Somewhere in the Night (film)
Somewhere in the Night is a 1946 film noir and psychological thriller directed and co-written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Richard Conte, and Lloyd Nolan.
| Somewhere in the Night | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Produced by | Anderson Lawler |
| Screenplay by | Howard Dimsdale Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Based on | story by Marvin Borowsky |
| Starring | John Hodiak Nancy Guild Lloyd Nolan |
| Music by | David Buttolph |
| Cinematography | Norbert Brodine |
| Edited by | James B. Clark |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.5 million[1] |
Plot
The film tells the tale of a man called George Taylor (John Hodiak), who returns home to the U.S. from fighting in World War II. He is suffering from amnesia, having been badly injured by a grenade. He tries to find his old identity, following a trail left behind by the mysterious Mr. Larry Cravat. He ends up stumbling into a murder mystery involving Nazi loot.
Cast
- John Hodiak as George W. Taylor
- Nancy Guild as Christy Smith
- Lloyd Nolan as Police Lt. Donald Kendall
- Richard Conte as Mel Phillips
- Josephine Hutchinson as Elizabeth Conroy
- Fritz Kortner as Anzelmo aka Dr. Oracle
- Sheldon Leonard as Sam
- Whit Bissell as John the Bartender
- Harry Morgan as Bath attendant
- Lou Nova as Hubert
- Margo Woode as Phyllis
- Jeff Corey as Bank Teller
- John Ireland (actor) as The Narrator
Production notes
20th Century Fox purchased Marvin Borowsky's original, unpublished story "The Lonely Journey" and his accompanying screenplay in December 1944 for $11,000. Somewhere in the Night was Nancy Guild's first film. Production Dates: 21 Nov 1945–24 Jan 1946.[2]
A radio version of the film, starring John Hodiak and Lynn Bari, was broadcast on Lux Radio Theatre on March 3, 1947.
Reception
When the film was first released, film critic Bosley Crowther gave the film a negative review, writing "Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Josephine Hutchinson and several others are competent as varied pawns. Their performances are interesting; it's only too bad that they have such turgid and inconclusive things to do. After a while, the mad confusion of the story inspires a complete apathy."[3]
More recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz praised the film, writing, "A dark moody noir tale about a marine who gets blown up by a grenade in the South Pacific during a skirmish in WW-II and survives, only to become an amnesia victim...Mankiewicz does a nice job of creating the dark noir mood. The film is spiced up with comedy, excellent performances, plenty of suspense, plus a tense voice-over by John Ireland, and it manages to keep the pot boiling with a quintessential amnesiac story."[4]
References
- Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 221
- Somewhere in the Night at the American Film Institute Catalog.
- Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, "The Screen; 'Somewhere in the Night,' a Fox Melodrama Introducing Nancy Guild Opposite John Hodiak, Is New Attraction at the Roxy", June 13, 1946. Accessed: July 9, 2013.
- Schwartz, Dennis. Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, June 3, 2000. Accessed: July 9, 2013.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Somewhere in the Night (film). |
- Somewhere in the Night at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Somewhere in the Night at IMDb
- Somewhere in the Night at AllMovie
- Somewhere in the Night at the TCM Movie Database
- Somewhere in the Night at Rotten Tomatoes
- Somewhere in the Night information site and DVD review at DVD Beaver (includes images)
- Somewhere in the Night film trailer on YouTube
Streaming audio
- Somewhere in the Night on Lux Radio Theatre: March 3, 1947 at My Old Radio