film

Nicholas Ray, "the last great Hollywood romantic", who would go on to direct Rebel Without a Cause, made his feature debut in 1948 with this poignant tale of doomed romance adapted from Edward Anderson's Depression-era novel Thieves Like Us. A major influence on Jim Jarmusch and precursor to every lovers-on-the-run movie, from Bonnie and Clyde and Pierrot le fou to Natural Born Killers and Wild At Heart, Ray's film is a delicate blend of love and desperation, tinged with classic noir's deep sense of fatalism.

The film follows Bowie, a young escaped convict, and Keechie, the woman he falls in love with as they flee from a world set against them. Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell deliver haunting performances as the young lovers in a story of isolation, innocence lost and the struggle for freedom in a harsh society.