You and Me

Director: Fritz Lang
Year Released: 1938
Rating: 1.5

Both Joe (George Raft) and Helen (Sylvia Sidney) work at a popular department store owned by Morris (Harry Carey) - who has a track record of hiring ex-cons to prove they can "redeem" themselves and live an honest life - but after they marry (in secret) Joe's old gangster buds try recruiting him to rob the joint on Thanksgiving.  The first two acts make it seem like it's trying (and failing) to be almost a romantic comedy (with some dark undercurrents), and then when Joe finds out Helen, like him, spent some time in prison, he goes completely off the rails and this (for whatever reason) makes him want to take part in the heist.  Instead of a shootout or any kind of real drama to conclude it, instead it turns into a mathematics lesson by Helen as she breaks down the cost benefit of crime, concluding that no, it doesn't "pay."  Something in my gut tells me an accountant should double check those numbers....