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词条 Knock on Any Door
释义

  1. Plot

  2. Cast

  3. Background

  4. Reception

     Critical response 

  5. Adaption

  6. References

  7. External links

{{Infobox film
| name = Knock on Any Door
| image = KnockonAnyDoorPoster.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Nicholas Ray
| producer = Robert Lord
| screenplay = John Monks Jr.
Daniel Taradash
| based on = {{based on|Knock on Any Door (1947 novel)|Willard Motley}}
| starring = Humphrey Bogart
John Derek
| music = George Antheil
| cinematography = Burnett Guffey
| editing = Viola Lawrence
| studio = Santana Productions
| distributor = Columbia Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1949|2|22|New York City|1949|03|17|United States}}
| runtime = 100 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget =
| gross = $2.1 million[1]
}}Knock on Any Door is a 1949 American courtroom trial film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart. The picture gave actor John Derek a break in developing his film career and was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Willard Motley.[2]

Plot

Against the wishes of his law partners, lawyer Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart) takes the case of Nick Romano (John Derek), a troubled young man from the slums, partly because he himself came from the same slums, and partly because he feels guilty for botching the criminal trial of Nick's father years earlier (he was innocent). Nick is on trial for viciously killing a policeman point-blank and faces execution if convicted (the event is shown in a dark opening scene, but the killer's face is not seen).

Nick's history is shown through flashbacks showing him as a hoodlum committing one petty crime after another. He even robbed Morton of $100 after a fishing trip that Morton's wife Adele (Candy Toxton) convinced him to take Nick on in order to make Nick a better person. Shortly after that, Nick marries Emma (Allene Roberts), and he tries to change his lifestyle. He takes on job after job but keeps getting fired because of his recalcitrance. He wastes his paycheck playing dice, wanting to buy Emma some jewelry, and then walks out on another job after punching his boss. Feeling a lack of hope of ever being able to live a normal life, Nick decides to return to his old ways, sticking to his motto: "Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse." He leaves Emma, even after she tells him that she is pregnant. After he commits a botched hold-up at a train station, he returns to Emma so as to take her with him as he flees. He finds that she had committed suicide by gas from an open oven door.

Morton's strategy in the courtroom is to argue that slums breed criminals and that the society is partly to blame for crimes committed by the people who are forced to live in such miserable conditions. Morton argues that Romano is more a victim of society than a natural-born killer. Yet, his strategy does not have the desired result on the jury, thanks to the badgering of District Attorney Kernan (George Macready) who delivers question after question until Nick shouts out his admission of guilt. Morton is shocked by Nick's confession, yet he still manages to arouse sympathy for the plight of those trapped by birth and circumstance in a dead-end existence. He pleads with the jury that if you "knock on any door" you may find a Nick Romano. Nevertheless, Nick is found guilty and is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Morton visits Nick prior to the execution and watches him walk the last mile.

Cast

[3]{{col-begin}}
  • Humphrey Bogart as Andrew Morton
  • John Derek as Nick Romano
  • George Macready as Dist. Atty. Kerman
  • Allene Roberts as Emma
  • Candy Toxton as Adele Morton (credited as Susan Perry)
  • Mickey Knox as Vito
  • Barry Kelley as Judge Drake
Uncredited
  • Cara Williams as Nelly Watkins
  • Jimmy Conlin as Kid Fingers
  • Sumner Williams as Jimmy
  • Sid Melton as "Squint" Zinsky
  • Pepe Hern as Juan Rodriguez
  • Dewey Martin as Butch
  • Davis Roberts as Jim 'Sunshine' Jackson
  • Houseley Stevenson as Junior
  • Vince Barnett as Bartender
  • Thomas Sully as Officer Hawkins
  • Florence Auer as Aunt Lena
  • Pierre Watkin as Purcell
  • Gordon Nelson as Corey
  • Argentina Brunetti as Ma Romano
  • Dick Sinatra as Julian Romano
  • Carol Coombs as Ang Romano
  • Joan Baxter as Maria Romano
  • Dooley Wilson as Piano player
{{col-end}}

Background

Producer Mark Hellinger purchased the rights to Knock on Any Door (a novel by the African American novelist Willard Motley) and Humphrey Bogart and Marlon Brando were to star in the production. However, after Hellinger died in late 1947, Robert Lord and Bogart formed a corporation to produce the film: Santana Productions, named after Bogart's private sailing yacht.[4] Jack L. Warner was reportedly furious at this, fearing that other stars would do the same and major studios would lose their power.

According to critic Hal Erickson, the often-repeated credo spoken by the character Nick Romano--"Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse"-- would become the "clarion call for a generation of disenfranchised youth."[5]

Reception

Critical response

Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, called the film "a pretentious social melodrama" and blasted the film's message and the screenplay. He wrote, "Rubbish! The only shortcoming of society which this film proves is that it casually tolerates the pouring of such fraudulence onto the public mind. Not only are the justifications for the boy's delinquencies inept and superficial, as they are tossed off in the script, but the nature and aspect of the hoodlum are outrageously heroized."[6]

The staff at Variety magazine was more receptive of the film, writing: "An eloquent document on juvenile delinquency, its cause and effect, has been fashioned from Knock on Any Door...Nicholas Ray's direction stresses the realism of the script taken from Willard Motley's novel of the same title, and gives the film a hard, taut pace that compels complete attention."[7]

Adaption

In 1960 a sequel to the film, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, was produced and directed by Philip Leacock starring Burl Ives, Shelley Winters, James Darren, Ella Fitzgerald, among others.[8] It was based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Willard Motley.

References

1. ^{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety177-1950-01#page/n58/mode/1up|title=Top Grossers of 1949|magazine=Variety|date=4 January 1950|page=59}}
2. ^Slide, Anthony. Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century by , pages 135-136, 1st edition, 2003. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press. {{ISBN|1-56023-413-X}}.
3. ^{{cite book |last1=McCarty |first1=Clifford |title=Bogey - The Films of Humphrey Bogart |date=1966 |publisher=Cadillac Publishing Co., Inc. |location=New York, N.Y. |page=147 |edition=1st |accessdate=11/04/2018}}
4. ^Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward, eds. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style; film noir synopsis and analysis of Knock on Any Door by Blake Lucas and Alain Silver, page 162, 3rd edition, 1992. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. {{ISBN|0-87951-479-5}}.
5. ^{{Amg movie|27603}}.
6. ^[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9F01E7D71F38E23BBC4B51DFB4668382659EDE&oref=slogin Crowther, Bosley]. The New York Times, film review, January 23, 1949. Last accessed: December 9, 2007.
7. ^Variety, film review, January 1, 1949. Last accessed: December 9, 2007.
8. ^{{IMDb title|id=0054021 |title=Let No Man Write My Epitaph}}.

External links

  • {{IMDb title|id=0041555|title=Knock on Any Door}}
  • {{Amg movie|id=27603|title=Knock on Any Door}}
  • {{tcmdb title|id=3950|title=Knock on Any Door}}
  • {{AFI film|id=25991|title=Knock on Any Door}}
  • {{rotten-tomatoes|id=knock_on_any_door|title=Knock on Any Door}}
  • {{YouTube|X-jkQhG0a1w|Knock on Any Door film clip}}
{{Nicholas Ray}}

12 : 1949 films|1940s drama films|American films|American black-and-white films|Columbia Pictures films|Courtroom films|English-language films|Film noir|Films based on American novels|Films directed by Nicholas Ray|Films set in Chicago|Films scored by George Antheil

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