Nobody Lives Forever (film)

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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
IMDb profile

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.

[edit] Plot

Former conman Nick Blake (John Garfield), a soldier returning to the United States 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). 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 tries to convince him that he's getting too old for the con game and that if he keeps it up, he will end up as "an old man selling pencils on the side of the road." Nick ignores him and ends up getting recruited by Pop to work for untrustworthy con artist Doc Ganson (George Coulouris).

The plan is to have Nick, a lady's man, romance rich widow Gladys Halvorsen (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and persuade her to invest in a phony business. The plan hits a snag when it turns out that Gladys is young and beautiful. He falls in love with her 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.

Meanwhile, Toni learns of the aborted scheme. When she tells Doc that she is sure Nick intends to marry Gladys and double cross the others, the gang kidnaps the widow for their 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.