You and Me (1938)

Please don't spend money on this.

i must have seen a different film!!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

His first two American works were very dark and realistic (not to mention box office flops) so Fritz Lang set out to make "You and Me", a homage to "The 3 Penny Opera". Lang had admired Bertolt Brecht in his Berlin days and the working class spirit of the play hovered over the movie. Kurt Weill even wrote two songs - "You Can't Get Something for Nothing" and "My Good for Nothing Man" and between those themes the film made a case for the decent treatment of ex convicts and parolees who, at the time, were denied basic rights and even forbidden to marry.Hollywood's pinup girl for the Proletariat - beautiful Sylvia Sidney and Lang's muse at this time (she had the female lead in his three American movies to date) plays Helen, a sympathetic clerk in a large department store. Some peculiar scenes are set - a toy salesman (Roscoe Karnes) tough talks a child (Baby Jane Quigley) into buying a toy she doesn't want, another (George E. Stone) scares a customer with his safe cracking talk and Helen allows a shoplifter to walk free. It all becomes clear when you realise that most of the sales people are either ex cons or on parole and have been hired by benevolent store owner Mr. Morris (Harry Carey). There is even romance in the air between Helen and tough guy sporting goods salesman Joe (gorgeous George Raft). "There isn't a racket I don't know" - he could be talking crime, instead he is trying to sell a tennis racquet!!!Joe is going to California because his feelings for Helen are so strong but her feelings are stronger and she proposes!!! But Helen has a secret - she has also been in prison and her furtiveness in trying to keep her past a secret is making Joe extremely jealous. This is not your run of the mill gangster movie. It takes off on odd tangents, especially during a Christmas celebration for a group of ex cons, who reminisce about the good old days in prison, first wistfully, then longingly. "I know we had chicken once a year inside and now we can have it whenever we want, but it sure was nice to look forward to"!!! They begin a rhythmic chant "Stick With the Mob" which includes different codes tapped out on pipes and in a crazy way recalls the convict scenes in "M", as well as at the end when Joe enlists all his convict mates to scour the city looking for Helen.Joe finds out at this party that Helen is a parolee and he feels betrayed. He is more than happy to agree to do a job for Mick (gruff old Barton Maclaine), an associate from Joe's criminal past who hangs around the store hoping to coax him back into his bad ways. They plan to rob Morris's store but Gimpy (Warren Hymer) warns Helen - she in turn tells Morris and when the crooks show up there is a posse waiting for them. Not to hand them over to the police but for Helen to give them a lecture on why crime doesn't pay. My very favourite part in the movie - Helen drops her "sweet and sincere" persona and with the help of a blackboard, some chalk and mathematical calculations shows them why, instead of pocketing over $1,000 for their share, they would be lucky to see $100!!! Of course the gangsters are then sold on Helen - but not Joe who now adds "stool pigeon" to his list of grievances about Helen and also belittles her which the gang are not too happy about!!!Even though it wasn't a success, Lang did try to put a lighter spin into a theme that meant a lot to him - the spiritual bond of a criminal brotherhood which has stronger links than the law.

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.

Fritz Lang had a reputation for disliking american actors and actresses, but he made three films with Sidney; sadly, because the reviews and receipts were lacking, it was their final film together. You And Me has some spectacular shots of machinery and late 30's office work that stands up even today, with a clear message about industrialization, the "modern" work-place, and american society in general. The film also features magnificent music and song from Kurt Weill. This may not be as riveting as Fury, or as depressing as You Only Live Once, but it is indeed, a masterpiece! And George Raft is just fine, too.

Often Lang is able to interject his paranoid vision of the world -- with strange camera angles, romantic intrigues and suspicions, and farce. But just as frequently one feels the prudishness of thirties' Hollywood, forcing love, mercy, and optimism to rise implausibly from the traps the characters set for themselves. By turns subversive and banal. Worth seeing.