00:08Hi there, I'm Alicia Malone, and today would have been the 100th birthday of Farley Granger,
00:13so on TCM we are watching a line-up of his movies.
00:16Up next is one of his best, a tense film noir directed by Nicholas Ray.
00:21From 1948, Farley Granger stars in They Live by Night.
00:25This was Nicholas Ray's first film as a writer-director,
00:29and though Robert Mitchum later said he was Ray's first choice,
00:33the director had thought of Granger from the start,
00:35ever since he met the actor at a party at Gene Kelly's house.
00:39As Granger later told it, Ray had asked who he would feel comfortable starring with,
00:44and Granger had suggested Kathy O'Donnell.
00:47They knew each other through producer Samuel Goldwyn, who they were both contracted to,
00:52and after they did a combined screen test, Ray knew he had found his leads.
00:56Granger plays Bowie, a young criminal who escapes from jail with two older prison mates,
01:02T-Dub, played by J.C. Flippen, and Chickamaw, played by Howard DaSilva.
01:07The three hide out from the cops with Chickamaw's family, including Keechee, played by Kathy O'Donnell,
01:13and soon Bowie and Keechee fall in love and go on the run.
01:17The film opens with a now-legendary helicopter shot,
01:21and Farley Granger wrote in his memoir that this was done on the very first day of filming.
01:26As he wrote,
01:26One big problem was that Howard's toupee kept getting blown off by the downdraft from the rotor blades.
01:33Reshooting that setup took an enormous amount of time because of the helicopter,
01:37but Nick, the director, persevered, and so finally did the glue on the hairpiece.
01:42From 1948, enjoy They Live By Night.
