Even with such newer items as Brubaker and the Shawshank Redemption, Each Dawn I Die still holds up rather well if in fact it's a bit dated.
One has to remember that a film like Each Dawn I Die was made under "the Code" and a whole range of issues about prison life could not be dealt with and if so, only extremely subtly.
Still both James Cagney and George Raft give solid performances. Cagney is great in everything and Raft is in his gangster milieu so it's no stretch for him.
There's a great supporting cast of familiar Warner Brothers faces to support the two leads. I'd pay special attention to Stanley Ridges as the stir-crazy Muller and John Wray as Pete Kassock the sadistic prison guard. One of the issues not discussed is gay sex in prison. But read that dimension into Ridges's concern for buddy Louis Jean Heydt who Wray fatally injures and some of his actions become very explicable.
There is a political element here too. Cagney is a reporter who is investigating District Attorney Thurston Hall and his assistant Victor Jory. They concoct a frame for him that lands him in prison. Hall gets elected Governor and Jory gets to control the pardon board. Cagney goes before Jory to ask for a pardon and that scene itself is one of the best in the film.
A great film with a great cast, one of the best of Warner Brothers gangster products.
One has to remember that a film like Each Dawn I Die was made under "the Code" and a whole range of issues about prison life could not be dealt with and if so, only extremely subtly.
Still both James Cagney and George Raft give solid performances. Cagney is great in everything and Raft is in his gangster milieu so it's no stretch for him.
There's a great supporting cast of familiar Warner Brothers faces to support the two leads. I'd pay special attention to Stanley Ridges as the stir-crazy Muller and John Wray as Pete Kassock the sadistic prison guard. One of the issues not discussed is gay sex in prison. But read that dimension into Ridges's concern for buddy Louis Jean Heydt who Wray fatally injures and some of his actions become very explicable.
There is a political element here too. Cagney is a reporter who is investigating District Attorney Thurston Hall and his assistant Victor Jory. They concoct a frame for him that lands him in prison. Hall gets elected Governor and Jory gets to control the pardon board. Cagney goes before Jory to ask for a pardon and that scene itself is one of the best in the film.
A great film with a great cast, one of the best of Warner Brothers gangster products.