How others will see it. This compelling true crime drama ends with a highly suspenseful manhunt. The killer is cornered, gets away, is cornered again, gets away ... you get the idea. But even a cat burglar has only so many lives.
Most people have never heard of this taut film but if they saw it, they'd like it, particularly if they watch crime dramas or crime reality shows.
How I felt about it. Here's a movie with only two moments of comic relief. A lady stops a cop disguised as a milkman, and we naturally expect her to complain about our creepy killer down the block. Instead, she prattles on about her landlady trying to poison her. While this may not seem funny to you, the scene works, because it adds a rare human touch to this often nerve-wracking movie.
The other comic moment has an elderly Oriental man, obviously innocent, caught in a police dragnet and conversing solely in Mandarin to frustrated police detectives. You're barking up the wrong tree.
One does wonder about this killer. He knows local police are using unprecedented resources to catch him. Why not leave town? Go to a different state, and start over again, as a simple burglar, if not as a factory worker? If you stay in the same area and keep committing violent crimes, you're certain to be caught. This brings us to the Stockhold Syndrome, where we begin to root for the anti-hero because we sympathize with his anguish. Never mind that he's anxious because he's cornered for his own vicious crimes.
Sympathy for the devil isn't nearly as obvious as in the similarly titled They Live by Night (1949), which has two beautiful young adults as lovers/criminals. Crime doesn't pay, especially during the Production Code era, but when our anti-hero goes down, we still feel his pain. Even tough we're also glad that his crime spree is over.
According to Turner Classic Movies, Jack Webb, who has a small supporting role here, was inspired by its realistic true crime atmosphere. He re-created it for his radio and television series "Dragnet," which featured no-nonsense cops tirelessly hunting down villains. The show was successful, but he missed a key point. In true crime dramas, the villain is always more interesting than the heroes.