. . . This question from sociopath Nick "Pretty Boy" Romano is the crux of KNOCK ON ANY DOOR. If you paraphrase what Nick's defense lawyer, "Andrew Morton" (Humphrey Bogart) says to the judge before Nick is sentenced to fry on an upcoming "Fri-day" (you can't make this stuff up!), it sounds like this: America's treatment of Her sociopaths is inhumane. Nick says several times that all he really wants to do is to "die young, and leave a pretty corpse." Anyone familiar with the Ethel Rosenberg case knows that electrocution frequently turns the victim into smoldering meat, which is not only NOT pretty, but not very appetizing, either. KNOCK ON ANY DOOR makes it clear that Nick has very little fun terrorizing all the local business and automobile owners with his constant armed thefts. Driving his wife to suicide is very hard on him. Killing his first cop gives Nick the jitters. Therefore, counselor Morton demands that all high school dropouts and first-time felons be tested while they're youths (still "pretty," and Un-fried) to see if they're sociopaths. If they are, Society owes it to them to provide a fatal overdose of something that will allow them to rest easy, "die young, and leave a pretty corpse" WITHOUT going through the trauma of leading a life of crime, followed by 20 years on Death Row, and public burning in the electric chair (or whatever the flavor of the month is on Death Row). After all, as Nick says here, they "didn't ask to get born."

I had my doubts about Humphrey Bogart in this role. He played Andrew Morton - an attorney who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks but got out, getting (as he says) a law degree by night school and taking on contract and property law with a major law firm who gets dragged back to the old neighbourhood so to speak to defend a young man charged with the murder of a police officer. Something about this role seemed "un- Bogart." I really didn't think he'd work well. I was wrong. He's actually pretty convincing in the courtroom scenes; he does a good job with them. The basic problem with the movie is that more than half of it isn't a courtroom drama, and so it doesn't make the most effective use of Bogart as it should. Instead, most of the movie is really spent exploring the background of Nick Romano (John Derek) - the accused young man.I'd say first that the movie's a little bit laughable by modern standards. Honestly, Nick does't come across as that bad a guy (he drinks, he gambles, and, yes, he's pulled off some robberies) but that all seems pretty tame compared to what we see today on the news on a daily basis. Also, the neighbourhood he grew up in doesn't look all that bad, compared to - well - a few neighbourhoods today. So, in that sense, it doesn't strike home with a 21st century viewer. Even things like the press and prosecutor calling Nick "Pretty Boy" - maybe when this was made that would have carried a connotation; today, it just seems silly. So perhaps the basic story loses some of its power.It loses its power, because the long recounting of Nick's past is used by Morton as a way of defending him. The basic message Morton is offering seems to be that whatever Nick has become - it's not his fault. It's society's fault. There's a moralistic, preachy tone to this that grated on me a little bit - and I'm certainly not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination. There were extended periods when I felt I was being lectured at rather than entertained. I would guess, then, that today's conservatives must sneer at this movie and at Bogart's performance. Now, they'd probably sneer at Bogart anyway. He was, after all, a liberal Democrat who once took on the House Un-American Activities Committee during the great Communist witch hunt known as the Red Scare. I admire him for doing that. But I was put off by the tone of this movie.Having said that, Bogart's performance, when he was front and centre, did not put me off. I liked him in this. He surprised me in a role that I didn't really think would suit him. There are also enough twists and turns in the story (right up until the end) and enough uncertainty about Nick (did he do it or not) that, its overly moralistic tone aside, this wasn't a difficult movie to watch. It made its social point, I suppose, but it did so by focusing too much on Nick's background and the hardship of his upbringing at the expense of creating what probably could have been a more compelling courtroom drama. (6/10)

