A bizarre mixture of crime drama, comedy and social message movie, "You and Me" is another of Frtiz Lang's anti-capitalist experiments. He'd cite Brecht as the film's chief influence, but the film's avant-gardism is mostly played for laughs. The plot? Sylvia Sidney and George Raft play a pair of criminals on parole and working at a luxurious department store. The store owner has hired a band of similar cases - all ex convicts and petty thieves - to manage his business, a decision he may or may not regret. Much commotion ensues."You and Me" was destroyed by critics upon release, but today offers a number of interesting moments: the bustle of department stores, the clatter of cash registers, "You Can't Get Something For Nothing" warbling on the soundtrack like an anti-musical refrain. Elsewhere, clerks and businessmen are all safe-crackers or thieves, criminal heists echo police confiscations, Lang uses a number of distancing effects and the film's plot seems like a perverse reversal of Lang's earlier "Metropolis", Lang's criminals defending workplace exploitation as being more rational than outright theft.Much of Lang's plot follows a pair of clandestine lovers who break parole restrictions by getting married. Lang tries his hand at comedy, but he's best when solemn. Nevertheless, great shots abound – two lovers fleetingly touching hands whilst riding an escalator, the mirror image of gangster's crushing palms – including several musical sequences which blindsided contemporary critics. As is expected, Lang continues to shoot architecture well, most of which is Art Deco or sports modernist trimmings. The film's noir shadows suggest a crime movie, but the comedy and champaign suggest something else. What's going on? Lang called the film his Threepenny Opera.7.5/10 – For Lang fans only.

If you've ever studied film history, you probably know that 1940s Hollywood Noir was influenced by the influx of German directors who immigrated to the US as the Nazis rose to power. These directors brought some stylistic aspects of Wiemar cinema to post-war Noir. What's less well know is that in the 1930s and war years, before the stylistic and political chill of the red scare, already on the rise in the late '40s, the German directors, such as Fritz Lang, were using their Brechtian style- openly political and meta-textual- in much more brazen and less-watered down ways than they were in the post-war Noir years. (Lang would later direct "Hangmen Also Die"- one of the few Hollywood scripts Brecht ever wrote.) "You and Me" is a largely forgotten example of the films of this era. The film is fascinating and entertaining, although perhaps too idiosyncratic to be called "good." For its first two thirds its a genuinely touching and psychologically acute love story between two ex-cons struggling to get by. It would constitute a solid, conventional drama if it were not fragmented by nightmarish musical numbers lecturing the audience that, for instance, its a bad idea to try to break out of prison on your own. Most bizarrely, the last third changes tone completely and becomes a bona-fide screwball comedy revolving around a chalk board lesson mathematically demonstrating why crime, literally, doesn't pay. Although Brecht's influence is felt in almost every scene the politics of the film are in no way radical- as some Hollywood films of the era were in underlining ways. This piece, rather, is merely cynical about American capitalism, without actually questioning it.

Good Grief. I wonder what this movie was supposed to be. The heading on the title page says action/adventure/comedy but I think it is a love story with elements of a gangster picture interspersed with comedy. I understand Fritz Lang was a genius director, but with films like "You And Me" I worry that he gets in over his formidable head.Several questions arise when watching "You And Me"; first and foremost, if you are making a love story, why George Raft? He is not romantic and he was middle-aged when this picture was made. Sylvia Sidney was better but she was 30 - so when someone refers to 'you kids' the appelation barely fits. Second, if you hire Kurt Weill, why not give him something to do? There was one fair-to-middling song which was brief, but this was Kurt Weill. I bet he barely broke a sweat.But most of all, where are you going with this movie and whose idea was it? It starts as a drama, then boy-meets-girl, but when they have a falling out Raft reverts to his gangster side and becomes threatening and menacing, instead of hurt or angry. And the whole story is set against a surreal back story, that of a store manager hiring ex-cons because he feels they deserve a break ...and they conspire to rob the store! I can see why "You And Me" is seldom seen or revived but if you get a chance you'll have to judge for yourself. See if you don't think it is one of the most peculiar movies you have ever seen.

What a fascinating little film, on a variety of levels. There is an expressionism that would have made Elmer Rice proud as well as a distinctly European approach. It feels as if it could be either a German product or from much earlier in the '30s when Hollywood was still in an experimental phase of self-discovery. There is nothing quite like it out there.This is pure Fritz Lang, coupled perfectly with Charles Lang Jr.'s photography, with Kurt Weill's music jumping in abruptly to make you catch your breath. The blend of comedy and drama is smooth.The plot line is familiar to this cast. A businessman makes a point of hiring parolees at his department store, where some are clearly having trouble adjusting. Joe has abided by the strict demands of his parole and his time is at last up, freeing him to marry Helen. But she has never told him that she too is an ex-con and still has several months of parole to serve. She has to tell lie upon lie to cover up the secret. Meanwhile, his old gang is nipping at him to join up again in another heist scheme.Not for the last time, the film exposes the difficulties of staying straight, difficulties arising both from the system itself as well as peer pressure.Some plot points are similar to Pick-up, a George Raft-Sylvia Sidney film of a few years earlier, but this story is much stronger. At this time Raft was in the middle of a five-year era when he was at his best - relaxed and in character, willingly joining in the sometimes unusual proceedings. Sidney is beautifully sympathetic as a criminal, always hoping two wrongs will make a right. What a one-of-a-kind screen presence she was. Her work with Raft always seems like two pals getting together again. That makes the wedding night sequence and the around-the-world honeymoon all the more entertaining.The rest of the cast, from wonderful Harry Carey to cynical Roscoe Karns, turns in strong, imaginative performances. As odd as some moments might be, everyone is clearly "in on" Lang's vision.There is a great scene of the gang reminiscing about their prison days that displays that vision full force. This is what the film is all about.