America by Night (1961) User Reviews

Hey, this was criticism of the immoral West!

[abnedelkovichscifi · 4 August 2006]

The point was to show how decadent and morally loose the capitalist society is. Night-clubs! Strip-tease! The leftist French intellectuals would reveal to the world the last days of the falling capitalistic empire. Lots and lots of strip-tease! Communist Party members in Yugoslavia had an obligation to criticize the decadence of the west, from time to time. The immoral capitalism, whereas in the proletarian paradise the "dignity of our mothers and female workers" would never be endangered.

To be able to criticize properly, though, you had to study the matters deeply. So, some of the most illustrious Party members in Beograd (Belgrade), in preparation for an INTENSE criticism aimed at their class enemies, went to the "bioskop" (movie-theatre) to watch this film five, six times.

America By Night - A Brash and Curious Tour

[krocheav · 7/10 · 25 October 2020]

Very colourful with lots of Women, some not so beautiful, some very beautiful, some talented - some not so. But, lots of fabulous music, all kinds of music including Tango (but mostly Latino). Would be good to find a CD Sound Trk for this rarity. A family group play a batch of Harps in traditional dress, making beautiful music as cars navigate highways and by-ways by night. Lionel Hampton plays cool vibes, while lots of Tijuana Brass and percussion, back up continually changing mobile images of multiple landscapes and night spots - some cheap some classy. Wonder if this is around on DVD?

Dated but charming

[Vince_In_Milan · 12 June 2002]

This is quite a simple documentary on what people do for entertainment across the Americas (north and south).

Lots of bar hopping and girls dancing in fish-tanks in the US (wow! the sophistication of it all!), local parties, limbo dancers, nightclubs and so on in the rest of the continent. A few minutes are devoted to each country (the lion's share going to the US) and the film travels South and follows the night.

I suppose that entertainment-wise, things have changed a LOT in the past 32 years but this film manages to be entertaining and zips along at a pretty good pace. It's obviously quite dated but still cute even if you only watch it as some sort of anthropological document.