Let Us Live (1939)
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Despite its comparatively upbeat ending, Let Us Live is one of the darkest and gloomiest films of the late 1930s. As working stiff Brick Tennant, Henry Fonda is once more cast as a misunderstood victim of society. Held up during a robbery-murder, Brick is himself convicted of the crime on the basis of circumstantial evidence and faulty eyewitness testimony. The authorities remain unsympathetic to the hero's plight throughout, automatically assuming that just because he's poor he's likely to be a killer. Only his sweetheart Mary Roberts (Maureen O'Sullivan) believes in Brick's innocence, and it is she who sets the wheels in motion for the ultimate capture of the genuine culprit, a scant few minutes before Brick's "long walk" to the electric chair. Based on Joseph F. Dineen's Murder in Massachusetts, the real-life story of a near-fatal miscarriage of justice in 1934, Let Us Live refuses to compromise its pessimistic tone with a phony "all smiles" fadeout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast:
- Maureen O'Sullivan - Mary Roberts
- Ralph Bellamy - Lieutenant Everett
- Stanley Ridges - District Attorney
- Peter Lynn - Joe Taylor
- Martin Spellman - Jimmy Dugan
- Harry C. Bradley - Driver
- Edmund Cobb - Blair
- Herbert Heywood - Theater Watchman
- William Royle - Prison Guard
- Lee Phelps - Cop
- Philip Morris - Cop
- Ian MacLaren - Priest
- Arthur Loft - Warden
- Harry A. Bailey - Drug Clerk Juror
- Jessie Perry - Head of PTA Juror
- Betty Farrington - Mother Juror
- James Blaine
- Clarence H. Wilson - Lunchroom Proprietor
- Emmett Vogan - Bank Cashier
- Charles Trowbridge - Judge
- Eddie Laughton - Cab Driver
- Byron Foulger - Defense Attorney
- Beatrice Curtis - Waitress
- Ann Doran - Secretary Juror
- Henry Fonda - "Brick" Tennant
- Alan Baxter - Joe Lindon
- Henry Kolker - Chief of Police
- George Douglas - Ed Walsh
- Eric Alden - Cop
- George Cheseboro - Jail Guard
- Dick Elliott - Rotarian Juror
- Billy Lee - Public Accountant Juror
- John Qualen - Dan
- Ted Oliver - Detective
- William V. Mong - Joe Taylor, Sr.
- Tom London - Police Sergeant
- Phillip Trent - Frank Burke
- Al Herman - Garage Attendant Juror
- Bessie Wade - Woman
- Joseph DeStefani - Dentist Juror
- Phil Dunham - Nervous Man Juror
- Ray Walker - Fred Robinson
- Monte Vandergrift - Detective
- Lee Shumway - Warden's Attendant
- Harry Holman - Businessman Juror
- Alec Craig - Bookkeeper Juror
- Dick Curtis - Cellmate
- Director(s):
- John Brahm
- Writer(s):
- Anthony Veiller, Alan Rivkin
- Producer(s):
- William Perlberg
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