Each Dawn I Die (1939) on Netflix
Approved19391h 32mCrimeDramaThriller
Reporter Frank Ross digs into Jesse Hanley, a corrupt candidate for governor. Hanley's men knock Frank out and leave him in a car that crashes, and a manslaughter charge follows.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb7.2/104,257 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes50%
Trailer
Plot summary
Frank Ross, an investigative reporter, gathers evidence of corruption against Jesse Hanley, a powerful politician running for governor. Hanley's gangsters knock Frank out, douse him in whiskey and leave him unconscious in a car that crashes into another, killing three people. Unable to prove his innocence, Frank is sentenced to twenty years of hard labor at Rocky Point Prison, while the editor of his newspaper searches for evidence that would clear him. Inside, Frank befriends Stacey, a gangster serving 199 years, who promises to use his underworld contacts to find whoever framed Frank if Frank helps him with a plan of his own.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Each Dawn I Die (1939)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer David Lewis pushed for George Raft, whose fee was $50,000, and said he could have had Humphrey Bogart instead, believing Bogart would not have been as positive a force as Raft.
- Fred MacMurray was set to replace John Garfield as the reporter with James Cagney as the gangster, but when MacMurray became unavailable, William Keighley tested Jeffrey Lynn. George Raft was finally signed and swapped roles with Cagney, so Raft played the gangster and Cagney the reporter.
- Each Dawn I Die is the only film in which George Raft and James Cagney starred together as leads; Raft had earlier appeared unbilled in Cagney's 1932 film Taxi!, beating Cagney in a dance contest and then brawling with him.
- Norman Reilly Raine wrote the first draft of the screenplay, but producer David Lewis disliked it and had Warren Duff work on the script.
