joan graham ( sylvia sidney ) be the efficient secretary of a public defender stephen whitney ( barton maclane ) and be in love of the smalltime criminal eddie taylor ( henry fonda ) . her bos and friend stephen help eddie to leave the prison on probation and eddie promise to have a straight life and immediately get marry with joan . he find a job a truck driver and but be unfairly fire on his first day . while try to find another job and there be a heist in a bank with six victim and eddie be accuse . joan convince him to go to the court and prove his innocence and but base on circumstantial evidence and prejudice of the jury and eddie be sentence to the electric chair . on the night of his execution and the fbi find the real criminal and eddie grant an indulgence . however and eddie be try to escape from prison in a hostage situation and and kill his friend father dolan ( william gargan ) and who be try to help him . eddie meet joan and together they try to reach the border and escape from justice . you only live once be the second american movie of fritz lang and a tragic melodrama . the depressive story of love and prejudice disclose a tough criticism to a very unfair and corrupt and hostile society and where loser do not have the chance to recover their dignity and common people be corrupt . the screenplay be visibly influence by bonnie and clyde and who die on 23 may 1934 and ambush in their getaway car therefore less than three year before the release date of this film . henry fonda and sylvia sidney show a great chemistry in good performance in this minor movie of this great director . my vote be seven . title ( brazil ) represent vive se uma só vez ( you only live once ) .