They Live By Night - Production

Production

The novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson had been bought by RKO in 1941 for $10,000. After numerous writers tried to make a screenplay out of it, nothing became of it. According to producer John Houseman, "I found the book and gave it to Nick to read, and he fell madly in love with it--as indeed I did, but Nick particularly was very familiar with that territory. He'd been there when he worked with the Lomaxes, he'd been there when he worked for the Department of Agriculture, and so on. And that whole Depression stuff was terribly his stuff. So he sat down and wrote the treatment. I'd come home at night and we'd go over it; I'd edit it a little, that's all, and it was very, very good.". Houseman would repeatedly send in treatments, fronting for the novice Ray. Houseman, who had considerable authority as a producer, was aware of Ray's passion for the project, and there was never any doubt that Ray would direct the film.

Much to the dismay of Ray and Houseman, however, RKO didn't see any commercial value in the story, especially because Ray had had no previous film directing experience. In early 1947, producer Dore Schary became the production head of RKO with hopes of turning it into the most adventurous studio. Schary became known for his liberal values and for giving novice directors the chance to make their debuts. Schary read Ray's treatment and on February 10, Ray signed a contract to RKO with a note by Schary specifying that "It is the intention to have him direct his first project Thieves Like Us."

Houseman hired Charles Schnee to write the screenplay, but he was concerned that he wouldn't alter Ray's treatment. Ray and Schnee worked together to make the treatment into a true script without any problems, and a completed script was submitted to RKO in May 1947.

On June 23, 1947, Ray began shooting his first film. The first scene shot was the opening scene of the film: a tracking shot of Bowie, T-Dub, and Chickamaw escaping from prison in a stolen car. Ray decided to use a helicopter, which had previously been used for establishing shots of landscapes, but never before had it been used to shoot action. This film is sometimes considered the first to use a helicopter for this purpose and predates James Wong Howe's celebrated final shot for Picnic by eight years. Four takes were required, with the second one being in the final cut.

For the rest of the day Ray used the helicopter for other scenes of the movie. Making They Live by Night under Houseman and Schary's guidance remained probably the only time in Ray's career when he had complete creative control, and not unlike Orson Welles's debut Citizen Kane (1941), also made at RKO for Houseman, Ray experimented with sound and cinematography. Ray's biographer notes that "Only Welles similarly tried to define acoustic and even verbal textures as much as the visual." Renowned editor Sherman Todd also urged Ray to experiment and break the rules.

Filming completed in October 1947. Despite an excellent preview, the studio didn't know how to market the film, and Howard Hughes's takeover of RKO exacerbated the situation. Hughes shelved the film for two years before releasing it to a single theater in the UK to enthusiastic reviews (one such rave review came from Gavin Lambert, who eventually became a screenwriter for Ray), and it was finally released in the US in November 1949 under the title They Live by Night, after being changed from Thieves Like Us (the source novel's name), The Twisted Road, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, and Your Red Wagon. The title, chosen from an audience poll, was favored by Hughes.

During those two years, however, many of the rich living in Hollywood had their own personal screening rooms and many saw the film, which led to further employment of its cast and crew -- Alfred Hitchcock cast Farley Granger in Rope (1948) upon seeing this film, and Humphrey Bogart, greatly impressed by Ray's direction, hired him to direct his own independent production Knock on Any Door (1949) at Columbia Pictures.