Each Dawn I Die
| Each Dawn I Die | |
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| Directed by | William Keighley |
| Produced by |
David Lewis Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner |
| Written by |
Warren Duff Jerome Odlum (novel) Norman Reilly Raine Charles Perry (uncredited) |
| Starring |
James Cagney George Raft Jane Bryan George Bancroft |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Arthur Edeson |
| Edited by | Thomas Richards |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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92 min |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,111,000 |
Each Dawn I Die is a 1939 gangster film featuring James Cagney and George Raft in their only movie together as leads, although Raft had made an unbilled appearance in a 1932 Cagney vehicle called Taxi! in which he won a dance contest against Cagney, after which he and Cagney brawl. Raft also very briefly "appeared" in Cagney's boxing drama Winner Take All (1932), in a flashback sequence culled from Raft's 1929 film debut Queen of the Night Clubs starring Texas Guinan.
The plotline of Each Dawn I Die involves a crusading reporter (Cagney) who is unjustly thrown in jail and befriends a famous gangster (Raft). George Bancroft portrays the warden. Jane Bryan also co-stars. The movie was a box-office smash and remains a favorite among aficionados of Warner Bros. gangster movies. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Jerome Odlum.
Frank Ross (Cagney) is a crusading reporter for a big-city newspaper on the trail of a crooked district attorney, Jesse Hanley, who is running for election as governor of the state. At the Banton Construction Co., Ross sees Hanley and his accomplice Grayce (Jory) burning books and ledgers to thwart a possible investigation brought about by the paper that Ross works for. His editor Patterson backs Ross in getting Hanley but the D.A. decides to get rid of him, so frames him. Knocked out and covered in whiskey, he is put in a runaway car which collides with another, killing 3 young people and is thrown in prison for one to twenty years on a charge of automotive manslaughter.
He meets a gangster, Stacey (Raft), who, as there is no death penalty in that state, is in for 199 years. They work in the twine-making room together and Stacey falls into Ross's debt when Ross saves him from a knife thrown by another inmate. Ross's reporter friends outside are trying to help him win vindication by finding the real culprits but they are having no success. Stacey agrees to help Ross prove that he was framed if Ross helps him escape from a courthouse. They arrange that Stacey be named by Ross as guilty for killing of Limpy, another inmate and hated stool pigeon.
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