So Dark the Night
Encyclopedia
So Dark the Night is an American
crime
film noir
directed by Joseph H. Lewis
and written by Dwight V. Babcock, Martin Berkeley, based on a story written by Aubrey Wisberg. The drama features Steven Geray
, Micheline Cheirel, Eugene Borden, among others.
The staff at Variety
magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "Around the frail structure of a story [by Aubrey Wisberg] about a schizophrenic Paris police inspector who becomes an insane killer at night, a tight combination of direction, camerawork and musical scoring produce a series of isolated visual effects that are subtle and moving to an unusual degree."
Critic Dennis Schwartz lauded the film and wrote, "This is Joseph H. Lewis's second feature and one that has the same intense energy as his The Big Combo
(1955) and My Name is Julia Ross
(1945). The Freudian
story is wacky and strains credibility, but the elegant style Lewis uses is mesmerizing. The film noir's light touches are magnificently caught in the rich depiction of rural life and the character study of a psychological breakdown due to a pressured psyche that induces schizophrenia. This makes for a fascinating watch. So Dark the Night is a rarely shown obscure film, and it is a beauty. Burnett Guffey used his camera effectively in many strange angled shots while his dark black shadings express the contrasting somber mood to the airy country landscape."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Joseph H. Lewis
Joseph H. Lewis was an American B-movie film director whose stylish flourishes came to be appreciated by auteur theory-espousing film critics in the years following his retirement in 1966...
and written by Dwight V. Babcock, Martin Berkeley, based on a story written by Aubrey Wisberg. The drama features Steven Geray
Steven Geray
Steven Geray, born Istvan Gyergyay on November 10, 1904 and died aged 69 on December 26, 1973 in Los Angeles, California. He was a film actor who appeared in over 100 films and dozens of television programs...
, Micheline Cheirel, Eugene Borden, among others.
Plot
So Dark the Night is the story of a detective, Henri Cassin from Paris, who falls in love with an innkeeper's daughter Nanette while on a long overdue vacation. She is a country girl with a jealous boyfriend. Nonetheless, the detective becomes engaged to her. Then the girl vanishes the night of her engagement party and later shows up dead. Cassin believes that the obvious suspect is Leon, the old boyfriend, but soon he is also found killed.Cast
- Steven GeraySteven GeraySteven Geray, born Istvan Gyergyay on November 10, 1904 and died aged 69 on December 26, 1973 in Los Angeles, California. He was a film actor who appeared in over 100 films and dozens of television programs...
as Henri Cassin - Micheline Cheirel as Nanette Michaud
- Eugene Borden as Pierre Michaud
- Ann CodeeAnn CodeeAnn Codee was a Belgian actress with numerous hit films on her résumé.-Biography:Codee married actor Frank Orth around 1911 or so. She and her husband toured American vaudeville in the 1910s and 1920s in a comedy act. The team made its film debut in 1929, appearing in a series of multilingual...
as Mama Michaud - Egon BrecherEgon BrecherEgon Brecher was a Czechoslovakian stage actor and director who toured Austria and Germany acting on the stage, and also served as the chief director of the Stadts Theatre in Vienna, before entering the motion picture industry.-Career:Born as a son of a professor, he began to study philosophy in...
as Dr. Boncourt - Helen Freeman as Widow Bridelle
Critical reception
Critic Karl Williams called the film, "[A] well-plotted and executed film noir suffered from its lack of star power, but has become something of a cult classic."The staff at Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "Around the frail structure of a story [by Aubrey Wisberg] about a schizophrenic Paris police inspector who becomes an insane killer at night, a tight combination of direction, camerawork and musical scoring produce a series of isolated visual effects that are subtle and moving to an unusual degree."
Critic Dennis Schwartz lauded the film and wrote, "This is Joseph H. Lewis's second feature and one that has the same intense energy as his The Big Combo
The Big Combo
The Big Combo is an American film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis and stylistically photographed by cinematographer and noir icon John Alton with music by David Raksin....
(1955) and My Name is Julia Ross
My Name is Julia Ross
My Name is Julia Ross is a film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis, based on the novel The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert. This drama is the first in a series of film noirs directed by Lewis and features Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready.-Plot:In London, Julia Ross goes to a new...
(1945). The Freudian
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
story is wacky and strains credibility, but the elegant style Lewis uses is mesmerizing. The film noir's light touches are magnificently caught in the rich depiction of rural life and the character study of a psychological breakdown due to a pressured psyche that induces schizophrenia. This makes for a fascinating watch. So Dark the Night is a rarely shown obscure film, and it is a beauty. Burnett Guffey used his camera effectively in many strange angled shots while his dark black shadings express the contrasting somber mood to the airy country landscape."