MovieChat Forums > I Know Where I'm Going! (1946) Discussion > They Live by Night

They Live by Night

posted 10 years ago by Secondof5
5 replies | jump to latest

I've just watched the Nicholas Ray film, They Live by night (1949). It comes to a point in the film when the doomed lovers are asked if they know where they are going to which they reply "we know where we're going".Immediately the soundtrack begins to play the music most associated with the P&P classic and is heard almost as a lietmotif for the pair for the rest of the film.
The Ray film is set in 30's Texas and chronicles the story of a young man who falls foul of the law,takes to robbing banks, and tries to escape to a better life with a young girl he falls in love with.
It's hard to make an Irish connection that might explain the music's inclusion and so I'm persuaded that Ray may have referenced IKWIG in this,his first feature.
If anybody has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

[–] Steve Crook 10 years ago

The song started life as an Irish folk song, but has since been taken up and recorded by many people, including quite a few American bands like The Judds. So he could have heard it somewhere else.

Can you tell if it's the same recording of the music?

Nicholas Ray is American and might have seen IKWIG in the States, it was released there on 9 August 1947 (it was delayed by the war) so he might have seen it shortly before making They Live by night

I would be interested to hear if anyone can find proof that he is referencing IKWIG in this film. Then I could add him to the list of Famous Fans of P&P at http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Famous.html

Steve

[–] Secondof5 10 years ago

It's not exactly the same,there is a slight variation to it and it's fairly subtle at points.The music production was by Leigh Harline,but that's as much as I can offer. Who knows?

[–] Steve Crook 10 years ago

Well in that case the choice of the tune could have been by Leigh Harline rather than by Ray and it could have been based on their knowing another version of the song. But if it is due to IKWIG then that would certainly be of interest to me

Thanks

Steve

[–] Steve Crook 10 years ago

I put the question to the Powell & Pressburger email group [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/PnP/info] and Barbara replied thusly:

I was reviewing some of the sound tracks by composer Leigh Harline who included bits of the traditional "I Know Where I'm Going" in THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. Harline seems to like to interweave traditional music/airs into his film scores, e.g. "Waltzing Matilda" and "the Campbells are Coming" into his score for THE DESERT RATS (1953).

Given the question put to the lovers of where they're going in They Live By Night", it's not surprising that Harline would weave in the traditional music from "I Know Where I'm Going."

One could also take it back a step and look to the writers Schnee and Ray to see what reference they might have had in mind when they wrote those lines. Once written, the traditional music would certainly jump into Harline's musical memory. Or that's my take on it. :-)

Barbara

More food for thought

Steve

[–] NewtonFigg 9 years ago

In the 1940s, Burl Ives recorded albums of folk songs which, it is said, he had discovered while wandering around the rural districts in the 1930s. One modern day reviewer has called them corny, but it may be that those records were the first time anybody in the big cities had heard those songs. They apparently were very popular and Ives is featured in the movie Smoky singing several of them. One of the songs was I Know Where I'm Going. Its appearance in two movies at the time may be evidence of the fame of the Burl Ives albums.