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. ***.

THE BRASHER DOUBLOON

Nancy Guild and George Montgomery

THE BRASHER DOUBLOON (1947). Director: John Brahm.

Private eye Philip Marlowe (George Montgomery of Street of Sinners) is hired by the formidable Mrs. Murdock (Florence Bates) to recover a very valuable coin which he suspects was taken by her own son, Leslie (Conrad Janis). Marlowe is attracted to Mrs. Murdock's somewhat strange secretary, Merle (Nancy Guild of Somewhere in the Night), who seems to be keeping secrets from him. As Marlowe investigates, he keeps tripping over bodies, and uncovers some family secrets and a mysterious death in the past. Along the way he encounters cops, gangsters and gamblers, most of whom have little respect for his health. It all winds up in his office as he unveils the killer and his motives with a piece of provocative film. The Brasher Doubloon is based on Raymond Chandler's "The High Window," and despite being a little too short, is a very good example of both film noir and the detective story. As Marlowe, George Montgomery is excellent -- smooth, handsome and very adept -- but the critics felt he couldn't compare to Humphrey Bogart in the role and he was again mostly delegated to westerns after that. Guild and Janis are on the money, and Bates offers a ferociously dynamic performance as Mrs. Murdock. Roy Roberts is also effective as Lt. Breeze. The picture is full of amusing and sexy scenes such as when Guild holds a gun on Montgomery and orders him to take his clothes off! Director Brahm keeps the movie atmospheric, fast-paced, and suspenseful. Great ending! The Chandler novel was also filmed as Time to Kill some years earlier with Lloyd Nolan playing not Marlowe but Michael Shayne!

Verdict: This long-forgotten movie is a lost gem. ***. 

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951). Director: Charles Lamont.

Recent graduates from detective school, Bud and Lou run into an escaped con, Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), who is wanted for murder but claims he was framed. A scientist acquaintance of his girlfriend Helen (Nancy Guild) has John Griffin's formula for invisibility, but warns Nelson that it's too dangerous to take. Naturally, Nelson ignores the warning as the cops close in. Eventually Lou winds up becoming a boxer (with Nelson's invisible fists helping him out) known as Louie the Looper. Adele Jergens adds some spice, as usual, as fight promoter Sheldon Leonard's moll, doing her best to seduce a little-boyish Costello. Leonard is the same as ever, but William Frawley is fun as the detective who's after Nelson. Nancy Guild makes little impression as the "good gal." The special effects by David S. Horsley are as good as John P. Fulton's in Universal's previous "invisible" pictures.

Verdict: Cute, if minor A & C comedy. **1/2.

BLACK MAGIC (1949)

BLACK MAGIC (1949). Director: Gregory Ratoff.

Alexander Dumas Sr. is working on a book about Cagliostro and trying to get a handle on him when he relates the story that forms this film to his son. Black Magic is a mix of fiction and history, and can best be described as a somewhat entertaining potboiler. Young Joseph Balsamo is whipped and forced to watch his gypsy parents being hanged upon the orders of the cruel Viscount DeMontagne (Stephen Bekassy) -- fiction. When he grows up, Balsamo has turned into the famed mysticist Count Cagliostro (fact), and eventually marries a young woman named Lorenza (fact) who is the spitting image of Marie Antoinette (fiction). The two of them get mixed up in a plot to turn the French public against Antoinette involving a piece of jewelry (part fiction, part fact). Then, of course, Cagliostro must get his revenge against DeMontagne, although this aspect of the story doesn't get nearly enough dramatic attention. Orson Welles gives another wonderful performance as Cagliostro, although the movie is certainly no Citizen Kane. Nancy Guild makes the most of her dual role as the sweet and innocent Lorenza and a rather bitchy Marie Antoinette, and Margot Grahame scores as Mme. DuBarry. Akim Tamiroff is fine, as always, as a friend of Cagliostro's. After awhile the muddled proceedings begin to grow wearisome, however, although there's an eye-opening sword fight high above on the roofs of Paris at the end that is quite striking and cinematic. Another memorable sequence has a crowd of supposed cripples and sick people gathering in front of the King, who orders Cagliostro to cure them en masse -- with amusing results.

Verdict: Has its moments, but you can also see why it's been forgotten. **1/2.