A film noir does not have to be totally realistic to become a classic; All it needs are the elements that make film noir the gritty and riveting thrillers they are. This plot surrounds amnesia, money laundering, and mistaken identities. George Taylor (John Hodiak) is an amnesiac veteran who finds a letter from a friend he doesn't remember named Larry Kravat for a bank account in Los Angeles. When he goes to the bank, he becomes nervous over the suspicious nature of the bank teller and flees. Mysterious encounters with several others makes him wonder about his own identity and who the mysterious Kravat really is. With the help of a kindly nightclub singer (Nancy Guild), he sets out to solve the mystery. What he finds he may not like.
In a year of such classic film noir as "The Big Sleep", "Gilda", "Decoy", "The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers", "The Killers" and "The Blue Dahlia", "Somewhere in the Night" has been somewhat overlooked until recently. It has a somewhat convoluted plot line, and its structure moves all over the place like the roads in the mountains above Los Angeles. Characters come in and out of the script like bees out of a hive. Who is good and who is bad will have to be waited out until the ending revelation, but this isn't the L.A. of movie studios and sunny days at the beach. Sure, Taylor ends up at the beach, but it is to go into the bowels of an old wooden dock, not to catch rays between Santa Monica and Venice. Film noir vets like Richard Conte and Lloyd Nolan add color, while Margo Woode is an interesting supporting "femme fatale". ("Whose the character with the hair?", she squawks upon meeting Guild....) Guild does have an interesting look, sort of like a younger Kate Mulgrew. Veteran 30's leading lady Josephine Hutchinson is memorable in one key scene as a seemingly middle aged recluse who dresses and lives like Whistler's Mother. Look too for Harry Morgan as a rough character Hodiak encounters while investigating.
This was only the third film for director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and he already shows signs of being a master story teller. With truly dark photography, a moody hero, a Lauren Bacall like heroine and other archetypes that make for essential film noir, this is worthy of becoming a small classic. I would like to have seen more films of this nature with Nancy Guild; She had the ability to make you trust her in spite of her involvements of unsavory characters, but appears to have had a very limited acting career.
In a year of such classic film noir as "The Big Sleep", "Gilda", "Decoy", "The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers", "The Killers" and "The Blue Dahlia", "Somewhere in the Night" has been somewhat overlooked until recently. It has a somewhat convoluted plot line, and its structure moves all over the place like the roads in the mountains above Los Angeles. Characters come in and out of the script like bees out of a hive. Who is good and who is bad will have to be waited out until the ending revelation, but this isn't the L.A. of movie studios and sunny days at the beach. Sure, Taylor ends up at the beach, but it is to go into the bowels of an old wooden dock, not to catch rays between Santa Monica and Venice. Film noir vets like Richard Conte and Lloyd Nolan add color, while Margo Woode is an interesting supporting "femme fatale". ("Whose the character with the hair?", she squawks upon meeting Guild....) Guild does have an interesting look, sort of like a younger Kate Mulgrew. Veteran 30's leading lady Josephine Hutchinson is memorable in one key scene as a seemingly middle aged recluse who dresses and lives like Whistler's Mother. Look too for Harry Morgan as a rough character Hodiak encounters while investigating.
This was only the third film for director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and he already shows signs of being a master story teller. With truly dark photography, a moody hero, a Lauren Bacall like heroine and other archetypes that make for essential film noir, this is worthy of becoming a small classic. I would like to have seen more films of this nature with Nancy Guild; She had the ability to make you trust her in spite of her involvements of unsavory characters, but appears to have had a very limited acting career.