You Only Live Once is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda.

Eddie's old gang tempt him with an offer to join them in bank robberies, but he chooses to search for legitimate work instead.

When a bank job occurs during which six people are killed, Eddie is framed and subsequently wrongly convicted for the murders.

The two have arranged for Joan to hop a boat to Havana with the baby and wait there while Stephen works to clear her name.

James Baldwin writes fondly about the film in The Devil Finds Work, arguing Lang "never succeeded quite so brilliantly again".

[citation needed] François Truffaut wrote the film "is about destiny and fate", explaining: "You Only Live Once is about interlocking forces: everything may seem to be going well, but the truth is, everything is going badly.