I wasn't expecting THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. I wasn't even expecting REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. But considering (or perhaps not even considering) the fact that the subject matter (juvenile delinquents, rebels, anti-conformity) was close to Nicholas Ray's heart, this is an unfortunately stale effort by one of the best and most important American film directors of the 20th century. Pretty Boy (a.k.a. Nick Romano, played by the perpetually puppy-dog eyed John Derek) grows up hardened and tough in a bad neighborhood on the Columbia Studios backlot. After years of jail terms and a stretch in a reform school, he returns home and falls for Pretty Girl (a.k.a. Emma, played to almost intoxicating sweetness by Allene Roberts). When he can't quit the life of crime, his pregnant wife commits suicide and Romano is put on trial for killing (or perhaps not killing) a cop. Most of his hardship is overseen by attorney Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart, the only lead actor who gives his role at least some intrigue and is therefore the only one who doesn't get the nickname treatment from yours truly), also from the wrong side of the tracks. He doesn't always quite believe that Romano is telling the truth and doesn't approve of his self-pitying ways (neither do I), but nonetheless he takes Romano's case and the battle is fought in the courtroom.I believe that films should stand on their own two feet and not be compared to previous works, but since Nicholas Ray was so clearly trying to recapture the magic of his astonishing debut THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, it's hard not to compare the two; after all the love story between Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl directly parallels Bowie and Keechie's relationship. Both stories involve two young adults from the wrong side of the tracks, a criminal hardened by his tough life and the angelic girl who he marries and briefly finds inner peace with. I never thought that anyone could give a bad performance under Ray's direction, but while Farley Granger was no Montgomery Clift, John Derek is a dime-store version of Granger; at least Granger was able to give a sensitive and genuinely compelling performance under Ray's fatherly direction. Derek goes through the motions but not the emotions that Granger did so effortlessly. And even the ethereal Cathy O'Donnell was smart enough to allude to the toughness earned from years of living in the wrong place; Allenne Roberts captures none of that, only the unbelievable angelic nature. These characters don't echo the complexity of Ray's debut; they are whiny caricatures of people we're supposed to feel sorry for.It's admirable that Humphrey Bogart would want to make a film about social injustice for his first project as a producer (this film was financed by his independent production company Santana), and he even lets most of the light shine on Pretty Boy. However, given Derek's poor performance and Bogart's coy cynicism, his golden integrity just hidden beneath the surface, and his brooding on-screen presence (as preachy as his closing argument is, it is well acted by Bogart), I wished the movie had been more about him, I wished the script not been as black-and-white as Burnett Guffey's cinematography. In trying to cry out for justice, the film just annoyed me with its condescending attitude and simplified message my six-year-old cousin could've caught. I recommend two Nicholas Ray films that are a much more stimulating and thought- provoking experience: the first is THEY LIVE BY NIGHT for reasons already stated. The second is his masterful IN A LONELY PLACE, his second film with Humphrey Bogart--and in this one he *is* in the center stage, featuring probably the most complex and darkest role of his career. I guess one good thing came out of KNOCK ON ANY DOOR: Bogart and Ray, who came from different ways of approaching their jobs, needed one film to get to know each other, how the other one worked. Ray once said that during this film he "took the gun away from Bogart's hands," and by the time they re-teamed for the second and last time, their professional relationship had ripened to friendship. Bogart trusted Ray enough to give a nakedly vulnerable performance in a film which you *SHOULD* look into.

KNOCK ON ANY DOOR and you'll find a kid like Nick Romano, living in the slums and headed for a life of crime. That's the theory proposed by HUMPHREY BOGART, as a lawyer defending Nick after the boy is on trial for killing a policeman. I tend to agree with Leonard Maltin who calls it a "serious but dated drama" that serves as a star vehicle for JOHN DEREK rather than Bogart in the top-billed lead.Nicholas Ray directs it with authority, keeping it a tense and taut tale of juvenile delinquency and using the flashback technique to keep the narrative flowing smoothly as Bogart builds a sob story defense for the boy before a skeptical but carefully chosen jury.ALLENE ROBERTS is the nice girl Derek can't forget and doesn't want to get hurt by his inability to stay off the mean streets. The juvenile delinquency theme is never handled with as much realism as it would be years later when Nicholas Ray directed James Dean and Natalie Wood in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. JOHN DEREK is almost too clean-cut to be totally convincing as a young hood but he certainly fits the description of "pretty boy".The performances are all top notch, and Bogart is solid and smooth as the lawyer whose own past involved a brush with crime. Unfortunately, the romance between Derek and Allene Roberts seems fabricated and their involvement never seems believable with her character being too sweet and naive.Summing up: Interesting but dated crime drama will satisfy Bogart's fans. The final courtroom scene gives the film a much needed punch and Bogart is at his best in his final plea to the jury. The judge's final decision may come as a surprise to some.