Somewhere in the Night

I wanted to like Somewhere in the Night and at first was impressed by the off kilter style of the opening in the WWII field hospital with the heavily bandaged amnesia victim played by John Hodiak, but when it switched to its stateside development I soon realized it was derived from several predecessors and didn't really have a clue where to go itself. Hodiak and leading lady Nancy Guild, while meant to evoke Bogey and Bacall, are about as interesting as watching paint dry in this overlong derivative production. Supporting cast is the high point with Richard Conte, Lloyd Nolan, and several other familiar faces doing their small parts to make the movie memorable. Eddie Muller's commentary on the Fox DVD is fun. Only recommended for noir completists.

No one could say Mank didn't have a checkered career: In the 1930s he was castigated for daring to re-write Scott Fitzgerald (in his capacity as Producer on Three Comrades, Scott's only solo writing credit, he felt obliged to 'tidy' up several sequences) and in the 1960s he was the guy brought in to re-write and 'salvage' Cleopatra but in between he initially wrote then wrote and directed some very tasty fare indeed culminating in his two magnum opii A Letter To Three Wives And All About Eve. Somewhere In the Night dates from 1946, the same year his second directorial effort Dragonwyck was released and it's well up to snuff. A lot of 'amnesiac' films are, by definition, forgettable, but not this one. Mank assembled as tasty a supporting cast as had ever been shoehorned into one film ranging from Whit Bissell through Harry Morgan, Jeff Corey to the standout Josephine Hutchinson. Leading from the front are the slightly wooden John Hodiak - marriage to Ann Baxter didn't improve his acting -, newcomer Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan and Richard Conte and Mank keeps the balls spinning in the air leaving little time for awkward questions - like why would Conte - who'd got away with murder for three years, introduce Hodiak to a detective friend (Nolan) knowing that Hodiak was trying to get to to bottom of the very murder for which he, Conte, was responsible. This the kind of movie, popular at the time, in which a protagonist who is possibly a murderer is befriended by a girl/woman who's never met him before - for example Alad Ladd and Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia and/or in which a street-wise gal like Guild here, has to have the expressions 'private eye' and 'shamus' explained to her. None of this detracts from an enjoyable ride and it's one to add to your Blockbuster shopping list.

John Hodiak is a war vet with amnesia who searches for his identity and possible complicity in a crime in "Somewhere in the Night," a 1946 film also starring Nancy Guild, Richard Conte, and Lloyd Nolan. The film is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and he also co-wrote the screenplay with Howard Dimsdale. Severely wounded in the war, Hodiak's character, George Taylor, has had to have facial reconstruction. His recovery is slow, and he can't remember anything. He has a partial letter on his person telling him that he's despicable, and when he picks up his belongings, he finds a letter from one Larry Cravat. Investigating Cravat leads him to murder, stolen money, and some unsavory characters who are after him. This is a muddled movie that still manages to be absorbing, probably because of the talent behind and in front of the camera. Nancy Guild plays a singer in a club owned by Richard Conte. She becomes interested in Taylor and tries to help him. Guild is attractive and looks like a noir heroine in the Bacall-Raines genre, but she delivers her lines in a very flat manner. Lloyd Nolan as a police detective is terrific as always, and Conte gives a smooth performance. You have to pay attention to "Somewhere in the Night" or you'll get lost - sort of like the hero does at points in the movie. Still, it's worth seeing.

