Tuesday 27 February 2024

So Ends Our Night (1941 John Cromwell)

Another tough and tender doomed war love story from Erich Maria Remarque novel 'Flotsam' adapted by Talbot Jennings. German exiles without passports are constantly on the run from the authorities as they journey from one country to another. Fredric March has had to disown his wife Frances Dee in Germany, young Glenn Ford is trying to track down his father, and Margaret Sullavan (also in the Remarque adaption Three Comrades) is just trying to finish her studies.

There's a nice mixture of the sinister and the absurd, people's hostilities and their acts of kindness. Good in support are vengeful Eric Von Stroheim, and fellow detainees Leonid Kinskey and Alexander Granach. With Anna Sten, Sig Ruman, Ernst Deutsch (The Third Man).

Noticeably good editing from William Reynolds in one of his earliest films, and good moody lighting from William Daniels. The music's by Louis Gruenberg, and the production designer is William Cameron Menzies. An independent production released through United Artists.

Rather good, though the VCI 'restored' copy we have suffers from bad picture and terrible sound as though someone is washing up in the background.





No comments:

Post a Comment