Each Dawn I Die
Encyclopedia
Each Dawn I Die is a 1939
gangster film
featuring James Cagney
and George Raft
in their only movie together as leads, although Raft had made an unbilled appearance in a 1932 Cagney vehicle called Taxi!
in which he won a dance contest against Cagney, after which he and Cagney brawl. Raft also very briefly "appeared" in Cagney's boxing drama Winner Take All
(1932), in a flashback sequence culled from Raft's 1929 film debut Queen of the Night Clubs
starring Texas Guinan
. The plotline of Each Dawn I Die involves a crusading reporter (Cagney) who is unjustly thrown in jail and befriends a famous gangster (Raft). George Bancroft
portrays the warden. The movie was a box-office smash and remains a favorite among aficionados of Warner Bros.
gangster movies. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Jerome Odlum.
He meets a gangster, Stacey (Raft), who, as there is no death penalty in that state, is in for 199 years. They work in the twine-making room together and Stacey falls into Ross's debt when Ross saves him from a knife thrown by another inmate. Ross's reporter friends outside are trying to help him win vindication, by finding the real culprits, but they are having no success. Stacey agrees to help Ross find the real killers, if he helps him escape from a courthouse. They arrange that Stacey be named by Ross as guilty for killing of Limpy, another inmate and hated stool pigeon.
Ross goes along with the plot, but antagonizes Stacey by tipping off his old newspaper so the court room is full of reporters which jeopardises his escape. He escapes by leaping from a window onto a truck with a soft landing but makes no effort to find the real culprits who were responsible for Ross's predicament. Ross, meanwhile, is implicated in the escape and after being beaten up by brutal guards, spends five months in "the hole". This is a cell where prisoners in solitary confinement are handcuffed to the bars, standing up and are fed bread and water. Ross who has become a bad character is promised a chance at parole by the warden if he behaves but unknown to him, Hanley's stooge, Grayce has been appointed head of the Parole Board and turns Ross down, meaning he must wait another five years before he can try again for parole.
Stacey is convinced by Ross's reporter girlfriend, Joyce (Jane Bryan) to carry out his promise. He finds the man who "fingered" Ross and gets from him the name of the man who framed him: "Polecat", who just happens to be a jailhouse informant widely disliked in the same prison. Stacey, impressed with Ross being a "square guy," decides to go back to prison to find the informant and free Ross.
Stacey and Ross are caught up in a jailhouse riot using revolvers which have been smuggled in. A vicious prison guard is killed and the warden and some of his men are captured, as hostages. But the National Guard have been sent for and attack the escaping prisoners with machine guns, gas and hand grenades. Stacey gets hold of Polecat and has him confess to framing Ross, where the warden and his men can hear and Ross is vindicated. Most of the escaping convicts die including the badly wounded Stacey who takes Polecat with him and deliberately gets them both killed, so that Polecat cannot go back on his confession. As Ross leaves prison with his girlfriend, Governor Hanley is arrested for murder.
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
gangster film
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
featuring James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
and George Raft
George Raft
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
in their only movie together as leads, although Raft had made an unbilled appearance in a 1932 Cagney vehicle called Taxi!
Taxi!
Taxi! is a 1932 film starring James Cagney and Loretta Young. The movie was directed by Roy Del Ruth.-Plot:When a veteran cab driver, Pop Riley , refuses to be pressured into surrendering his prime soliciting location outside a cafe, wherein his daughter works, the old man's cab is intentionally...
in which he won a dance contest against Cagney, after which he and Cagney brawl. Raft also very briefly "appeared" in Cagney's boxing drama Winner Take All
Winner Take All
Winner Take All, an American radio-television game show, ran from 1946-1952 on CBS and NBC. It was the first game show produced by the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman partnership...
(1932), in a flashback sequence culled from Raft's 1929 film debut Queen of the Night Clubs
Queen of the Night Clubs
Queen of the Night Clubs is a sound musical-drama film produced and directed by Bryan Foy and distributed by Warner Brothers. It is now considered a lost film.-Cast:*Texas Guinan - Texas Malone*John Davidson - Don Holland...
starring Texas Guinan
Texas Guinan
Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan was an American saloon keeper, actress, and entrepreneur.-Early life:...
. The plotline of Each Dawn I Die involves a crusading reporter (Cagney) who is unjustly thrown in jail and befriends a famous gangster (Raft). George Bancroft
George Bancroft (actor)
George Bancroft was an American Hollywood film actor of the 1920s and '30s.-Biography:Bancroft was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1882. During his early days as a sailor he staged plays on board ship. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy, but left the Navy to become a "black...
portrays the warden. The movie was a box-office smash and remains a favorite among aficionados of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
gangster movies. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Jerome Odlum.
Plot summary
Frank Ross (Cagney) is a crusading reporter for a big city newspaper who is on the trail of a crooked assistant D.A., Jesse Hanley who is running for Governor. At the Banton Construction Co., Ross sees Hanley and his men burning books and ledgers before a possible investigation brought about by the paper that Ross works for. His editor Patterson backs Ross in getting Hanley but Hanley decides to get rid of him, so frames him. Knocked out and covered in whiskey, he is put in a runaway car which collides with another, killing 3 young people and is thrown in prison for one to twenty years on a charge of automotive manslaughter.He meets a gangster, Stacey (Raft), who, as there is no death penalty in that state, is in for 199 years. They work in the twine-making room together and Stacey falls into Ross's debt when Ross saves him from a knife thrown by another inmate. Ross's reporter friends outside are trying to help him win vindication, by finding the real culprits, but they are having no success. Stacey agrees to help Ross find the real killers, if he helps him escape from a courthouse. They arrange that Stacey be named by Ross as guilty for killing of Limpy, another inmate and hated stool pigeon.
