The Long Night is a partially commendable knock-off of Max Ophuls outstanding 1939 Jour se Leve (Daybreak). With fine performances coming from the four principles and cinematographer Sol Polito's superb camera work it remains a gripping suspense most of the way before collapsing under the weight of its mawkish Hollywood ending.
Vet Joe Adams ( Henry Fonda) meets Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes) down at the plant and bond immediately as former orphans. A romance ensues but an unctuous travelling magician, Maxmillian the Great ( Vincent Price) is determined to have her to himself. Max, using the sleaziest of tactics makes Joe snap and he shoots Max before holding up against the law in his top floor apartment.
Told in flashback, Fonda delivers his typical man of conviction and incertitude found in his best 40s work. A perfect example of isolation ( cold eyes, bony features ) and captured perfectly in the shadowy confines of his apartment by lens man Sol Polito, the film's finest asset delivering both interesting angles as well as a challenging light in shots that at times threatens to go pitch black. Daring for its time an unseen until decades later in some classics ( Apocalypse, GF2) Polito
Anatol Litvak's direction gets mired in some heavy melodrama along the way but Bel Geddes displays a wonderful touching Joan Fontaine like innocence while Ann Dvorak matches her with a cynical world weary turn as Max's assistant. Price steals the picture though as the low life Max as well as get the best lines, excusing his callousness to others with " Am I to be blamed for having a superior imagination."
An excellent looking, uniformly well performed film that allows the melodrama to pull the plug and shut off the power.
Vet Joe Adams ( Henry Fonda) meets Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes) down at the plant and bond immediately as former orphans. A romance ensues but an unctuous travelling magician, Maxmillian the Great ( Vincent Price) is determined to have her to himself. Max, using the sleaziest of tactics makes Joe snap and he shoots Max before holding up against the law in his top floor apartment.
Told in flashback, Fonda delivers his typical man of conviction and incertitude found in his best 40s work. A perfect example of isolation ( cold eyes, bony features ) and captured perfectly in the shadowy confines of his apartment by lens man Sol Polito, the film's finest asset delivering both interesting angles as well as a challenging light in shots that at times threatens to go pitch black. Daring for its time an unseen until decades later in some classics ( Apocalypse, GF2) Polito
Anatol Litvak's direction gets mired in some heavy melodrama along the way but Bel Geddes displays a wonderful touching Joan Fontaine like innocence while Ann Dvorak matches her with a cynical world weary turn as Max's assistant. Price steals the picture though as the low life Max as well as get the best lines, excusing his callousness to others with " Am I to be blamed for having a superior imagination."
An excellent looking, uniformly well performed film that allows the melodrama to pull the plug and shut off the power.