They Live by Night is a 1948 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray, in his directorial debut, and starring Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger. Based on Edward Anderson's Depression-era novel Thieves Like Us, the film follows a young convict on the run who falls in love with a woman and attempts to begin a life with her. The film opened theatrically in London in August 1948 under the title The Twisted Road, before it was released in the United States by RKO Radio Pictures as They Live by Night in November 1949. Though it received favorable reviews from film critics, it was a box-office failure, losing the studio $445,000. Although the film is considered by many to be the prototype for the "couple on the run" genre and is generally seen as the forerunner to the movie Bonnie and Clyde, the first telling of the story was actually the 1939 Persons in Hiding, based on the J. Edgar Hoover memoir of the same title. Robert Altman directed another adaptation of the novel using the original title of the novel, Thieves Like Us (1974). Plot Arthur "Bowie" Bowers, a 23-year-old serving a prison sentence for a murder he allegedly helped perpetrate at age 16, escapes from prison with two older bank robbers, Chicamaw and T-Dub. The three take shelter with Chicamaw's brother, who operates a service station, and niece, Catherine "Keechie" Mobley, who works there. Hoping to also free his incarcerated brother Richard, Chicamaw concocts a plan to rob a bank and use the funds to hire a lawyer to prove a wrongful conviction. The robbery goes smoothly. However, shortly afterward Bowie crashes his car, and Chicamaw then kills a police officer who arrives at the scene. Chicamaw leaves an injured Bowie in the care of Keechie and joins T-Dub in another town. The sheepish Keechie swiftly grows fond of Bowie, who is also shy. The two bond over their lack of experience in the world and soon develop a romance. Meanwhile, the press reports heavily on Bowie, wrongly pinning him as the ringleader of the robbery. Bowie and Keechie decide to go on the run together, and travel by bus through several towns. Late one night, they come across a chapel that performs quickie marriages for $20. Bowie asks Keechie to marry him, to which she agrees. Hawkins, the local justice of the peace, performs the ceremony and sells