Nobody Lives Forever (film)

Nobody Lives Forever
Directed by	Jean Negulesco
Produced by	Robert Buckner
Written by	W.R. Burnett
Starring	John Garfield Geraldine Fitzgerald Walter Brennan Faye Emerson
Music by	Adolph Deutsch
Cinematography	Arthur Edeson
Editing by	Rudi Fehr
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	November 1, 1946
Running time	100 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Nobody Lives Forever is a 1946 black-and-white crime film based on the novel I Wasn't Born Yesterday by W.R. Burnett. It starred John Garfield and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Plot

Former conman Nick Blake (John Garfield), a soldier returning to New York City after World War II, looks up his old girlfriend Toni Blackburn (Faye Emerson) to get the money she has been holding for him while he was in the army. She claims that she lost the money investing in a nightclub before selling it to her boyfriend, Chet King (Robert Shayne). Unconvinced, Nick extorts the money from his ex-girlfriend's new beau and leaves town.

Nick meets up with old conman Pop Gruber (Walter Brennan), who tells him that he's getting too old for the con game and that if he keeps it up, he will end up as "selling pencils on the side of the road." Another con artist, Doc Ganson (George Coulouris), has spotted a sucker, but has neither the money nor the looks necessary for the job. When he hears that Nick is in town, he reluctantly approaches Pop to recruit him, even though there is bad blood between them. The plan is to have Nick, a lady's man, romance rich recent widow Gladys Halvorsen (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and persuade her to invest in a phony tugboat business. Nick agrees on condition that he get two thirds of the proceeds, increasing Doc's bitter resentment of the younger, more successful man.

The plan hits a snag when Nick falls in love with the intended victim and attempts to back out of the "big con". When Charles Manning (Richard Gaines), Gladys's business manager, finds out about Nick's criminal past, Nick admits the truth to Gladys. However, she believes he can change and refuses to let him go.

Nick decides to pay the others the $30,000 he promised them using his own money. However, Toni shows up and learns of the aborted scheme. When she tells Doc that she is sure Nick intends to marry Gladys (and her $2,000,000), the gang kidnaps the widow for a larger share of her money. Luckily, Pop is able to follow them to their hideout. In the ensuing gunfight, Nick rescues Gladys, but both Doc and Pop are killed.

Cast

• John Garfield as Nick Blake. The role was first offered to Humphrey Bogart.
• Geraldine Fitzgerald as Gladys Halvorsen
• Walter Brennan as Pop Gruber
• Faye Emerson as Toni Blackburn
• George Coulouris as Doc Ganson
• George Tobias as Al Doyle, Nick's friend
• Robert Shayne as Chet King
• Richard Gaines as Charles Manning
• Richard Erdman as Bellboy
• James Flavin as Shake Thomas, one of Doc's men
• Ralph Peters as Windy Mather, Doc's other associate

External links

• Nobody Lives Forever at the TCM Movie Database
• Nobody Lives Forever at the Internet Movie Database