"We Who Are About to Die" is a 1937 film starring John Beal, Ann Dvorak, Preston Foster, and J. Carrol Naish.John Beal plays John Thompson, an engineer who quits his job at an airplane plant in New Mexico after an argument with his boss. He and his fiancée Connie want to move to California. En route to get his paycheck, some criminals kidnap him and take his car. They go to John's old job in his car, and one of them is wearing his coat, and enter the payroll office. The paymaster is killed, and a child is run over as the gang escapes. They dump the car. John is released, but he doesn't stay released for long. The police arrest him for murder and robbery. He is found guilty and winds up on Death Row.Connie convinces a detective (Preston Foster) who actually helped put John away that he didn't do it, and begs him to try to dig up more evidence. As he starts to go over it, he finds discrepancies.This is a good pre-noir from RKO. There is a harrowing scene where the prisoners act up and the guards use tear gas on them. There is also a beautiful scene where a priest promises a Chinese man about to be hanged that he will see that his body is sent home to his ancestors.Some of the detection methods used were brand new at the time.Beal was a stage actor who appeared in many films, and did lots of TV and stage in his sixty-year career. I met him about 30 years ago - a very nice man.Thanks to TCM, Ann Dvorak is getting probably more attention than she did during her career. She does an earnest job here as a young woman desperate to free her fiancé. Foster is authoritative and tough as the detective.This film had its gritty moments and lacked the usual stereotypes and clichés. Some melodramatic moments, as was the style at the time. IF you see this on TCM's schedule, check it out.

Every now and then you come across a really great film and wonder why you never heard of it. Probably because it is highly unlikely that we'll ever see a Preston Foster retrospective. And it's because it's from a second level A studio RKO. But We Who Are About To Die is a real undiscovered gem of a film that's extremely relevant today if you are anti-capital punishment.John Beal is a young ambitious engineer at an aircraft company who feels locked in by the hidebound management of the place and quits and is going to move to California with his girlfriend Ann Dvorak. But some stickup men make him the patsy for a payroll robbery where the paymaster is killed and a little boy rundown in the getaway which was in Beal's car. Sentiment runs high against Beal and the real culprits put him into a very tight frame.But Dvorak convinces the lead cop Foster that maybe things got rushed in Beal's case. He starts backtracking and comes up with more and more evidence. Of course he's helped by the fact that the head of the gang Russell Hopton doesn't want to split and he starts getting rid of the other gang members.The prison scenes are truly impressive here. Some of the other cons on death row are Paul Hurst, Gordon Jones, and John Wray. They become convinced of Beal's innocence and in their own way try to help. One at the cost of his life. A real camaraderie develops with these guys facing a common fate.The legal system riddled with politics isn't treated kindly. We see a District Attorney who's hoping to become governor on the strength of Beal's conviction and a governor who won't grant a stay of execution lest he be thought soft on crime. That certainly should sound familiar in today's world.We Who Are About To Die is a film waiting to be discovered. Maybe this might lead to Preston Foster revival.

Wow,...this movie stars mostly second or third-tier actors but manages to be better than most of the prison films out there. Ann Devorak and Preston Foster (hardly household names) get top billing in this wonderful and intelligently written film about a guy who is set up for a murder he didn't commit. Relative unknown, John Beal, however is clearly the star of this film even though he got third billing! He was wonderful in the film BECAUSE he was not an obvious star and looked a lot like a common ordinary mug--a major plus for the film.How Beal got set up for the robbery and multiple murder is pretty convincing and believable. You could really see how this poor sap got convicted and sent to Death Row based on the evidence at hand. And how this is all eventually unraveled is once again well-written and intelligent. Along the way, how uncaring and rigid the legal system is was revealed as well. In other words, after being convicted, new evidence that at least threw the original verdict into doubt was brought to light but no one along the chain of command would consider a reprieve or at least a delay! Again and again, evidence seemed to indicate there MIGHT be a conspiracy that sent him to prison but the governor, warden, police and the guards had many excuses why they did nothing. A pretty strong indictment of the system, but not so much that the film seems preachy or contrived.Excellent acting, writing, direction and the avoidance of many of the standard prison movie clichés of the 1930s is why this film excels. A perfect example of a lower budget film that succeeds on every level.

This is one of those 1930s that feel almost like film noir. The prison scenes are very powerful, and the men-with-men aspect of prison life is highly accented. Ann Dvorak is good, as she always was. Always. The scene in which the prison chaplain says he will pay for the body of a Chinese man about to be executed to be buried with his ancestors is particularly moving.