SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT

SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT (1946). Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Screenplay by Howard Dimsdale and Mankiewicz. 

 "Time doesn't change. it goes on and on but it doesn't change. I know because I've watched it. Nights. Days. Nights. Always the same. Nights are always gray. Days can have different colors, but the nights are dark and empty. Only people change. They grow old and ugly -- and pitiful. I've made believe so much for so long. That I was alive. That I had friends. That I wasn't dead. I wanted so much to make believe that somebody loved me." 

An amnesiac WW 2 veteran named George Taylor (John Hodiak) learns that someone named "Larry Cravat" has put $5000 for him in a bank account but can't remember why or even who the man is. So he begins a search for the elusive Cravat, encountering a pretty singer named Christy (Nancy Guild) who takes a shine to him and vice versa. During his search Taylor encounters assorted thugs, a villain named Anzelmo (Fritz Kortner) and a hard-boiled dame named Phyllis (Margo Woode). After she kisses an unresponsive Taylor, Phyllis says "I've had more fun drinking a bromo seltzer." (Sheldon Leonard has a notable turn as Phyllis' husband.) Lloyd Nolan is a police officer who's also looking for Cravat -- and George Taylor. 

John Hodiak

This interesting mystery has an intriguing plot and good dialogue, and is well-acted by Hodiak and everyone else. Woode is snappy as Phyllis, and Guild very appealing as Christy. (Guild gets to lip sync to a very nice torch song entitled "I'm in the Middle of Nowhere.") The cast stand-out, however, is Josephine Hutchinson as desperately lonely Elizabeth, who is very affecting in her brief scene wherein she speaks the dialogue quoted above. Somewhere in the Night is a snappy, absorbing picture, even if its wind-up is a little predictable and disappointing, but it has well-realized characters and memorable performances. Mankiewicz's direction is only routine for this type of material, however. This was Guild's first film; she also appeared in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man. She makes a much better impression in this film. 

Verdict: Suspenseful and different. ***.

MOSS ROSE

Peggy Cummins

MOSS ROSE (1947). Director: Gregory Ratoff.

Belle (Peggy Cummins) is a dance hall girl in London who is good friends with a young woman, another entertainer, named Daisy (Margo Woode of Hell Bound). One day Belle discovers Daisy's dead body and sees a man, Michael Drego (Victor Mature), leaving Daisy's room in a hurry. Belle doesn't tell the police what she knows, and Michael assumes she is hoping to be paid blackmail money. But instead she shocks Micheal by asking him to bring her to his estate as a guest. It seems Belle has always wanted to be a "lady" ...

Victor Mature

You might imagine that nothing good can come of this situation -- one also has to keep in mind that heroine Belle becomes an unsympathetic figure in that she's covering up a murder -- but Moss Rose may not be quite as predictable as you might imagine. At the estate Belle interacts with Michael's strange if likable mother, Lady Margaret (Ethel Barrymore of None But the Lonely Heart), and his fiancee, Audrey (Patricia Medina), who is at first quite suspicious of Belle's motives in coming. George Zucco is wasted as the butler, who has but one brief exchange with Belle, and Vincent Price has a little more to do as Inspector Clinner, who is investigating Daisy's murder. Eventually the killer is revealed.

Ethel Barrymore

I believe Alfred Hitchcock had once expressed an interest in doing a film version of Moss Rose -- the title refers to a type of flower pressed in the victim's bible --  and undoubtedly it would have made a far better picture than what we've got here. Price's fans will be disappointed that he has a very subordinate role, although he does have scenes with all of the principals. Cummins makes a good heroine, Medina is fine, and Barrymore walks off with the movie. This is simply not the right kind of material for Mature, who mostly just seems to be reciting lines. The basic material is there for a superior suspense film, but while the picture is absorbing, it has no flair. David Buttolph's musical score helps a bit. Peggy Cummins later stared with Dana Andrews in the classic Night of the Demon.

Verdict: This forgotten movie has some points of interest. **1/2. 

HELL BOUND

HELL BOUND (1957). Director: William J. Hole, Jr.

Jordan (John Russell) is a ruthless criminal who is putting together a gang for a caper: robbing a ship of millions of dollars of drugs. His confederates include: suffering addict Stanley (George Mather), whom Jordan slaps around brutally; obese and diabetic Herbie (Stanley Adams); tough moll Jan (Margo Woode of Somewhere in the Night); and sexy Paula (June Blair), who is not as bad as she seems. Harry Quantro (Frank Fenton) is another nasty associate of Jordan's. As part of her assignment Paula must play nurse to a paramedic, Eddie (Stuart Whitman of Sands of the Kalahari), who doesn't know that he's part of the robbery scheme. When a little boy is killed at an accident scene attended by Eddie and Paula, she is very disturbed by the child's death. Later her resolve to help commit the robbery weakens, but most of the other conspirators have equal problems. Hell Bound is a lively and absorbing crime movie about a bunch of truly inept criminals, and features good locations, some supremely screwed-up characters, and a highly satisfying wind-up. The prologue seems to depict the robbery itself but is only a film made by Jordan to show to his confederates. Whitman and Blair give very good performances, Woode and Mather are fine, and Russell is quite effective as the rough and determined ringleader. Jordan calls himself "Mr. Natas," an obvious reference to his evil nature. One scene that's supposed to take place on a boat looks like it was filmed on a staircase in an office building! William H. Hole Jr. was primarily a television director. Richard Landau also wrote the screenplay for The Quatermass Xperiment.

Verdict: Low-budget, but vivid, exciting, and well-acted. ***.