director William Keighley, who had worked with Cagney before, on 1935's "'G' Men," and who would go on to work with him three more times (on 1940's "The Fighting 69th" and "Torrid Zone" and 1941's "The Bride Came C.O.D."), fills his frame with constant movement, utilizes effective close-ups, and keeps the action moving at a rapid clip. The dialogue in the film is as rat-a-tat-tat as the rapid-fire machine guns that the National Guard utilizes in the film's (seemingly obligatory) riot sequence, and a repeat viewing may be necessary to fully capture it all (it was for me, anyway). Culminating with an explosive finale in which every character gets pretty much what he deserves (at least, in accordance with the Production Code of the time!), "Each Dawn I Die" is a hugely satisfying affair, and a great success for everyone involved in it.
Theo Robertson
EACH DAWN I DIE isn't a bad melodrama but neither is it a great one . The premise is sound , a crusading investigative journalist called Frank Ross is framed by bad guys and faces years in prison which sets up an involving story . Unfortunately the logic of the plot turns are never as strong as they should be and they become noticeable as weak plot turns . Of course it was made in 1939 meaning the fear of anal gang rape doesn't exist for film characters but there's niggling doubts that stop the film being as involving as it should and the melodrama and clichés do become melodrama and clichés One problem is that the most hated character is Limpy , a stool pigeon who nonchalantly informs upon everyone up to no good . He does this in a brazen way in full view of other prisoners which in reality would lead to the other prisoners killing him first chance they got . He's only been there a month before Frank is sentenced but even so you'd think someone would have bumped him off sooner . It's due to plot mechanics that he has to die after Frank enters jail , ie Hood Stacey wants Frank to claim that he was responsible so Stacey can break out of custody during the murder trial and Stacey promises to find out who framed Frank in return . There's no real reason for Frank to point the finger , it could be any prisoner and one can't help thinking Stacey would have more dependable associates who he could trust . In turn Frank is guilty of total naivety for thinking Stacey will keep his word . He's also putting his head on the block since he's helping a fugitive to escape . Wouldn't he be better off trusting his fellow crusaders at the newspaper than relying on the word of a convict ? Having said that if someone did something logical then there wouldn't have been so much incident . Just a pity the screenwriter didn't think things through a little more Frank Ross is played by James Cagney , who is the personification of someone who is a film star but not a good actor . This isn't really a criticism because he has a strong presence and good to watch even though his mannerisms are very exaggerated . Dare I say he was a star because of this rather in spite of this ? George Raft as Stacey also has a presence though thankfully it's less exaggerated than Cagney . Director William Keighley does manage a very memorable montage sequence where Stacey does time in the hole but he's not really on the same artistic level as Michael Curtiz and where ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES grabs you on an emotional level that makes you forget all the flaws of that film Keighley unfortunately doesn't which is something of a pity . It's not a bad film but not a particularly good one either