Ten minutes into this jumble and I thought the writers were being paid by the word, either that or they were trying to talk the audience to death. Which might be okay if the dialog added up to an interesting story. But instead, it goes off in ten different confusing directions not even a Rosetta Stone could unpack. The credits list five different writers, which is not surprising since they appear to be working in separate cities. Now, I don't expect every loose thread to get tied up, especially in noir. However, I do expect a general shape or coherence, which this screenplay unfortunately lacks. It's like a jigsaw without a concept. Leading lady Nancy Guild (Christy) does deserve some sympathy. This is her first movie and Fox thrusts her into a demanding role with lots of dialog. And that's the trouble. In her under-trained mouth lines of dialog sound just like that, lines of dialog. At times it works, but mostly it doesn't. She may look like Bacall—likely why she was promoted in the first place-- but lacks the needed smolder. Unhappily, her career proved downhill and short, so likely the resemblance was both a blessing and a curse. What the movie does have are some striking cameos—a cranky Henry Morgan, a sassy Margo Woode, a sweaty Sheldon Leonard, and in a part that steals the movie, Josephine Huchinson as Elizabeth. True to the scrambled screenplay, her wounded spinster sort of drops out of the sky. Nonetheless, catch her many nuanced expressions that are really quite touching. I just wish the editor or the director had cut the scene after it peaks since we've already gotten the idea. Then too, Nolan and Conte are quite good in their supporting roles, parts that each could probably do in his sleep. On the other hand, leading man Hodiak looks good in a suit, but like the disappearing man, has a presence that becomes fainter and fainter as time goes on. Perhaps he was as confused by the script as others of us. Now, I'm as big a fan of noir as anyone. However, I think this film proves an important lesson. Namely, there is more to noir than just a smoky aesthetic, a big-hair dame, and a catchy title.

Hodiak is a WWII Marine vet, suffering amnesia and searching for his true identity. He returns to Los Angeles and becomes involved in two million dollars of missing Nazi loot. Look for many familiar faces in small supporting roles. While watching this one, I kept thinking what a great vehicle it would have been for John Ireland...then I checked the IMDB and found that Ireland did the voice-over narration.......Freudian???

Somewhere in the Night is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who also co- adapts the screenplay with Howard Dimsdale from a story by Marvin Browsky. It stars John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Josephine Hutchinson and Fritz Kortner. Music is by David Buttolph and cinematography by Norbert Brodine. George Taylor (Hodiak) returns from the war suffering from amnesia and trying to track down his identity by following a trail started by a mysterious man named Larry Cravat. Pretty soon George finds himself thrust into a murder mystery where nothing is ever as it seems. The amnesia sufferer is not in short supply in film noir, neither is the returning from the war veteran, but Somewhere in the Night may just be one of the most under appreciated to use these central themes. Amongst film noir writers it has a very mixed reputation, yet the trajectory it follows is quintessential film noir stuff. George Taylor (Hodiak assured and rightly playing it as low-key confusion) is very much at the mercy of others, thus he finds himself wandering blindly into a labyrinthine murder mystery. His journey will see him get a beating (no matter he is one tough boy), pulled from one suspicious location to the next and introduce him to dames, a stoic copper, a shifty fortune teller and a "too good to be true?" club owner. The screenplay is deliberately convoluted, making paying attention essential, and the script blends tongue in cheek nonchalance with spicy oral stings. The locations Taylor visits are suitably atmospheric, even macabre at times, which allows Mankiewicz and Brodine (Boomerang/Kiss of Death) to open up some noir visuals. Dr. Oracles's Crystal Ball parlour really kicks things off, fronted by Anzelmo (Kortner deliciously shady), it's a room adorned by face masks on the walls and lit eerily by the glow of a crystal ball. Then there's Lambeth Sanitorium, with low-lighted corridors, many doors that hide mentally troubled patients and the shadow inducing stairs. And finally the docks, with dark corners down by the lapping silver water, a solitary bar at the front, smoky and barely rising above dive status. These all form atmospheric backdrops to enhance the suspicion and confusion of the protagonist. Nancy Guild (apparently pronounced as Guyled) didn't have much of a career, and much of the criticism for the acting in the film landed at her door, but unfairly so. It's true that she's more friendly side-kick than sultry femme fatale, but she has a good delivery style that compliments the doubling up with Hodiak. She's pretty as well, a sort of Bacall/Tierney cross that's most appealing. Elsewhere Conte and Nolan offer up the expected enjoyable noirish performances while a host of noir icons flit in and out of the story, making it fun to see who will pop up next? There is undeniably daft coincidences and credulity stretching moments within the plotting, and in true Mankiewicz style the film is often very talky, but it's never dull and quite often surprising, even having a trick up its sleeve in the finale. Great stuff. 8/10

Mankiewicz does it again. With a small cast of generally B actors, he makes a nifty film-noir. John Hodiak has his best role, IMHO, and the mostly night-time settings have a great look. Strange to see Fritz Kortner, from the Louise Brooks "Pandora's Box", as a slimy fortune-teller.

