![]() #The last express 1938 dvd movie#The film opens with “The Cash Register Song,” sung by an accented operatic voice who sounds to me like Fortunio Bonanova (who delivered another Well-Gershwin composition as Christopher Columbus in “Where Do We Go From Here”?) over a montage of stolen goods, including a movie projector. Two or three of them were jettisoned at some point - it boggles the mind to imagine Raft and Sidney singing a planned love duet, even by Weill - but what’s left is unlike any other musical of that era. It was apparently Lang’s suggestion that that fellow German emigre Kurt Weill be assigned to write the songs with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Lang brought in Sidney to replace Lombard, who had already moved onto another film, and Virginia Van Upp (whose writer-producer career is worthy of further research) was assigned to darken Krasna’s script. Unlike those two, Lang didn’t originate “You and Me,” which was supposed to be the directorial debut of screenwriter Norman Krasna.īut Raft and his originally assigned co-star, Carole Lombard, balked at an inexperienced director, and Lang agreed to step in and take on material unlike anything else in his career. She is extremely well played by Sylvia Sidney - whose remarkably resume runs from Von Sternberg (“An American Tragedy”) to Tim Burton (“Mars Attacks!”) - in her third consecutive film for Lang (“Fury” and “You Only Live Twice”). What Joe doesn’t suspect is that Helen, the fellow employee who he briefly holds hands with as their escalators move in opposite directions - a swooningly romantic touch more like Frank Borzage than Lang - is also out of stir (and, as the script would have it, is forbidden by her parole to date, much less marry Joe). George Raft, a big star of the era who is often unfairly maligned by contemporary critics, gives one of his most vulnerable performances as Joe Dennis, an ex-convict who works at a Manhattan store whose owner Jerome Morris (western legend Harry Carey, cast wildly against type) believes in giving them a second break. ![]() Not a noir like the other three in the set - though it certainly has more of a trademark German expressionist look than a couple of them - it’s part romantic comedy, part Depression-era drama, part Kurt Weill musical and part illustrated lecture that “Crime Does Not Pay.” Fritz Lang’s “You and Me” (1938), a strange and imperfect movie that I love more on each viewing, has finally arrived on DVD via the TCM Vault Collection, as part of its second “Dark Crimes” collection. ![]()
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