Dust Be My Destiny (1939)

John Garfield and Priscilla Lane always made a good team and this is one of their best pictures. Being a Warners film the subject of a young couple in love and on the run is given the gritty treatment that suits the story and the pair do very well in conveying the hardships faced. The wedding scene is particularly well played by both. As with most of the studios films at the time it looks at the problem through the lens of current events and society's ills. Not a timeless classic like Priscilla's Saboteur or Garfield's The Postman Always Rings Twice but a solid film with excellent work by the stars as well as the supporting cast.

The film begins with John Garfield in prison. It turns out, however, after serving a year and a half, the REAL culprit confesses and Garfield is released. Considering everything, it's very understandable that he's bitter.Oddly, the authorities appeared to have done NOTHING to help Garfield after his release. Now he's a hobo riding the rails. And, when he and a couple teens (Billy Halop and Bobby Jordan) are picked up for vagrancy, they are sent to a work farm! Talk about adding insult to injury! The farm has a sadistic drunk as a foreman and he makes life tough for Garfield. Along the way, he meets up with the drunk's step-daughter (Priscilla Lane) and they fall in love. Later, when her drunk father attacks Garfield, John defends himself and strikes the old guy--and the man dies. In desperation, the pair fun from the farm and eventually get married. Along the way, they meet up with a lot of people who inexplicably like the couple and treat them with kindness. And, in the end, when Garfield is caught and tried for the killing, these people come from all over the country to speak on his behalf.Although I'll admit that the film is preachy (especially during the defense's closing arguments), it is highly effective and entertaining. There are also a lot of excellent performances that all make it well worth seeing. An excellent film--the sort of Depression-era crime drama and social commentary that Warner Brothers did best.

It's difficult to believe that this collection of tired clichés and cardboard characters was written by Robert Rossen but there you go. Having signed Julie Garfield from the Group Theatre Warners thrust him into one tough-guy-who-never-had-a-chance vehicle after another after it paid off handsomely in his debut Four Daughters. Not one to balk at hedging their bets the freres Warner teamed him once again with Priscilla Lane in this slice of hokum rather than slice of life opus. If Howard Hawks had a knack for coming in at the tail-end of a genre and making the definitive example (see: Only Angels Have Wings) Lewis Seiler just came in at the tail-end of a genre and added nothing. Garfield gets out of stir at the beginning only to be informed by the warden that he had been wrongfully convicted; he then gets a series of bad breaks punctuated by false hopes until it all ends in smiles. Along the way he is helped by several people who behave unrealistically, somehow acquires a camera whilst not having change of a match and ... well that's about as credible as it gets. Always nice to see Garfield and Lane but don't raise your hopes.

Down on his luck John Garfield finally sees his fortunes improve, and I do mean improve, when he teams up with Priscilla Lane. But the bad luck returns and the two end up on the lam for what turns out to be a pretty good movie. A few scenes shot on location spice things up a bit and there are some very nice supporting performances as well. The lead actors, John Garfield and the beautiful Priscilla Lane, work well together, as evidenced in their previous work on Four Daughters and Daughters Courageous.