The reputation of John Garfield has suffered somewhat on account of his being accused of Communism by that bigoted lunatic Joseph McCarthy. It changes nothing in that John Garfield was a fine actor, one of the best of his generation. He was an actor who could modify his style of that from the theatre, so that he could be natural and convincing on screen. "Warner Bros" didn't really appreciate the value of such a talent and the films Garfield was forced to do, were not worthy of him at all. However, "Dust Be My Destiny" is a very watchable movie. Even though Garfield is playing the kind of character he was stuck with for a while, he is nevertheless very good. For years, he was always cast as those people who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, usually down to bad luck rather than being criminally inclined. In this film, Garfield is a man on the run with a young lady by his side. Her drunken stepfather is dead due to an accident and Garfield has been innocently implicated. He and his girlfriend take to the countryside, barely staying one step ahead of the authorities. They hop onto freight trains, hitchhike along the highway. It is a tense yarn where you don't know what is going to happen next and I found the experience exciting. Frank McHugh is totally wasted in a cameo appearance as a rather insistent wedding photographer but Alan Hale does well as a newspaper editor who takes the wanted youngsters under his wing. Two of the Dead End Kids make an appearance but they are written out quite early on. Very enjoyable.

It's difficult to believe that this collection of tired clichés and cardboard characters was written by Robert Rossen but there you go. Having signed Julie Garfield from the Group Theatre Warners thrust him into one tough-guy-who-never-had-a-chance vehicle after another after it paid off handsomely in his debut Four Daughters. Not one to balk at hedging their bets the freres Warner teamed him once again with Priscilla Lane in this slice of hokum rather than slice of life opus. If Howard Hawks had a knack for coming in at the tail-end of a genre and making the definitive example (see: Only Angels Have Wings) Lewis Seiler just came in at the tail-end of a genre and added nothing. Garfield gets out of stir at the beginning only to be informed by the warden that he had been wrongfully convicted; he then gets a series of bad breaks punctuated by false hopes until it all ends in smiles. Along the way he is helped by several people who behave unrealistically, somehow acquires a camera whilst not having change of a match and ... well that's about as credible as it gets. Always nice to see Garfield and Lane but don't raise your hopes.

****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.

You can see why John Garfield rocketed to stardom just from watching this film: he has a tough but charismatic demeanor and is a natural born actor. He plays an embittered, cynical and distrustful youth, who is released from prison at the start, being told he was wrongly convicted when the real culprit was caught and confessed. He vows that he will never again trust authorities. He lands in a state work farm because of vagrancy and meets Priscilla Lane, the stepdaughter of the yard boss (Stanley Ridges) and they fall in love. But they are caught in an embrace by Ridges, who slaps Lane, incensing Garfield enough to hit Ridges, who dies of a heart attack due to his poor health caused by alcoholism. They flee and feel safe over the border but are almost penniless, so they take advantage of a promotion at a movie theater and get married on stage free of charge with lots of bonuses, despite it being a humiliating experience for both. Then they hear Ridges' death is considered a murder and they are wanted fugitives. Lane wants to turn themselves in, but Garfield will have none of that, and she sticks by him. Eluding police, they are given a job by kindly diner owner, Henry Armetta, who even helps them escape when Lane is caught and Garfield breaks her out of jail. This was an exciting nail-biting sequence. Garfield then lucks out when he is at the right place at the right time: he photographs details of a bank robbery in progress and gets a job as photographer with a newspaper. Because of these sensational photos and the fame it was sure to bring, Garfield was again threatened with being exposed as the wanted fugititve. This film is worth seeing for Garfield's performance, but Henry Armetta and Alan Hale are both excellent, and there's an enjoyable Max Steiner score. For those who are interested in credit abberations, Victor Kilian and Frank Jaquet are both in the onscreen cast credits but were edited out of the film. I've seen this happen occasionally for one performer in movies of the 1930's, but this is the only time I can remember it occurred for two.