So Dark the Night (1946)

Director:

Joseph H. Lewis

Writers:

Dwight V. Babcock (writer)
Martin Berkeley (writer)

Release Date:

10 October 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Plot:

Cast

Steven Geray	...	Henri Cassin
Micheline Cheirel	...	Nanette Michaud
Eugene Borden	...	Pierre Michaud
Ann Codee	...	Mama Michaud
Egon Brecher	...	Dr. Boncourt
Helen Freeman	...	Widow Bridelle

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Rowland V. Lee Ranch - Fallbrook Avenue, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Larry Darmour Productions

Quotes:

[encouraging Nanette to make a play for the much older, but well-to-do, Henri]
Mama Michaud: Love has its place -- but it puts no butter on the table.

All the talent lavished on French-set noir can't quite disguise one-trick pony

So Dark The Night poses a tough challenge: It's very hard to write about it in any detail without ruining it for those who haven't yet seen it. Since it remains quite obscure, that includes just about everybody. The movie will strike those familiar with its director Joseph H. Lewis' better known titles in the noir cycle – Gun Crazy, The Big Combo, even My Name Is Julia Ross, which in its brevity it resembles – as an odd choice.

For starters, the bucolic French countryside serves as its setting. Steven Geray, a middle-aged detective with the Surété in Paris, sets out for a vacation in the village of Ste. Margot (or maybe Margaux). Quite unexpectedly, he finds himself falling in love with the inkeepers' daughter (Micheline Cheirel), even though she's betrothed to a rough-hewn local farmer. But the siren song of life in Paris is hard to resist, so she agrees to marry him, despite the disparity in their ages, which inevitably becomes the talk of the town.

But on the night of their engagement party, she fails to return to the inn. Soon, a hunchback finds her body by the river. Her jealous, jilted lover is the logical suspect, but he, too, is found dead. Then anonymous notes threaten more deaths, which come to pass. For the first time in his career, the bereaved Geray finds himself stumped....

A particularly weak script all but does the movie in; it plays like bad Cornell Woolrich crossed with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. But Lewis does this creaky vehicle proud. He takes his time near the beginning, but then the story – and the storytelling – gain momentum (alas, just about the time the script breaks an axle). Burnett Guffey lighted and photographed the film, with an intriguing leitmotif of peering out of and peeping into windows; there's also an effective score by Hugo Friedhofer, who supplied aural menace to many noirs. A good deal of talent has been lavished on So Dark The Night, but at the end it boils down to not much more than a gimmick – and not a very good gimmick at that. It's a one-trick pony of a movie.