Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

XhcnoirX When con-artist John Garfield is released from Army hospital, he is eager to see his old girl Faye Emerson again, as well as the $50K he left in her care. But she found a new guy, a nightclub owner she also works for as a singer, and she made some bad investments with the money. Garfield smells something fishy and beats the money out of the nightclub owner. With his pal George Tobias he heads to LA. They find Garfield's old mentor Walter Brennan there, as well as another group of con-artists led by George Coulouris. Coulouris found a new mark, rich widow Geraldine Fitzgerald, and begrudgingly needs Garfield to work on her. Garfield pretends to be a wealthy businessman and befriends Fitzgerald. Soon Fitzgerald falls for Garfield, but he falls for her as well. Garfield wants out, and tries to pay off Coulouris and his gang. But they won't let their fat fish off the hook that easily.A noir melodrama with a by-the-numbers story by W.R. Burnett ('The Asphalt Jungle'), but the excellent cast and crew elevates the movie. Garfield ('Body And Soul') is great as always and has great chemistry with Fitzgerald ('The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry'), who is excellent, bringing a lot of depth to her character. But the rest of the cast is great as well, altho Emerson ('The Mask Of Dimitrios') is underused, but does give off a nice femme fatale vibe every second she's on the screen. Coulouris ('Citizen Kane') is as oily and sleazy as can be expected, and Brennan ('Bad Day At Black Rock') does well in a stereotypical 'father' role.Director Jean Negulesco ('The Mask Of Dimitrios') and DoP Arthur Edeson ('The Maltese Falcon') keep this movie interesting throughout, by offsetting the light and opulent surroundings of Fitzgerald's life with the dingy, dark and claustrophobic rooms that Coulouris and his crew live in, with top con-artist Garfield effortlessly navigating between both lifestyles. The movie ends with a fog-filled climax in a small harbor, which is beautifully shot and quite thrilling, but then ends in a bit of a redemptive whimper/cop-out. That and the story which lacks any real surprises or twists, are the only 2 flaws in an otherwise good movie. 8/10

bkoganbing Nobody Lives Forever finds John Garfield as a former Broadway sharpie just discharged from Uncle Sam's Army and sort of at loose ends. He's not sure what he wants to do with himself. Personally I'm kind of surprised he's not taking advantage of the benefits of GI Bill if he's interested in starting over. That's one of the weaknesses of the film.In the meantime his girlfriend, nightclub singer Faye Emerson has given John the air and taken his money and invested it with her new boy friend Robert Shayne in a nightclub. Disgusted with the way she's two timed him, Garfield and pal George Tobias leave New York and head for the west coast and Los Angeles. They run into another old time con man Walter Brennan who's now barely scratching a living, but who's heard of big score in the making involving taking recent wealthy widow Geraldine Fitzgerald. The idea is that of another grifter George Coulouris who has no scruples at all about doing what has to be done, but he hasn't got the technique to romance Fitzgerald. That's where Garfield comes in.Of course he falls for the mark and I think you can see where the rest of this is going. It's not a bad story, but has a few glitches in the script. For one thing when Emerson is reintroduced coming west herself later and setting her to be the one to rat out Garfield's change of heart to the rest, it's clumsily done. Secondly again, not a mention of the GI bill for a returning veteran looking to reinvent himself.Garfield does make an appealing con man with a conscience and between Fitzgerald and Emerson he was certainly doing all right. Best performance in the film is that of Walter Brennan and given the wide divergence in their politics between Garfield and Brennan, it must have been an interesting set.Nobody Lives Forever is all right, but it had the potential to be so much better.

edwagreen A very usual plot covers this story. A manipulator wants to fleece a wealthy widow but falls for her instead. The problem is that he had made previous commitments with other hoods to take this woman for a ride.John Garfield is perfect as Nick. He falls for Mrs.Halverson, a wonderful Geraldine Fitzgerald.The gang is in top form with Walter Brennan as Pop, George Coulouris'Doc is excellent. By the way, for a hood Coulouris speaks very well and in fact sounds like a very educated person in some scenes. George Tobias really provides some comic relief, but in a straight role as Nick's sidekick.You wonder why the Fitzgerald character can't fall in love with her financial adviser, nicely played by Richard Gaines. The two seem to be a perfect match but I guess there would be no story if that occurred.Faye Emerson is the dame that Nick had previously hooked up with. She is a real hot number here. Few realize that in real life she had been married to Eliot Roosevelt, FDR's son.

ilprofessore-1 Of all the Hollywood writers now associated with classic film noir --among them James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler & Dashell Hammett— the least known and perhaps least appreciated is W.R. Burnett who was responsible for the story and often the screenplay of a number of film crime classics, among them the films Scarface, Little Caesar, High Sierra and Asphalt Jungle. Burnett's dialog is as sharp and tough as the others, and he often displays a finer insight and even greater sympathy for the criminal mind than the others whose stories feature and sometimes romanticize the hard-boiled detective. This excellently directed and photographed film tells the story of a charming con-man, perfectly played by John Garfield, who falls for the widow he is trying to cheat. The petty crooks who people his world played by a superb cast of character actors (George Coulouris, Walter Brennan, George Tobias) are all clearly drawn and don't resemble the usual cliché gang members of other films. Burnett obviously knew this world better than his colleagues.