Watch Each Dawn I Die For Free

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Directed by William Keighley, with a screenplay written by Warren Duff and Norman Reilly Raine, this drama features James Cagney, George Raft, and Jane Bryan (among others). What begins as a fairly interesting story becomes rather muddled and unbelievable toward its end, though it's definitely NOT formulaic. However, there's no faulting the acting whether it's Cagney's intensity, Bryan's commitment, or Raft's tough guy persona.Cagney is a newspaper writer who upsets the wrong people as he's trying to expose graft and corruption linked to some local officials (Thurston Hall, and Victor Jory). So, he's knocked on the head and put in a runaway automobile with a broken bottle of alcohol. The car runs into another car which turns over and bursts into flames, killing its three young occupants. Cagney is therefore wrongly accused and sent to the "big house" for 1-20 years. Bryan plays his girlfriend (Selmer Jackson appears briefly & uncredited as his editor) who works to get him out of prison.On the way to prison, Cagney meets gang leader Raft, who has a grudge against another tough on the inside named Limpy (Joe Downing). Max Rosenbloom plays Red, one of Raft's gang who's also in prison; Clay Clement plays Raft's lawyer. George Bancroft plays the honest Warden Armstrong, perhaps the fourth biggest role in the film; Willard Robertson and John Wray play tough guards who aren't above prisoner abuse. Stanley Ridges, Edward Pawley, and Paul Hurst play other convicts.Cagney looks the other way while Raft knifes Limpy, though he later denies doing it. After Bryan visits Cagney in prison, and brings his mother (Emma Dunn), Cagney agrees to help Raft escape. When Raft escapes, because Cagney had alerted his press friends to be ready for it, Cagney ends up having to go to "the hole" where he goes somewhat crazy for the injustice of it all. Because he won't admit to helping Raft, Bryan's appeal to Raft, now on the outside, for assistance is heard loud and clear. In an effort to feel like a "square guy" for once, like Cagney, Raft works to clear the newspaperman which leads to him actually giving himself up to get back into prison in order to locate Polecat (Alan Baxter), a con that had been one of Limpy's gang. Obviously it's at this point where the believability of the plot is lost.

Cagney and Raft are Stuck Inside the "Big House" with a Sadistic Guard and Solitary Confinement chained to the door and only allowed Bread and Water at Noon, not allowed to Talk, constantly folding Their arms, forced to Salute, and the Beat Goes On.Pulling Few Punches, Warner Brothers once again Unreels Real-Life Social Problems for Everyone to See and did it so well. It was the Studio's Forte and are Remembered Fondly as the Movie Company with a Conscience.One of Their Biggest Stars, James Cagney is Teamed Up with a WB Newcomer, George Raft, and Cagney allowed Raft a Meaty Part and the Actor makes the most of it. In Fact, it is one of the Best Performances of His Long Career. Not Known for His Acting Ability (more of a caricature or presence than a Thespian) Raft is Fine in this one.The Story is Stretched to the Limit of Believability at Times and is the Weakest Element in this Prison Pic. A Strong Supporting Cast and a Hard-Hitting Look Inside the "Grey-Bar Hotel" make this a Favorite among Fans of the Type.The Ending is also very Strong as the National Guard shows up and the Bullets Start Flying, Grenades are Launched, and Gas is Disbursed. Overall, Worth a Watch for Cagney Fans and to See Raft at His Best. But the Story is too Contrived and Convoluted and it makes this one Less than the Best of Warner Brothers, Cagney, and Prison Pictures from the Decade.

