Possibly Fritz Lang's best American film, You Only Live Once is certainly the first and best of the Bonnie And Clyde type films of young-couples-on-the-run. The story tells of Eddie (Henry Fonda), a three-time loser who is imprisoned and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. Escaping from prison, he flees across the country with his girlfriend Jo (Sylvia Sydney) to a gripping and uncompromising conclusion at the Canadian border. According to historian Georges Sadoul, “This and Fury are Fritz Lang's best Hollywood films, and expositions of Lang's favorite theme of guilt. As in Fury it is society not destiny that is responsible, but whereas in Fury Lang focused blame on the mob, here society's guilt is more diffuse. Visually striking, the composition and lighting, in their brooding, atmospheric effects, sometimes recall those of expressionism. Though its plot is largely melodramatic, the total effect of the film (much helped by the touching warmth of Sylvia Sydney and Fonda) is very powerful.”