James Cagney and George Raft in Each Dawn I Die.

Each Dawn I Die is yet another in the seemingly endless parade of classic movies Hollywood churned out during its greatest year ever, 1939. This one’s a prison yarn starring James Cagney and George Raft. Cagney plays intrepid reporter Frank Ross, framed for manslaughter and Raft is the aptly monikered ‘Hood’ Stacey, a big time gangster that Ross befriends in the joint. The story is filled with prison clichés but is action packed throughout and culminates in an extremely violent attempted prison break that somehow slipped by the censors.

This was Cagney’s second of three movies released in 39, sandwiched between western The Oklahoma Kid and gangster classic The Roaring Twenties. This also marked the one and only costarring vehicle between Jimmy Cagney and George Raft, although Raft had played a bit part as a hoofer in Cagney’s movie Taxi! back in the early 30s.

Director William Keighley keeps the stereotypical plot steaming along at a brisk pace. It includes a sadistic guard and a convict getting murdered by another inmate using a shiv. Cagney does some fine acting. He breaks down in tears of hopeless frustration a few times and at one point gets placed in solitary confinement (the hole) for a six month stretch. When he gets out he’s become a hardened criminal on the verge of going completely stir crazy. Pulling out the stops, a menacing Cagney threatens, “I'll get out if I hafta kill every screw in the joint!”

In a convoluted plot device Stacey has Ross finger him for sticking the inmate with the shiv. At his trial he executes a daring escape from the court house. The plan being that Stacey, on the outside, will figure out who framed Ross and prove his innocence. Things don’t go as planned however and everything culminates with Stacey conveniently back in the Big House just as the big break is unfolding.

George Raft delivers such clichéd lines as, “Okay, canary, start singin'!” From his mouth these words sound as if they’d never been uttered before. ‘Hood’ Stacey is the role he was born to play and he and Cagney, as the wrongfully imprisoned reporter, play off each other well. They were pals in real life and their scenes together fairly ripple with charisma.

Each Dawn I Die didn’t invent the prison picture but it has been influential on later movies in the genre. Overlook the plot contrivances and enjoy two of the greatest tough guy stars ever to grace the silver screen. And while you’re at it chalk up another classic to 1939.
 

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