You and Me – Indicator

Director: Fritz Lang
Screenplay: Virginia Van Upp, Jack Moffitt (uncredited)
Based on a Story by: Norman Krasna
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Barton MacLane, Harry Carey, Roscoe Karns, George E. Stone, Warren Hymer, Robert Cummings
Country: USA
Running Time: 94 min
Year: 1938
BBFC Certificate: PG

Norman Krasna was a young, up-and-coming screenwriter who had written the story for Fury, directed by Fritz Lang, among other hits. Eager to take his career to the next level, he talked Paramount heads into letting him direct a George Raft vehicle, tentatively titled ​​Wonderful, after being asked to write it. However, the studio got cold feet and the project hung in limbo for a while, further fuelled by disagreements over casting. By the time it finally moved into production, the film was entitled You and Me, Lang was on board as director, and Krasna’s story had been rewritten by Virginia Van Upp.

There were reportedly further troubles during production, with Raft and Lang not getting on and composer Kurt Weill leaving part-way through, among other issues. Once finished, the film didn’t fare well either. Lang disliked it, having problems with how some of the sequences turned out. Reviews at the time thought the film was strange and confusing too, and the film performed poorly at the box office.

It’s not surprising that people didn’t take to You and Me, given that the film is a bizarre blend of comedy, crime and romantic melodrama, with splashes of expressionism and a handful of musical segments.

In more recent years, however, figures such as critic Jonathan Rosenbaum and director Edgar Wright have stood up for the film, admiring its eccentricity. Joining these fans are Indicator, who are releasing You and Me on Blu-ray. Intrigued, I got hold of a copy and my thoughts follow.

You and Me opens in a large department store owned by Mr. Morris (Harry Carey). He’s a kindly soul who often hires offenders released on parole, offering them a chance at rehabilitation. The other employees are unaware of their pasts though, including the criminals.

Among them is Joe Dennis (George Raft), who was previously a hardened gangster but is now determined to go straight. His parole has ended and he’s planning to leave for California to escape his growing feelings for fellow employee Helen Roberts (Sylvia Sidney), believing himself unworthy of her innocence, due to his past. On their final evening together, however, Helen confesses that she would say yes if he proposed and Joe scraps his plans to leave town.

Impulsively, they rush to a quickie marriage chapel and start a new life together. Unbeknownst to Joe, however, Helen is also an ex-con and, due to her parole still standing, is prohibited from marrying until it has ended.

Helen tries to keep her past a secret until her parole has run its course but, when Joe comes across some clues that he misreads, the former criminal grows suspicious and becomes tempted to rejoin his old gang.

You and Me is certainly a curiosity. The strange mix of genres and styles is something to behold. I can see why audiences and critics at the time weren’t keen but I think it makes the film more interesting, even if it doesn’t all quite gel.

The semi-musical elements are among the most unusual and occasionally jarring aspects. As mentioned, Kurt Weill was originally on board but he didn’t get on with Lang and left the project part way through. A fair amount of his music remains though. The opening sequence, in particular, is a bit of a shock to the system with a rather peculiar semi-spoken ditty about how nothing in life comes for free. It has a flavour of Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’.

There’s another strange semi-musical section mid-way though the film, where the ex-cons reminisce about their time in ‘the can’. Lang wanted Weil to assist with this too but the composer had left the project by then and couldn’t be convinced back. Lang wasn’t a fan of the end result, made with music by Boris Morros, but it’s quite a striking sequence, even if it’s more than a little bizarre.

The blending of other genres present in the film is less jarring, in my opinion. The comical aspects aren’t pushed too hard, but there are some fun gags in the opening scenes, in particular, when we’re introduced to the former criminals trying their best to work in the department store, despite some old habits creeping in.

Although it’s a little silly in how it comes about and is presented, I also enjoyed a pivotal scene which lies somewhere between comedy and message-movie, where Helen teaches the criminals how crime literally doesn’t pay, using maths on a blackboard!

Sidney is the highlight of the film for me though. I found Raft a little stiff but Sidney lights up the screen whenever she appears and the tenderness and sincerity of their central relationship is highly effective in anchoring the film. There’s a beautiful moment early on when the pair secretly touch hands when crossing paths on separate escalators that is particularly touching.

The film looks great too, as you’d expect from Lang. You’ve got some atmospheric low-key lighting in places, giving a noirish feel, as well as some painterly, expressionistic sequences.

The film does fall into that frustrating category of telling a story where none of the problems would exist if everyone was simply honest to each other from the start. This is a pet peeve of mine, but the storytelling is largely effective elsewhere.

You and Me might be an odd duck in Lang’s filmography and gets a little ham-fisted and corny in its final act, but it’s not without its charms. I was hooked, largely by Sidney, and had fun with the film, even if it’s not up there with Lang’s best.

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