bkoganbing John Garfield took his Mickey Borden character from Four Daughters and used it again for Dust Be My Destiny. Teamed again with Priscilla Lane, Garfield is cast once again as a character seemingly cursed by the fates and by people who just won't give him a break.When we first meet Garfield he's in familiar prison garb and being brought into the warden's office where warden John Hamilton informs him he's now free. It seems as though the robbery he was charged with was committed by another who confessed it on his deathbed. Serving almost two years for something he didn't do is bound to give anyone a bad attitude. It's that which carries him throughout this film.Picked up for vagrancy even though he helped capture a pair of fleeing criminals he gets sentenced to a work farm where he meets Priscilla Lane who is the stepdaughter of a drunken sadistic foreman. The two run after Garfield accidentally kills the stepfather who had a heart condition and was drunk and aggressive.After that the film is a series of vignettes where Garfield and Lane marry and hit the road as fugitives. Along the way they meet all kinds of folks who actually do give him breaks though Garfield is blind to see it.Warner Brothers put a whole lot of familiar faces from their stock company in the cast. At times Garfield does get a bit over the top and melodramatic with his anguish, but no more so than this occasionally over the top and melodramatic film calls for. Dust Be My Destiny is a film set firmly in Depression Era America and it's truly dated. Still fans of Garfield will be satisfied.

jjnxn-1 John Garfield and Priscilla Lane always made a good team and this is one of their best pictures. Being a Warners film the subject of a young couple in love and on the run is given the gritty treatment that suits the story and the pair do very well in conveying the hardships faced. The wedding scene is particularly well played by both. As with most of the studios films at the time it looks at the problem through the lens of current events and society's ills. Not a timeless classic like Priscilla's Saboteur or Garfield's The Postman Always Rings Twice but a solid film with excellent work by the stars as well as the supporting cast.

MartinHafer The film begins with John Garfield in prison. It turns out, however, after serving a year and a half, the REAL culprit confesses and Garfield is released. Considering everything, it's very understandable that he's bitter.Oddly, the authorities appeared to have done NOTHING to help Garfield after his release. Now he's a hobo riding the rails. And, when he and a couple teens (Billy Halop and Bobby Jordan) are picked up for vagrancy, they are sent to a work farm! Talk about adding insult to injury! The farm has a sadistic drunk as a foreman and he makes life tough for Garfield. Along the way, he meets up with the drunk's step-daughter (Priscilla Lane) and they fall in love. Later, when her drunk father attacks Garfield, John defends himself and strikes the old guy--and the man dies. In desperation, the pair fun from the farm and eventually get married. Along the way, they meet up with a lot of people who inexplicably like the couple and treat them with kindness. And, in the end, when Garfield is caught and tried for the killing, these people come from all over the country to speak on his behalf.Although I'll admit that the film is preachy (especially during the defense's closing arguments), it is highly effective and entertaining. There are also a lot of excellent performances that all make it well worth seeing. An excellent film--the sort of Depression-era crime drama and social commentary that Warner Brothers did best.

sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** John Garfield's electrifying yet touching performance as fugitive from he law Joe Bell lifts this very convoluted and predictable movie about a man with a chip on his shoulder to where it gets to you no matter how corny and dated it is. Sent up the river for 16 months for a crime he didn't commit Joe Bell is released when the real criminal was arrested for another crime and confessed to the one that Joe was convicted off. Bitter at society for the raw deal it gave him Joe spends the rest of the movie getting into trouble, from being arrested as a vagrant to being on the run for a murder, with a number of total strangers coming to his aid. The strangers help the confused and quick-tempered young man out despite jeopardizing their own safety and freedom in doing it.First there's the old railroad break-man Pop, Charlie Grapewin, who let Joe and two of his hobo friends the Glenn brothers Hank & Jimmy, Bill Holap & Bobby Jordan, stay in a box-cart when he should have had them arrested. Later Joe hungry and desperate needing, together with his newlywed wife Mable (Priscilla Lane),a bite to eat meets kindly grocery store owner, Ferike Boros. Ferike offers Joe food for free seeing that the young man didn't have a dime on him. This act of kindness has the both guilt-ridden and embarrassed Joe walks out of the store, forgetting about his plans to rob it. and not take up Freike's offer for a free meal.On the run and always a step ahead of the police Joe and Mable, who's step-father Charlie Garreth(Stanley Ridge) was the boss of the work farm whom Joe accidentally killed, end up in a small town where Joe finally lands a job that can make him a productive citizen. Joe becomes a photojournalist when he accidentally snapped a number of photos of a bank robbery that later resulted in the capture of the robbers.Being a local hero Joe is very apprehensive to have his photo taken. His boss newspaper editor Mike Leonard, Alan Hale, hearing Joe out about his past misfortunes with the law takes the credit himself for the photos, to keep Joe from having his face plastered all over the papers. This has Mike end up almost being kidnapped by the hoods who robbed the bank. Joe seeing that Mike is about to be kidnapped and possibly murdered runs to his aid and not only saves his life but ends up getting all the unwanted publicity that he tried to avoid.Not all that predictable of an ending "Dust be my Destiny" has all the people who helped Joe throughout the movie come to his defense. This leads the jury to find Joe innocent of the murder of Charlie Garreth due to extenuating circumstances. The bitter young man in the end learned that the world, and the deck of cards it dealt him, wasn't against him and having a persecution complex would only makes things more difficult not easy for the combative Joe Bell.Made in 1939 "Dust be my Destiny" is not as corny and dated as you would have at first thought. John Garfield as well as Priscilla Lane's performances don't come across looking phony at all and. Their attempt to live honest and decent lives in spite of being on the lamb shows that, at least with John Garfield's Joe Bell, whatever miscarriage of justice that they were victim of it didn't drive the two to forsake the law and choose a life of crime.