UnowPriceless hyped garbage

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Ed-Shullivan I was mostly disappointed in Humphrey Bogart's performance as lawyer Andrew Morton who was too busy to defend and take care of a storekeepers assault charge while his little store was in the process of being robbed. The result being another lawyer from his firm who was unprepared to fight the case sent this poor innocent immigrant Italian storekeeper to the hoosegow where he unexpectedly dies of a heart attack and leaves his family without a father. The now fatherless son named Nick Romano played by John Derek is lost without his father's financial and parental support and guidance and ends up running with the wrong crowd in a desperate means to make some quick money by robbing storefronts and mugging innocent working stiffs. As the boy Nick Romano grows into a young man and learns his thieving trade in the school of hard "knocks" he runs into lawyer Andrew Morton who is burdened with a guilty conscience for the avoidable death of Nick's father while wrongfully in prison. So lawyer Andrew Morton attempts to keep an eye on the troubled youth Nick Romano but to no avail as Nick is eventually charged with the murder of an on duty police officer in Nicks neighborhood.The story of how Nick Romano found himself on trial for the murder of a police officer is told rather boorishly through Andrew Morton's interpretation to twelve (12) jurors. Typically in movie scenes that involve a prosecuting and defense attorney(s) there is a heated exchange while the accused is on the stand. In this case though the endless barrage of questions that the prosecutor district attorney Kerman played by George Macready throws at the befuddled accused Nick Romano is so choreographed that I thought I was witnessing a high school debate and not a murder trial.It was difficult to continue watching what seemed to be an ill prepared cast to handle a court room drama such that my mind kept wandering off as the film was unable to hold this viewers attention. Even Humphrey Bogart could not save this poorly delivered cookie cutter court room drama picture so the film title in my view would suggest that the vendors should please pass by my door as this dog bites with his honest review.p.s. Bogie's best picture in my view was (1951) The African Queen with co-star Katharine Hepburn and this is a must see if you want to see Bogart at his very best. Please read my full review on The African Queen dated August 04th, 2016

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . This question from sociopath Nick "Pretty Boy" Romano is the crux of KNOCK ON ANY DOOR. If you paraphrase what Nick's defense lawyer, "Andrew Morton" (Humphrey Bogart) says to the judge before Nick is sentenced to fry on an upcoming "Fri-day" (you can't make this stuff up!), it sounds like this: America's treatment of Her sociopaths is inhumane. Nick says several times that all he really wants to do is to "die young, and leave a pretty corpse." Anyone familiar with the Ethel Rosenberg case knows that electrocution frequently turns the victim into smoldering meat, which is not only NOT pretty, but not very appetizing, either. KNOCK ON ANY DOOR makes it clear that Nick has very little fun terrorizing all the local business and automobile owners with his constant armed thefts. Driving his wife to suicide is very hard on him. Killing his first cop gives Nick the jitters. Therefore, counselor Morton demands that all high school dropouts and first-time felons be tested while they're youths (still "pretty," and Un-fried) to see if they're sociopaths. If they are, Society owes it to them to provide a fatal overdose of something that will allow them to rest easy, "die young, and leave a pretty corpse" WITHOUT going through the trauma of leading a life of crime, followed by 20 years on Death Row, and public burning in the electric chair (or whatever the flavor of the month is on Death Row). After all, as Nick says here, they "didn't ask to get born."

JohnHowardReid Humphrey Bogart's initial offering as an executive producer for his Santana Production company, suffers from a long flashback sequence in which Bogart disappears while John Derek does all the running. Most of this flashback is both clichéd and dull. Fortunately, Bogie's scenes are not only more suspenseful script-wise, but are enlivened by the actor's usual charisma. Admittedly, John Derek does a reasonable job, but only Bogie and George Macready can handle the sometimes preachy screenplay with both charisma and authority. True, Cara Williams, Jimmy Conlin, Houseley Stevenson and Vince Barnett handle their lesser roles with similar conviction, but they are not required to step out of character. Despite the script's faults, it does provide some heart-stopping action both in and out of the courtroom. Nicholas Ray's driving direction and Burnett Guffey's superbly noirish photography also contribute. This film is now available as a Columbia DVD.

Goodbye_Ruby_Tuesday I wasn't expecting THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. I wasn't even expecting REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. But considering (or perhaps not even considering) the fact that the subject matter (juvenile delinquents, rebels, anti-conformity) was close to Nicholas Ray's heart, this is an unfortunately stale effort by one of the best and most important American film directors of the 20th century. Pretty Boy (a.k.a. Nick Romano, played by the perpetually puppy-dog eyed John Derek) grows up hardened and tough in a bad neighborhood on the Columbia Studios backlot. After years of jail terms and a stretch in a reform school, he returns home and falls for Pretty Girl (a.k.a. Emma, played to almost intoxicating sweetness by Allene Roberts). When he can't quit the life of crime, his pregnant wife commits suicide and Romano is put on trial for killing (or perhaps not killing) a cop. Most of his hardship is overseen by attorney Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart, the only lead actor who gives his role at least some intrigue and is therefore the only one who doesn't get the nickname treatment from yours truly), also from the wrong side of the tracks. He doesn't always quite believe that Romano is telling the truth and doesn't approve of his self-pitying ways (neither do I), but nonetheless he takes Romano's case and the battle is fought in the courtroom.I believe that films should stand on their own two feet and not be compared to previous works, but since Nicholas Ray was so clearly trying to recapture the magic of his astonishing debut THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, it's hard not to compare the two; after all the love story between Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl directly parallels Bowie and Keechie's relationship. Both stories involve two young adults from the wrong side of the tracks, a criminal hardened by his tough life and the angelic girl who he marries and briefly finds inner peace with. I never thought that anyone could give a bad performance under Ray's direction, but while Farley Granger was no Montgomery Clift, John Derek is a dime-store version of Granger; at least Granger was able to give a sensitive and genuinely compelling performance under Ray's fatherly direction. Derek goes through the motions but not the emotions that Granger did so effortlessly. And even the ethereal Cathy O'Donnell was smart enough to allude to the toughness earned from years of living in the wrong place; Allenne Roberts captures none of that, only the unbelievable angelic nature. These characters don't echo the complexity of Ray's debut; they are whiny caricatures of people we're supposed to feel sorry for.It's admirable that Humphrey Bogart would want to make a film about social injustice for his first project as a producer (this film was financed by his independent production company Santana), and he even lets most of the light shine on Pretty Boy. However, given Derek's poor performance and Bogart's coy cynicism, his golden integrity just hidden beneath the surface, and his brooding on-screen presence (as preachy as his closing argument is, it is well acted by Bogart), I wished the movie had been more about him, I wished the script not been as black-and-white as Burnett Guffey's cinematography. In trying to cry out for justice, the film just annoyed me with its condescending attitude and simplified message my six-year-old cousin could've caught. I recommend two Nicholas Ray films that are a much more stimulating and thought- provoking experience: the first is THEY LIVE BY NIGHT for reasons already stated. The second is his masterful IN A LONELY PLACE, his second film with Humphrey Bogart--and in this one he *is* in the center stage, featuring probably the most complex and darkest role of his career. I guess one good thing came out of KNOCK ON ANY DOOR: Bogart and Ray, who came from different ways of approaching their jobs, needed one film to get to know each other, how the other one worked. Ray once said that during this film he "took the gun away from Bogart's hands," and by the time they re-teamed for the second and last time, their professional relationship had ripened to friendship. Bogart trusted Ray enough to give a nakedly vulnerable performance in a film which you *SHOULD* look into.