JOHN GARFIELD: "BE MY DESTINY"

Posted by DEWEY MEE on May 1st 2024

This contrived crime melodrama finds sullen and sexy John Garfield, once again, on the wrong side of the law. Ex-con Joe Bell (Garfield) goes to a work farm, where he falls in love with the foreman's stepdaughter Mabel (Pricilla Lane). The foreman starts beating Pricilla one night and fights with Joe. The drunken foreman drops dead from a heart attack, but it looks like Joe killed him. From then on, Joe and Mabel are constantly on the run from the law. Oh, and while on the run, they get married.
They receive a few lucky breaks from a kindly deli owner (Henry Armetti) and newspaper editor (Alan Hale, Sr.). But Robert Rossen's screenplay soon dissolves into laughable ridiculousness. Lane has very little to do except scream "JOE!!" "JOE!!" all throughout the movie, and even the charismatic, sexual allure of John Garfield isn't enough to carry the audience past increasingly ridiculous plot holes.