Panamint Its basically the old story of some prisoners on the run but manages to rise above what you would expect. The leads, little known Paul Langton and beautiful smoky-voiced Cathy Downs, are terrific together and deliver quality performances. All of the acting is generally good and as the film progresses you will get interested in the characters and what happens to them.Much is said about the darkness of the film's available prints but it takes place mostly at night and to me the dark nature of the story is suitable for old faded dark film stock, but yes it does need a good restoration someday. The copy I bought was viewable and good enough.Somehow this film, rather than the usual claustrophobic look of many studio-bound cheaply made films of the era, has managed to convert the closeness and night into an intimacy and immediateness that uses the "smallness" to its advantage. Very few small films are able to achieve this.Taught and well-acted by an ensemble cast, "For You I Die" breaks out of the black and white cheapie mold and is far above being just another obscure second bill throwaway.

arfdawg-1 Arpi Productions only produced two movies. This one and the following year, Sophia. Both directed by the same guy.This film is a tight production however the public domain prints are horrible. They do not appear to come from a negative but from a direct transfer -- film to film.That's means all the grays bleed out and you are left with blacks and whites in high contrast. Not enjoyable to watch.Too bad. For a B picture it's not half bad.The synopsis:A young convict,Johnny Coulter, serving as a trustee and with only a year remaining on his sentence, is forced to participate in a prison break by one of the hardened criminals. They separate after the break but circumstances bring them together again. Johnny and a waitress, Hope Novak, fall in love and, together, they help the law recapture the escapee and his henchmen.

MartinHafer "For You I Die" is a very low budget movie with mostly lesser-known actors. Apart from Mischa Auer, the cast is filled with talented but anonymous looking actors and actresses. However, this does NOT mean the film is poor in any way. And, apart from a lull during the unnecessary castanet scene, it's a dynamite little film.In an unusual break with conventional style, the film begins just after a prison break. All the things leading up to it you learn later in the film--such as how Johnny Coulter (Paul Langton) was forced into the escape even though he was nearing the time for his parole. And, with his 'pal' killing a guard in the process of their escape, Johnny is scared not only of being caught by the police but of his fellow ex-inmate, Gruber (Don Harvey). Johnny has been instructed to go to a certain small town and look up Hope Novak (Cathy Downs)--and to wait with her until Gruber returns. However, it turns out that Hope hates Gruber as much as Johnny--and both are scared to do anything. And, over the course of this week, they start to fall for each other--something that could easily get them killed.The film works well because of the Langton's nice but tough performance. Additionally, the supporting characters really did a nice job--mostly because the writing and dialog worked so well. Not a great film but an exceptional film considering its humble pedigree.

Robert J. Maxwell There used to be a secure niche in the movies for these inexpensive little B features in the 30s and 40s. The A feature would be some splashy, well-publicized show announced in overwhelming big red letters: "LEAVE HER TO LIMBO" or something, usually "based on the best selling novel" by F. Scott Bostwick. In between showings of the A feature, there would be a short black-and-white little movie, often about crime or cowboys. They frequently had titles like "Blondie Goes to Hollywood" but some of them were dandies They usually provided work for promising newcomers or old pros whose bones were beginning to creak. (Karl Freund, who was the photographer on Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", wound up shooting "I Love Lucy.") This one isn't a dandy but it's earnest enough. It's about a disillusioned inmate, Paul Langton, who escapes from prison and finds himself stuck in a road house run by the watchful and forbearing Marian Kerby, a Ma Joad for the common man. Her tiny family of guests and relatives is diverse and familiar. There is the blond hootchy-kootchy floozie, the hypomanic Russian that Mischa Auer always played, the drunken but affectionate old cook, and finally the girl of the fugitive's dreams, Cathy Downs.The performances aren't particularly bad. Langton will be a familiar face to movie buffs, though they may have a hard time placing him. He hooked into some conspicuous supporting parts in a handful of popular war movies. He was Ski in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," the barber who tries to cut Alan Hale's hair in "Destination Tokyo," and one of the sailors in "They Were Expendable." Always a likable and reliable player, his career never went anywhere. He's the lead here, a kind of bitter everyman, but if he's not dynamic, he's not an insult to his art either.Cathy Downs, an ex model, was an attractive young woman with a deep and honest voice. She was the object of Wyatt Earp's affections in "My Darling Clementine" and here -- less distant and reserved, with her hair down -- looks a little like Ella Raines. One can imagine why Langton finds her attractive.In fact, one can imagine that this might have been a far better movie if it had had double the budget and a bit more talent behind the camera. It was shot by the expert William Clothier, but the director is John Reinhardt. His work is pedestrian. Whenever a group comes together, they stand as if staged for a tableau vivant. Let's see -- Langton, you stand there, and Marian over there, and Cathy, get close to Auer and stare at Langton. Good -- now, nobody move. The drunken cook is Roman Bohnen and he makes little impression although he's capable of doing a good job in the right part, as when he reads Dana Andrews' commendations aloud towards the end of "The Best Years of Our Lives." It was written by Robert Presnell in a strictly functional manner but one feels that he's repressing some of the zest he brought to movies like "Meet John Doe." In a dull comic scene, Auer pretends to be conducting a recording of some orchestral work by Brahms and Langton complains that you can't put ketchup on it. "My friend," says the ever exuberant Auer, "if you had a million bucks in the bank, Brahms' music would not be more beautiful!" It's not much but it's a palpable hit. There are a few other examples, including a dramatic conversational exchange that incorporates that silly sounding title.I could be wrong but I'm left with the feeling that someone brought out a script, said "Make this in ten days," and then threw it in the direction of the wrong man.