A Fritz Lang film starring Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda sounds like it can't miss. But it does. People react so absurdly that the story is just not believable. A trucker fires Fonda without any rational reason. Fonda is convicted of heinous murders only because a hat with his initials is at the scene of the crime. (No wonder Lang doesn't show the trial on screen.) A miraculous gun followed by any even more miraculous pardon. And then the epitome of inexplicable actions: Fonda callously murders the only person besides Sylvia Sidney that he loves and trusts! Please! This is just a bad movie. Maybe in 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, it was accepted. But today, it's a joke despite its director and stars.
Review of You Only Live Once
