Not everyone who came back from the Second World War was an angel, of course, and the 1946 film, Nobody Lives Forever is about a fictional less-than-squeaky-clean type. While the movie is supposed to be noir, it’s more noir-ish than anything. It may also feel a wee bit familiar.
It’s the tail end of the Second World War, and con artist Nick Blake (John Garfield) has been recovering in an Army hospital on Long Island from injuries he received overseas. When he gets out, his friend, Al Doyle (George Tobias) is waiting to take him back to his native New York City.
Nick wants to know all about what’s been happening since he’s been gone, especially about his girlfriend, Toni (Faye Emerson), who he left fifty thousand dollars with. Al tells him Toni not only invested the money in a nightclub but moved into Nick’s apartment. Nick is completely fine with that until he comes home and finds another guy’s pipe in the bedroom.
Naturally, Al wants Nick to get back into his regular trade because money has been tight, but Nick wants to take some time off first. A lot of time off. Before that can happen, though, he shows up to the club Tony started, bats Tony’s paramour Chet King (Robert Shayne) around a bit, and gets his fifty grand back before he and Al hop a train to California, where Nick rents a beach house. He spends most of his time walking up and down the beach while Al lounges around on the patio.
Things aren’t completely idle, though, seeing as the fifty thousand won’t last forever. Nick reunites with his old friend and mentor, Pop Gruber (Walter Brennan), who’s now working on the boardwalk selling telescope stargazing, and Pop tells him about a new opportunity that could make Nick a lot of money. All Nick has to do is date the very wealthy and recently widowed Gladys Halvorsen (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and persuade her to invest in a fake tugboat business.
It’s no shocker that there’s a hitch in the proceedings. Nick would be working for Doc Ganson (George Coulouris), who found the widow and set his sights on her money. Nick and Doc not only can’t stand each other, but Doc is insanely jealous of Nick because Nick is everything Doc isn’t. Doc wishes he could be a handsome and charming kingpin but he’s a perennial sour-faced jerk, not to mention he looks a little scary. Nick drives a hard bargain and tells Doc he’ll do the job only if he gets two-thirds of the money.
That’s not the only catch, though. Nick and Al check into the hotel where Gladys is staying with her friend, the very platonic and boring Charles Manning (Richard Gaines). Charles doesn’t mind all that much when Nick starts squiring Gladys around, because he’s also interested in the tugboat business, but what no one expects, least of all Nick, is he and Gladys falling for each other.
Things get crowded real quick. Tony shows up. Doc shows up. Pop tells Doc off for being a jerk. The bellboy gets very big ears and overhears important information. Doc gets impatient. The bellboy starts talking to Charles about what he’s heard. Nick gets cold feet about the whole deal and makes plans to go back to New York, leaving Gladys behind, but he finds that running isn’t as easy as all that. And because it’s a film noir, there are shots fired right before the dramatic finish.
This is one of those rare moments when I have to disagree with TCM, which claims Nobody Lives Forever is one of the first noir films. Er, no, it definitely isn’t. I mean, hello? Maltese Falcon, anyone? Double Indemnity? Murder, My Sweet? I Wake Up Screaming? Come on.
Film noir was nothing new by the mid-forties, and as noirs go, Nobody Lives Forever is lightweight and predictable. Tony, who I guess is the femme fatale, is pretty non-threatening although she does pout quite a bit when she sees Nick and Gladys together. Al is a competent sidekick, but there’s really not much for him to do. Doc is supposed to be menacing but he pouts as much as Tony does, which dilutes the effect somewhat. There’s a lot of repetition and not much real tension.
John Garfield is one of the bright spots, which is a good thing because for the most part Nick’s story arc is flaccid as well. I wish his relationship with Pop had been filled out a little more; it would have been nice to get a little backstory or at least a few inside jokes. Same thing with Al, who mostly watches the action to see where he can jump in. The love story is pretty thin as well. Nick’s chemistry with Gladys is minimal; romance seems to be borne more out of proximity than sparks flying.
Legend has it Humphrey Bogart was offered the role of Nick before Garfield was and refused it, but if that’s true, I have to wonder what convinced Garfield to take the part. Contractual obligations, I guess.
From a Second World War standpoint, the film has some interesting angles. It was completed in 1944 and looks it because there are a LOT of men and women in uniform running around. By 1945 the number of uniforms seen in movies tapered off substantially because the public was extremely weary of the war and didn’t want to be reminded of it when they went to the movies, so releasing a movie like Nobody Lives Forever after the fact was not without risk. However, the film brought in a respectable $148.1M at the box office and the film was later adapted for the Lux Radio Theater, starring Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman.
The critics were unimpressed. Bosley Crowther used such descriptors as “formula,” “cliched,” “standardized,” and “nothing original,” and seemed to find George Coulouris to be the only standout, saying Coulouris “chews and mangles his part as the villian with all the gustation of a man eating porterhouse steak.”
Nobody Lives Forever is not great noir, but it’s not terrible, either. It’s just there. John Garfield fans may want to see it at least once, though, just for completionism’s sake.
Another review is coming out on Friday. As always, thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…
Nobody Lives Forever is available on DVD from Amazon.
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Sometimes not-great film noir is good enough 🙂 This one has some interesting points, for sure! Definitely don’t know where TCM is getting that “one of the first noir films” idea, though. Um, not even close. Huh.
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