Thieves Like Us ***** (1974, Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall, John Schuck, Bert Remsen, Louise Fletcher, Tom Skerritt) – Classic Movie Review 6477

Edward Anderson’s 1937 novel Thieves Like Us forms the basis of two brilliant, contrasting films, and it was first filmed in 1949 as a beautiful poetic black-and-white film noir by Nicholas Ray as They Live by Night.

Director Robert Altman’s scintillating 1974 film version, released by United Artists studios under the book’s original title, features the admirable Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall in excellent performances as the doomed young lovers and social outcasts on the run from the law in the Thirties.

The first edition of Thieves Like Us.

In the story, three convicts go on a Depression era crime spree of bank robbing, as the youngest falls for a young woman he met at their hideout.

Altman directs with an amused eye and intensity, imaginatively using vintage radio programmes which define the period and mirror the characters’ dreams.

It is one of Altman’s best, least highly regarded films that somehow got caught between being an art-house movie and a popular thriller and didn’t find its deserved audience. Now we can look back in admiration.

Also in the cast are John Schuck, Bert Remsen, Louise Fletcher, Tom Skerritt, Ann Latham, Al Scott, John Roper, Mary Waits, Rodney Lee Jr and Joan Tewkesbury (Lady in Train Station, billed as Joan Maguire).

It is written by Calder Willingham, Joan Tewkesbury and Robert Altman, shot by Jean Boffety, and produced by Jerry Bick.

Anderson (1905–1969) later sold the movie rights to his novel Thieves Like Us for $500. It was his second and last published novel.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6477

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