but it's not supposed to be. This one is just a mess, the plot is ... well, where IS the plot? Nancy Guild (rhymes with wild) does a very bad Bacall impression, Hodiak not quite handsome enough to pull off movie leads, Conte and Nolan dependable as always. Fritz and Margo make good impressions in bad parts. The best part of the 2005 version of the DVD is the commentary by Eddie Muller; as a noir expert, he's not afraid to call a turkey a turkey and he has a lot of fun poking fun at the movie and (surprisingly, since Fox paid him) calling it out for what it is. So watch the movie just to get it over with, then sit back and enjoy Muller's critique. It's like a noir MST3000!

This is such a lousy film that putting it in the tradition of the 1940's film noir is an insult to that film genre. Total confusion reigns here as John Hodiak plays an injured war vet in the throws of amnesia. How he could fool a hospital that he didn't have this tells you a lot about hospital care as well as this very muddled film. Finding items in his wallet, money deposited for him along the way, suspicion that he is a killer, becoming mixed up with seedy people and finally finding out who he is has no value in this plodding film. Richard Conte, as the owner of the bar, is up to his usual no good ways in films. That's Conte and that comes as no surprise. Lloyd Nolan explains to us why the police always wear their hats. Isn't that wonderful? By the time, you hear that, you're more than satisfied that this miserably scripted film is over.

This was directed and co-written by Joseph Mankiewicz. The cast includes John Hodiak and Richard Conte. Almost all the scenes are shot at night around Los Angeles and on the lot. It ought to be good but in fact it's no more than routine. Let's recall John Huston's superb "The Maltese Falcon," in which the hero, Sam Spade, is hired to find a fabulously expensive statue of a bird whose trip through time has left a trail of dead bodies behind. Spade searches for the statue, discovering a little more about it each time he runs into the colorful and quirky figures that are associated with its pursuit. The Fat Man, the Gay Levantine, the dame with the past, the Gunsel -- they come crawling out of the woodwork, enough of them to make a minion. In the climactic scene they are all brought together in Spade's apartment, where all is explained. And they leave, only to have Spade ring up the police and clue them in, except for the Ambiguous Dame who is revealed as the chief villain. I suspect "The Maltese Falcon" must have provided the model for this dark mystery, though enough cosmetic surgery has been performed to disguise the features of the original mold. Instead of the mysterious "black bird", John Hodiak, the man with no memory, pursues his own past and the two million dollars hidden somewhere within it. He runs into a gang of colorful and quirky characters. The Fat Man here is just a guy with a sinister face and a German accent and a classy phraseology. The Gunsel is a huge "tub of lard" who is barely able to string three sentences together. There's no Gay Levantine, but a few other characters make up for his absence. The Ambiguous Dame is split into her two constituents -- the louche broad who slings around French clichés and the honest, brave Nancy Guild who falls in love with Hodiak (and vice versa) two minutes after they meet. Hodiak is beaten up by the hoods, just as Spade was. At the end, he demands a "fall guy" for the police, just as Spade did. The hoodlum gang, instead of leaving, just shrug and their leader tells them philosophically that "the jig is up." The friend turns out to be the real scheming murderer -- Spade's Ambiguous Dame there, a secondary but likable character here. The direction is okay. Mankiewicz was no slouch. And some of the writing is passable, as is Hodiak's performance as George Taylor and, especially, Lloyd Nolan's as the police lieutenant. The rest are pallid facsimiles. There are, in fact, too many quirky and colorful characters and none of them could act. Neither could Nancy Guild, although she was attractive enough. Hodiak's pursuit of his own identity, his pal Larry Cravat, and the two million bucks grows tiresome -- and confusing too. There are too many leads, too many red herrings. We watch Hodiak travel from place to place, mostly meeting with hostility from people who don't even know him, garnering little scraps of information which may lead somewhere, or maybe not. The musical score has no lilt to it. And the characters have only one note on their instruments, except for Nolan who delivers sarcasm and irony with effortless aplomb. Mankiewicz was to do much better, later on. These semi-noir mysteries were not his forte, though he made another one of them and that one, "No Way Out," was pretty damned good.