MovieChat Forums > Knock on Any Door (1949) Discussion > Hard done by.. really?

Hard done by.. really?

posted 10 years ago by rayincumbria
3 replies | jump to latest

Sorry to disagree with some of you.. but of all people who get a tough deal in Films Noir.. I'm afraid i found myself thinking this guy did pretty well for GOOD breaks.. and then blew them.
He is good looking, healthy.. He got a lovely patient, loving, understanding wife, (who he drives to suicide) He hen finds another woman to love him.. He has a friendly lawyer who severely damages his career to help him.. He gets caught stealing cash .. and is given the chance to repay. He has believable friends who stick up for him.. He keeps getting jobs (OK, fair enough, not great ones.. but steady work)- till he blows it. He has break after break in the trial when witnesses foul up, or the prosecutor annoys the judge by going too far ...

Compare to how-many-other saps in Noir to whom EVERYTHING goes wrong despite doing nothing (OK, fair point, usually just one thing) wrong, who look doomed from the start.. Who long for the chances he gets.

I'm painfully aware I'm starting to sound like a Conservative law and order nut.. Honestly, I'm a fully paid up soft touch bleeding heart liberal who usually loves these (usually Warner Bros) type'social conscience' issue films.. But this guy.. His stock response to anyone was to fly off the handle and take a swipe at them.. and drop any friends in it.

Oh dear I already dread the replies.. The worst thing? I fear the people who will support me more than those who will condem me.

few visible scars

[–] thbryn 10 years ago

I don't think he was supposed to be a sympathetic character at all. Bogart wasn't exactly in tear at the death house was he? 'Why was this good looking guy going to the chair,' was the question you were supposed to ask. Not why didn't he beat the rap.

By the way the film was pretty unusual in the sense that the two lead characters lost. Bogie in the courtroom (mostly because Nick lied to him) and Nick for cracking after the question of suicide. This didn't happen that often.

The Hollywood standby of the death of any innocent female (and her baby) being avenged held up. Nick was the cause of her death so he had to die in the end.
Really the movie would have been extra-contoversial if Nick and beat the charge do to his good looks and Bogart making an expert close.

Kisskiss, Bangbang

[–] wjm6292 9 years ago

Sorry to go off topic, but looks like OP has some kind of strange syntax disorder?

[–] urgeking 9 years ago

The style is a little different, perhaps, but hardly a "disorder", in my view. I assume you're not basing your comment on "hard done by", a phrase that was once common but is seldom used anymore.