"Each Dawn I Die" is a crackerjack, black & white, Warner Brothers' prison yarn expose. The Burbank studio shifted its agenda away from gangster pictures to prison pictures. Rather that lionize mobsters, they tackled the grim conditions in prisons but they relied on gangsters to maintain tension and suspense. The plot is pretty preposterous, not only for the way that our hero James Cagney is railroaded into jail and the unlikely stunt that George Raft pulls to get him out of stir. The violence is staged with such finesse that you know what happens even though you never see the outcome. When a callous prisoner guard dies at the hands of the inmates, we see the primary inmate arm himself with a curved hook. The guard tries to get away from the angry inmates, but he is pulled back into the crowd. You know that he dies and you know how he dies, but you don't see the homicidal act. Meantime, this trim 92-minute melodrama emerges as a stinging indictment of corruption both inside and outside of prison. Cagney is as pugnacious as ever, and the Warner Brothers' stock company is as strong as ever. When he fails to get the goods on crooked district attorney Jesse Hanley (Thurston Hall), Cagney lands behind bars when the district attorney frames him for manslaughter in a hit & run. When Ross's newspaper refuses to print a retraction, the D.A.'s henchmen abduct Ross, douse him with liquor, and turn him loose in a car. A dazed Cagney collides with another car, and three die in the other automobile. A solemn, forthright judge sentences Cagney to one to twenty years in the pen. Meantime, George Raft is a gangster sent up to serve life. Society is definitely flawed in this scorching melodrama. No sooner does Cagney wind up in prison than he learns the corruption runs from the D.A.'s office to prison. Director William Keighley and scenarists Norman Reilly Raine, Warren Duff, and Charles Perry don't pull any punches. Everybody on Ross' newspaper knows that he was framed, but they haven't got a shred of evidence to substantiate their contention. While Ross is locked up, he intervenes when a treacherous inmate Limpy Julien (Joe Downing) tries to kill 'Hood' Stacey (George Raft), and Stacey promises to help Ross out of his predicament. "No matter how tough it looks or how long it takes," vows Stacy, "I'll get you out." Ross agrees to confess to the Warden John Armstrong (George Bancroft) that he saw Stacy with the incriminating murder weapon. Stacey wants Ross to turn stool pigeon so he will get a trial outside of prison. During the trial, Stacey leaps out of the courtroom from the second floor and lands on a truck with a cushion so he can escape. Conditions in prison are depicted mighty. Inmates are not allowed to speak unless they are on the exercise yard. A crippled guard, Lang (Willard Robertson), who harbors nothing but contempt for the inmates pits prisoner against prisoner and loves to generate discord amongst them. After Stacy successfully dives out the window to freedom, Lang and a gang of guards beat him up in a futile effort to extract information from him. Armstrong walks in on Lang and his cronies, and he warns him in no uncertain terms of the consequences he will face. "I've told you before I will not tolerate brutality in this penitentiary. I've laid down punishment rules that are fully adequate. And as long as I'm warden, those rules will be obeyed." This is a very important dialogue exchange because it shows that prisons were not flawed institutions. Instead, prison corruption was an aberration created by disgruntled men like the prison guard. Meantime, Ross winds up in solitary confinement, handcuffed to the bars, with no hope. Armstrong visits him in solitary and promises to get him open if he will divulge the truth behind Stacy's jailbreak. A hardened Ross refuses to sing. "You haven't got a thing on me and you're not going to get a word out of me. I know where Stacy lamed to but I'm glad he made it. I'm here on a phony rap and you've no right to keep me here. You've got no right to keep me here. So get this, from now on the rules are off, I'm going to talk when I please and do what I like. I'm going to be as mean and dirty and hard to handle as the worst con in the joint, and I will skull drag any screw who gets in my way." Meantime, Ross' girlfriend Joyce (Jane Bryan) appeals to Stacey to honor his promise to Ross. At first, Stacey hated Ross because he believed the former newspaperman had double-crossed him by alerting the press about Stacey. Anyway, Stacey tracks down the man who can clear Ross, but to achieve his goal, Stacey must go back to prison. Stacey knows that one of the inmates in the pen participated in the scheme to railroad Ross. The big finale occurs when the inmates orchestrate a jailbreak, but the National Guard shows up to thwart them. Stacey corners the canary, Shake Edwards (Abner Biberman of "The Roaring Twenties" who framed Ross, and Armstrong hears the confession. The National Guard close in and toss in tear gas. Stacey bids Ross goodbye and goes out in a hail of gunfire with Shake. "Each Dawn I Die" is worth watching despite its outlandish premise.

William Keighley directed this memorable prison drama that stars Jimmy Cagney as newspaper investigative reporter Frank Ross, who was looking into political corruption and racketeering when he is knocked out, then framed for manslaughter after they make it look like he was a drunk driver. Frank at first handles this injustice with his head held high, but despite his paper's determination to prove his innocence, he grows increasingly bitter and despondent as time passes, and he is subjected to isolation. He does befriend gangster Stacy(played by George Raft) whom he helps escape to prove him innocent, but that help comes at a high price... Well-acted and compelling film may not be entirely realistic, but viewer will likely overlook that because of the storytelling skill on display here, and features one of Cagney's best performances.