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20-442: The film is an adaptation of the successful Broadway play of the same name written by two former VMI cadets, John Monks, Jr. and Fred Finklehoffe , which ran for 577 performances between December 1936 and April 1938. Albert and supporting actor William Tracy reprised their roles from the stage productions. After the film's production, Reagan married Wyman in 1940. The title refers to the term used for cadets in their first year at

40-423: A Baby , with several of the same main actors, was released in 1940. In 1952, Warner Brothers remade it as a Technicolor musical, About Face , with Gordon MacRae , Eddie Bracken and in his first film, Joel Grey . John Cherry Monks, Jr. John Cherry Monks Jr. (February 24, 1910 – December 10, 2004) was an American writer, actor, playwright, screenwriter, director, and a U.S. Marine . Monks

60-657: A Baby . Monks also wrote Strike Up the Band (1940) and Dial 1119 (1950) for MGM . In World War II , Monks was commissioned by the U.S. Marine Corps on his graduation from VMI. He met producer Louis de Rochemont and co-wrote We Are the Marines . Captain Monks served in the 3rd Marine Regiment during the Bougainville campaign and wrote an account of the Regiment in A Ribbon and

80-450: A Star: The Third Marines At Bougainville , published in 1945. Monks returned to civilian life writing the screenplays for several films, such as The House on 92nd Street (winning an Edgar Allan Poe Award ), Knock on Any Door , The People Against O'Hara and later (with Richard Goldstone ) writing, producing and directing No Man Is an Island (1962) about American sailor George Ray Tweed , who remained undetected on Guam from

100-406: A better person. Nick then robs Morton of $ 100 after a fishing trip. Shortly after that, Nick marries Emma, and he tries to change his lifestyle. He takes on job after job but keeps getting fired because of his recalcitrance. He wastes his paycheck playing dice, wanting to buy Emma some jewelry, and then walks out on another job after punching his boss. Feeling a lack of hope of ever being able to live

120-409: A normal life, Nick decides to return to his old ways, sticking to his motto: "Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse." He abandons Emma, even after she tells him that she is pregnant. After Nick commits a botched hold-up at a train station, he returns to Emma so as to take her with him as he flees. He finds that she had committed suicide by gas from an open oven door. Morton's strategy in

140-402: Is naive to believe in his client's innocence, is shocked by Nick's confession. Nick decides to change his plea to guilty. During the sentencing hearing, Morton manages to arouse some sympathy for the plight of those in a dead-end existence. He pleads that anyone who "knocks on any door" may find a Nick Romano. Nevertheless, Nick is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Morton visits Nick prior to

160-500: Is that it casually tolerates the pouring of such fraudulence onto the public mind. Not only are the justifications for the boy's delinquencies inept and superficial, as they are tossed off in the script, but the nature and aspect of the hoodlum are outrageously heroized." The staff at Variety magazine was more receptive of the film, writing: "An eloquent document on juvenile delinquency, its cause and effect, has been fashioned from Knock on Any Door ...Nicholas Ray's direction stresses

180-666: The Institute. Scenes of the film were shot on site in Lexington on the institute's historic parade ground, and the baseball game scene was filmed at Alumni Memorial Field. At the Virginia Military Institute, roommates Billy Randolph ( Wayne Morris ), Dan Crawford ( Ronald Reagan ) and Bing Edwards ( Eddie Albert ) are three good-natured troublemakers who are trying to clean up their act in the weeks leading up to graduation. Still, try as they might, they cannot seem to stop breaking

200-573: The Japanese invasion to the American recapture. After a long absence from the cinema, Monks made several appearances as an actor, beginning with Sylvester Stallone 's Paradise Alley (1978). He died in Pacific Palisades, California . Knock on Any Door Knock on Any Door is a 1949 American courtroom trial film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart . The movie

220-476: The courtroom is to argue that slums breed criminals and that society is to blame for crimes committed by people who live in such miserable conditions. Morton argues that Romano is a victim of society and not a natural-born killer. However, his strategy does not have the desired effect on the jury, thanks to the badgering of the seasoned and experienced District Attorney Kerman, who delivers question after question until Nick shouts out his admission of guilt. Morton, who

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240-478: The execution and watches him walk down the hall to the death chamber. Uncredited Knock on Any Door , based on Willard Motley 's 1947 novel of the same name, was Hollywood's second major-studio movie adapted from a novel by an African-American author. (The first was The Foxes of Harrow (1947), adapted from a novel by Frank Yerby . ) Producer Mark Hellinger purchased the rights to Motley's novel, and intended Humphrey Bogart and Marlon Brando to star in

260-541: The playwrights' lively humors in the added scenes." "None of the factors that made the play a success has been lost ... Albert gives a splendid performance," reported Variety . Film Daily wrote that Keighley gave the film "warm, sympathetic direction and has injected many human touches," and called Eddie Albert "a definite screen 'find'." Harrison's Reports declared it "A delightful comedy" with "excellent" performances. John Mosher of The New Yorker called it "a serviceable time-filler." A sequel, Brother Rat and

280-407: The production. However, after Hellinger died in late 1947, Robert Lord and Bogart formed a corporation to produce the film: Santana Productions, named after Bogart's private sailing yacht. Jack L. Warner was reportedly furious at this, fearing that other stars would do the same and major studios would lose their power. In 1958 Motley wrote a sequel novel, Let No Man Write My Epitaph . This book

300-408: The realism of the script taken from Willard Motley's novel of the same title, and gives the film a hard, taut pace that compels complete attention." According to critic Hal Erickson, the oft-repeated credo spoken by the character Nick Romano — "Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse" — would become the "clarion call for a generation of disenfranchised youth." Filmink wrote it "isn’t

320-444: The rules, which include sneaking girlfriends on campus, and pawning the college's valuable sword to get money to bet on a baseball game. When the secretly married Edwards learns his wife ( Jane Bryan ) is pregnant, his preoccupation leads to events that really send everything out of order. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called the film "an excellent transcription of the play, loyal to all its screenable material and matching

340-411: The same slums and partly because he feels guilty for his partner botching the criminal trial of Nick's father years earlier. Nick is on trial for shooting a policeman point-blank and faces execution if convicted. Nick's history is presented through flashbacks showing him as a hoodlum committing one petty crime after another. Morton's wife Adele convinces him to play nursemaid to Nick in order to make Nick

360-422: Was also filmed, as Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960), produced and directed by Philip Leacock and starring Burl Ives , Shelley Winters , James Darren , and Ella Fitzgerald , among others. New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called the film "a pretentious social melodrama" and blasted the film's message and screenplay. He wrote: "Rubbish! The only shortcoming of society which this film proves

380-406: Was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Willard Motley . The picture gave actor John Derek his breakthrough role as young hoodlum Nick Romano, whose motto was "Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse." Against the wishes of his law partners, slick talking lawyer Andrew Morton takes the case of Nick Romano, a troubled punk from the slums, partly because he himself came from

400-530: Was born in Pleasantville, New York . He attended the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and became a stage actor. Together with a fellow former cadet Fred Finklehoffe , he co-wrote a play in 1936 titled Brother Rat . The success of the play led to Warner Bros. purchasing the play for filming at VMI. Warners engaged them to write the screenplay for the film and a sequel titled Brother Rat and

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