You Can't Get Away with Murder
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''You Can't Get Away with Murder'' is a 1939
crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...
directed by
Lewis Seiler Lewis Seiler (September 30, 1890 – January 8, 1964) was an American film director. He directed more than 80 films between 1923 and 1958. Seiler was born in New York City and died in Hollywood, California. Partial filmography *''A Bankru ...
, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gale Page, and featuring " Dead End Kid" leader
Billy Halop William Halop (February 11, 1920 – November 9, 1976) was an American actor. Early life Halop was born to Benjamin Cohen Halop and Lucille Elizabeth Halop on February 11, 1920. Halop came from a theatrical family; his mother was a dancer, and ...
. The film is from Bogart's period of being cast in
B pictures A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
by
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, before his breakthrough as a leading man in '' High Sierra'' two years later. The film is based on the play "Chalked Out" by Lewis E. Lawes.


Plot

In New York's
Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...
, young Johnny Stone goes against the advice of his sister Madge and hooks up with mobster Frank Wilson. First, Johnny and Frank steal a car, and then hold up a gas station. Later, Johnny takes a gun belonging to Madge's fiancé Fred Burke and lends it to Frank to use in a pawnshop robbery. This time the owner resists and sounds an alarm; Frank kills him and leaves the gun there, so Johnny cannot return it to Fred's room as he intended. After finding his gun at the scene, the authorities do not believe Fred's alibi and he is arrested and convicted of murder. Meanwhile, based on fingerprint evidence, Frank and Johnny are arrested and convicted of the gas station robbery. All three men are sent to
Sing Sing Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...
. Johnny is not a hardened criminal like Frank, and is tortured by the thought that Fred is facing execution for their crime. But Frank repeatedly reminds Johnny that he must continue "playing dumb", as both of them face execution if either confesses. The prison authorities are suspicious of their attitude to each other and transfer Johnny from working in the prison shoe factory alongside Frank to the prison library run by a mild-mannered older convict known as Pop. Johnny expects Fred to be cleared on appeal, not knowing that Frank also planted stolen property as evidence against him. When the appeal is denied, Johnny's pangs of conscience increase. By now Madge is convinced that Johnny knows the true killer and begs him to talk, still not suspecting Johnny's own involvement. Pop also appeals to Johnny's conscience. Fred's lawyer, Carey, eventually deduces that Johnny took Fred's gun and was responsible for its presence at the murder, but without evidence the district attorney will not request a stay of Fred's execution. Through all this, Johnny continues to "play dumb". On the day set for Fred's execution, Frank and Johnny join in a jailbreak. In that situation Johnny is finally willing to tell the truth. He produces a written confession that he stole the gun and Frank did the shooting, leaving it for Pop to find after the breakout. But Frank sees him drop the paper and takes it instead. He decides to kill Johnny after the jailbreak. But the jailbreak fails, ending with Frank and Johnny in a railroad boxcar surrounded by prison guards. Frank has a gun and starts shooting at the guards from concealment. When they return fire, Frank shoots Johnny and puts the gun next to him, then gives himself up, claiming that he was unarmed. Although mortally wounded, Johnny survives long enough to tell the truth, implicating Frank for both murders and finally clearing Fred.


Cast


Home media

The film was released on DVD by
Warner Archive The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...
on February 23, 2012.


In popular culture

In the 1939 film ''
Invisible Stripes ''Invisible Stripes'' is a 1939 Warner Bros. crime film starring George Raft as a gangster unable to go straight after returning home from prison. The movie was directed by Lloyd Bacon and also features William Holden, Jane Bryan and Humphrey ...
'', the George Raft character (Cliff Taylor) is waiting outside a movie theater. As he paces back and forth, he passes an advertising placard for the movie ''You Can't Get Away With Murder'' which is currently playing in the theater. When he reaches the turn around point, out walks Humphrey Bogart in his "Stripes" character of Charles "Chuck" Martin with a female companion. The characters of Taylor and Martin have a brief conversation before Martin, with his companion, walk away and the scene changes.


References


External links

* * * {{Lewis Seiler 1939 crime drama films 1930s prison films 1939 films American black-and-white films American crime drama films American films based on plays American prison drama films Films directed by Lewis Seiler Films produced by Hal B. Wallis Films produced by Samuel Bischoff Films scored by Heinz Roemheld Films set in New York (state) Warner Bros. films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films