Young and Innocent (1937)

Young and Innocent (1937) is an Alfred Hitchcock body on the beach female seeker hero wrongly accused man police procedural murder romance on the run sometime slapstick, sometime farcical, sometime Anglo-silly, Olde Englishe village life never leave the dog behind car in a collapsing mine special effects and tasteless blackface orchestra twitching man circumstantial pursuit and evasion thriller in the mold and style of many of Alfred Hitchcock's very well known pictures, and a minor 1930s classic most renowned for the wonderful but blackface focused crane shot of the decade and starring Nova Pilbeam, Torin Thatcher, Basil Radford, Derrick De Marney as Robert Tisdall lol, Percy Marmont, Edward Rigby, Mary Clare, John Longden as Inspector Kent . . . and George Curzon as "Guy", aka "the guy" I suspect.

The Big Shot (1942)

The Big Shot (1942) is a Warner Bros. three-time-loser prison break couple-on-the-run innocent-man-convicted heist and gangland crime film noir thriller with Humphrey Bogart as the sympathetic gangster mob boss hero and Irene Manning as the woman he loves.

As any canon of work relies on trope and recognition, trope and repetition, all of which should be traceable back into the originating myths of its society, here is an archetypal late 1930s tale of motor madness, criminal expression, and the determination to go straight.

The latter is one of the greatest themes of the era. There were men who were innocent caught up in crime, there were veterans returning from the moral order of war to the confused criminal urban environments, and there were the charismatic guilty, who try as they might, could not avoid crime.

Dust Be My Destiny (1939)

Dust Be My Destiny (1939) is an innocent-man-jailed moral drifter narrative prison farm social state of the US couple on the run drama and romance proto noir which expresses noir moments and captures noir sentiment, as it bums across the states in various wagons and train carriages, always expressive of the idea that love will out.

Dust Be My Destiny (1939) is beautifully staged expression of what America sought most for itself, the idea of what it was set to become, its deepest anxieties about morality expressed in individual and romantic action from John Garfield, largely.

Step by Step (1946)

Step by Step (1946) is a returning veteran post-war Nazis-in-California espionage and action thriller chase murder fugitive romance on the run film with noir qualities, and the amazing bodily properties of Lawrence Tierney, a truer man of film noir there rarely was, with this little coastal corker as one of his finest cracker crazed noiresque outings.

It Happened One Night (1934) properly introduced the couple-thrown-together trope, and it is true that this semi-noir Step By Step proves what a confused year 1946 may have been as it does indeed feature screwball elements, in light dashes, such as Anne Jeffreys in military uniform, and some carrying-across-the-threshold romance style of jinx.

Shockproof (1949)

Shockproof (1949) is a parole-officer and female murderer melodrama romance and politics film noir from Douglas Sirk, starring the at-that-time hot and noiresque married couple of Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight.

Cornel Wilde is the mental-headed and ambitious parole officer who falls crazily in love with his super attractive sexy as the day is long charge Patricia Knight, a one-time murderer who bucks the system early on be being female. 

And not being content to be a parole-officer romance and murder thriller, with suburban melodramatic tones with the excellent feature of having a super-attractive female criminal who is distinct it must be said from any traditional femme fatale film role, and a distant but crucial arc backstory line of political ambition, and the ditto the noir-like corruption of the civil and moral mind into lawbreaking middle class tearaway, Shockproof (1949) also veers hard into a couple on the run story at around its hour mark.

Borderline (1950)

Borderline (1950) is an undercover female cop narcotic smuggling romantic copper couple on the run chase caper noir starring Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor as undercover narcotic cops on the job in Mexico, unaware that each of the other is an undercover narcotic cop on the job in Mexico.

A gentle noir, with no profound moments of existential threat, anxiety, peril nor paranoia, Borderline (1950) is an undecided film noir, capering with the caper format at times and nudging on occasion into comedy, especially as it adopts and parades a standard series of idle Mexicana, example in the made up typecast stereo of the bumbling sombrero and the old "Si senor" routine, which blocks out the light at every turn in this cheapish escapade.

One Way Street (1950)

One Way Street (1950) is a couple on the run in Mexico killer gangster thriller starring James Mason, Märta Torén and Dan Duryea.

The full cast list is impressive however, with some solid noir delivered by some of its finest character exponents, like Jack Elam, King Donovan, William Conrad and even Rock Hudson making a showing.

As the city of Los Angeles pulsates with the wail of sirens, the stage is set for a tale of intrigue and betrayal. From the window of her apartment, the enigmatic Marta Toren observes the chaos below, her cigarette smoke curling into the night. She relays her findings to the cunning Dan Duryea, the architect of a daring heist. But when one of his henchmen falls to a bullet, it's James Mason's turn to shine, using his surgical skills to extract both the slug and Duryea's coveted prize - Toren herself.

Their flight takes them across the border to the rugged terrain of Mexico, where the pace slows to a languid crawl. In a rustic village, Mason's talents as a healer are put to the test, while Toren finds herself drawn to the simplicity of their surroundings. 

You Only Live Once (1937)

You Only Live Once (1937) is a 1930s couple on the run prison crime drama noir by Fritz Lang, and a super-early film noir classic, the bleakness of which the United States was not quite ready to face.

The picture's true noir inclination arises from the fact that it is about destiny and fate, and is the subjectively told story of the interlocking forces that serve to ruin the lives of a positive and beautiful young couple.

Although everything may at times seem to be going well for this couple, the truth is that everything is going badly. 

An early entry into the sub-genre of fugitive lovers on the lam pictures, the story leans on the legend of Bonnie and Clyde and shows how three times jailbird Eddie Taylor (played by Henry Fonda) is released, after strings are pulled,  into the arms of his adoring gal, Jo Graham (Sylvia Sidney). 

They Live by Night (1948)

They Live by Night is a 1948 an essential stop on the American film noir tour. 

Not just directed by Nicholas Ray, but his directorial debut, and starring Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger, is a tale of young love on the run; another film noir staple.

The story is psychologically bound to emergent teenage culture: after an unjust prison sentence, a young innocent gets mixed-up with hardened criminals and a violent escape.

First to note here is how and why the trope of the young lovers on the run was created and developed; because the idea sprang into being on the doorstep of film noir. It is no accident that Nicholas Ray, responsible for many of the finest and most intelligent items in the film noir cycle, went on to direct Rebel Without A Cause.

The similarities between They Live By Night and Rebel Without a Cause are many. The driver in both cases, is young love, certainly doomed love, and the puzzle as to why two such young and innocent people should fail to find the happiness that they believe can be achieved. The happiness in question is something of a myth in itself, and ironically is part created by the cinema itself.