One of the most famous, or infamous, couples from the 1930s was Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. These outlaw sweethearts drove around the South from 1932 to 1934, sticking up gas stations, delicatessens, and funeral homes.
Their names have become synonymous with crime couples or any pair of “ride-or-die” lovers. The most famous work based on their lives is the 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. This graphic Warner Bros. film revitalized the crime duo’s popularity, cementing tropes and false impressions about them which persist to this day. Perhaps the second-most popular work about them is the 2011 Broadway musical by Frank Wildhorn.
Neither of these works captures the spirit of the era in which Bonnie and Clyde lived. Before the 1967 movie, there was one earlier film, “The Bonnie Parker Story" from 1958, which was so loosely based on the facts that Clyde was just one of the title character’s lovers, renamed Guy. I recently discovered that, not one but two movies made during the 1930s were inspired by the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
‘You Only Live Once’
“You Only Live Once” (1937) is a United Artists film directed by Fritz Lang, one of several unique German directors in the 1920s and ‘30s. He is best known for the 1927 science fiction epic “Metropolis,” and his style is evident in this film’s mysterious and artistic cinematography, the likes of which one doesn’t usually see until films from the later 1940s.Young three-time convict Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda) gets out of prison through the influence of public defender Stephen Whitney (Barton MacLane), whose secretary is Eddie’s fiancée Joan Graham (Sylvia Sidney). With Whitney’s help, Eddie gets a steady job, and the young couple marry and settle down.
Eddie wants to change, but faces prejudice whenever someone discovers he’s an ex-con. He is fired the same night Joan puts a down payment on a house, and doesn’t know where to turn for money. When his hat is found at a crime scene, he is sentenced to death, although he insists he’s innocent.
‘Dust Be My Destiny’
“Dust Be My Destiny” (1939) was directed by Lewis Seiler, with a screenplay by Robert Rossen. Seton I. Miller rewrote the ending when Rossen refused to make revisions. Seiler was most known for directing timely social problem pictures, such as this one, which brought out people’s real-life troubles to the big screen.Joe Bell (John Garfield) is an extremely cynical young man when he is released from a prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. He becomes a hobo, riding the rails with two younger boys (Billy Hallop and Bobby Jordan) in search of a place to settle down. When two criminals pick a fight with the innocent drifters, the three boys are sent to a prison work farm.
There, Joe earns the sympathy of the gentle stepdaughter, Mabel (Priscilla Lane) of cruel, drunken foreman (Stanley Ridges). Mabel and Joe fall in love. When the foreman finds them together, he begins striking Mabel, and Joe defends her. While chasing them, the drunkard dies of a heart attack. Realizing that he’ll be accused of murder, Joe and Mabel run away together. They agree to an onstage wedding ceremony for the prize money but realize that the pictures and publicity will be disastrous when they hear a radio broadcast proclaiming Joe a murderer. They begin walking and hitchhiking from one town to the next, trying to find a place to settle down.
Bonnie and Clyde Types
Bonnie and Clyde died on May 23, 1934. On June 13, 1934, the Production Code Administration (PCA) was formed, finally creating an effective means of enforcing the Motion Picture Production Code after four ineffectual years with the Studio Relations Committee (SRC).As a subdivision of the the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), the film industry’s public relations department, the PCA cautioned Hollywood against subject matter which could have negative social repercussions, such as glamorizing recently killed folk-hero criminals on the silver screen. This is a probable reason that an overt biography about Bonnie and Clyde was not made in the 1930s. However, viewers can see the influence of their ill-fated love story on these two movies.
“You Only Live Once” is based on their story. Many of the plot points are very similar to what actually happened to Bonnie and Clyde, including the young man’s multiple convictions, her smuggling a gun to him, and his jail break. The most obvious clue is that Joan’s older sister, played by Jean Dixon, is named Bonnie.
“Dust Be My Destiny” is a less specific homage, yet the references are there, too. This film’s stars bear a stronger physical resemblance to Parker and Barrow than Fonda and Sidney because of their coloring, short statures, and youthfulness. In several scenes, Priscilla Lane wears a black beret pulled over the back of her head, which was Bonnie’s signature look. It’s interesting that the earlier film had the leading lady give birth to a child, since many believe Bonnie Parker was expectant at the time of her death.
Two Moral Stories
The 1967 movie and subsequent takes on this story have emphasized violence, guns, and illicit love, painting the duo as gun-crazy rebels who reveled in killing people, robbing banks, and making passionate love. This is a far cry from the reality that Bonnie and Clyde’s family members and close companions recounted in interviews and memoirs.Although the details were fictionalized, these two movies captured the spirit of the misguided youths. The young man is embittered by his time in jail, as he serves his first sentence before even meeting his girl. Although he tries to go straight, public prejudice against jailbirds pushes him into a life of crime.
The girl who loves him is an innocent, honest woman who ends up on the run to stay by his side. Like Bonnie, neither of these leading ladies is a murderer; there’s no proof that Bonnie killed anyone or even shot a gun. Instead, these girls are guilty by association because of their unswerving devotion to their husbands.
Joe and Mabel go on the lam much earlier in their film than Eddie and Joan, whose time as outlaws seems like a fourth act to their story. The time when they are living out of their car, after he has escaped from prison, is undeniably similar to what Bonnie and Clyde faced. They are constantly on the move, with hardly any food or necessary medical care, in order to avoid being identified. The newspapers accuse them of every crime in the country, and people assume they’re living the high life. Meanwhile, they are freezing and starving in their battered car, holding up an occasional small business merely to survive.
The biggest difference between these two movies is the endings. While Eddie and Joan “go down together” after their car is ambushed a la Bonnie and Clyde, Joe and Mabel are granted a happy ending. Originally, the later film’s leads were going to be shot to death at the end, too, but the box office failure of “You Only Live Once” prompted Warner Bros. to change the ending.
Someday they’ll go down together. They’ll bury them side by side. To few it will be grief. To the law a relief, But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.
Rather than glamorizing criminals, these two meaningful movies are strong moral tales about redemption, patience, and the power of love. “You Only Live Once” shows how one wrong action can ruin your life and those of the people who love you, leading to certain death. “Dust Be My Destiny” shows that redemption is possible if you cling to your innocence and fight for it by refusing to give up on the truth.
