You and Me

In most interviews, Lang dismisses You and Me - within Hollywood categories, his only attempt at straight comedy - as a failure; but even if it were much more of a failure than it actually is, it would remain an utterly fascinating film. Raft and Sidney play a pair of ex-cons employed by a benign liberal (Carey) in his large department store. Sidney knows about Raft's past, but he is ignorant of hers; they marry secretly, breaking the terms of their parole, and the marriage is threatened when he accidentally discovers the truth. Lang's intention was a Brechtian Lehrstück (lesson-play); Kurt Weill worked on some of the songs, including the brilliant opening number; and for ideas about the criminal underworld, Lang borrowed as much from The Threepenny Opera as from his own M. It perhaps lacks stylistic unity, but still has many fine scenes. (From a story by Norman Krasna.