You Only Live Once (1937)

A two time offender (Henry Fonda) is released from prison and attempts to go straight. With encouragement from his wife (Sylvia Sidney), it looks like he might make it. But societal prejudices and circumstances doom him and her. Directed by Fritz Lang, this critically admired film just didn't work for me. Everything and I mean everything is stacked up against them to the point that I'm surprised Lang didn't have the bloodhounds snapping at their rear ends as they fled across the ice! The film is fortunate in having the enormously appealing Sidney as the wife but even she loses that appeal when her character behaves irrationally. When she gets pregnant, the child is regulated to her disapproving sister (Jean Dixon) while she runs off to her doom with Fonda. Lang's direction is first rate and it's well done, I'll give it that but I found its thematic structure dubious at best. With William Gargan, Margaret Hamilton, Barton MacLane and Jerome Cowan.