Ross goes along with the plot, but antagonizes Stacey by tipping off his old newspaper so the court room is full of reporters which jeopardises his escape. He escapes by leaping from a window onto a truck with a soft landing but makes no effort to find the real culprits who were responsible for Ross's predicament. Ross, meanwhile, is implicated in the escape and after being beaten up by brutal guards, spends five months in "the hole". This is a cell where prisoners in solitary confinement are handcuffed to the bars, standing up and are fed bread and water. Ross who has become a bad character is promised a chance at parole by the warden if he behaves but unknown to him, Hanley's stooge, Grayce has been appointed head of the Parole Board and turns Ross down, meaning he must wait another five years before he can try again for parole.
Stacey is convinced by Ross's reporter girlfriend, Joyce (Jane Bryan) to carry out his promise. He finds the man who "fingered" Ross and gets from him the name of the man who framed him: "Polecat", who just happens to be a jailhouse informant widely disliked in the same prison. Stacey, impressed with Ross being a "square guy," decides to go back to prison to find the informant and free Ross.
Stacey and Ross are caught up in a jailhouse riot using revolvers which have been smuggled in. A vicious prison guard is killed and the warden and some of his men are captured, as hostages. But the National Guard have been sent for and attack the escaping prisoners with machine guns, gas and hand grenades. Stacey gets hold of Polecat and has him confess to framing Ross, where the warden and his men can hear and Ross is vindicated. Most of the escaping convicts die including the badly wounded Stacey who takes Polecat with him and deliberately gets them both killed, so that Polecat cannot go back on his confession. As Ross leaves prison with his girlfriend, Governor Hanley is arrested for murder.
Cast
- James CagneyJames CagneyJames Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
as Frank Ross - George RaftGeorge RaftGeorge Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
as "Hood" Stacey - Jane BryanJane BryanJane Bryan was an American actress who was being prepared by the Warner Bros. studio to become one of their leading ladies until she married a drugstore magnate in 1940 and retired....
as Joyce Conover - George BancroftGeorge Bancroft (actor)George Bancroft was an American Hollywood film actor of the 1920s and '30s.-Biography:Bancroft was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1882. During his early days as a sailor he staged plays on board ship. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy, but left the Navy to become a "black...
as Warden John Armstrong - "Slapsie" Maxie RosenbloomMaxie RosenbloomMax Everitt Rosenbloom, known as Slapsie Maxie was an American boxer, actor, and television personality.-Life and career:...
as Convict Fargo Red - Stanley RidgesStanley RidgesStanley Ridges was a British-born actor who made his mark in films by playing a wide assortment of character parts...
as Meuller - Alan Baxter as Carlisle
- Victor JoryVictor JoryVictor Jory was a Canadian actor.-Biography:Born in Dawson City, Yukon, Jory was the boxing and wrestling champion of the Coast Guard during his military service, and he kept his burly physique. He toured with theater troupes and appeared on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930...
as W.J. Grayce - John WrayJohn Wray (actor)John Wray was an American character actor of stage and screen.Wray was one of the many Broadway actors to descend on Hollywood in the aftermath of the sound revolution, and quickly made an indelible impression on the era in a variety of substantial character roles, such as the Arnold...
as Pete Kassock - Edward PawleyEdward PawleyEdward Joel Pawley was an American actor of radio, films and Broadway. The full name on his birth certificate is Edward Joel Stone Pawley, however, he never used the Stone name. It derived from a Stone family in Illinois.At maturity, Pawley was 5'-10" tall with thick black hair and blue eyes...
as Dale - Joe Downing as Limpy Julian
- Thurston HallThurston HallThurston Hall was an American film actor. He appeared in 250 films between 1915 and 1957 and is probably best remembered for his portrayal, during the later stages of his career, of often pompous or blustering authority figures.Hall's best-known television role was as Mr. Schuyler, the boss of...
as Jesse Hanley
Trivia
- Between the period of 1928 to 1941 this was one of many films to be bannedBanned filmsFor nearly the entire history of film production, certain films have been banned by film censorship or review organizations for political or moral reasons...
in AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
by the chief censor Creswell O'Reilly.
- According to Richard Schickel in his book James Cagney: A Celebration, Each Dawn I Die was Josef Stalin's favorite American movie.
- In this book Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden, author Bob Thomas says that prior to taking on the role of George Raft's younger brother in Invisible StripesInvisible StripesInvisible Stripes is a 1939 Warner Bros. crime film about a gangster unable to go straight after returning home from prison. The movie was directed by Lloyd Bacon and also features William Holden and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay by Warren Duff was based on the novel of the same name by Warden...
, William Holden took a small part in Each Dawn I Die to show that he could hold his own onscreen with Raft. Holden, however, is not noticeable in the film. Either Holden's scene was cut from the final print - or, more probably, the story is apocryphal.