From my favorite movies..

Absolutely Fantastic

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

A French cast is featured in "So Dark the Night," a 1946 B noir directed by Joseph Lewis. Steven Geray is Henri Cassin, a burnt-out detective who goes on holiday. He falls in love with Nanette Michaud (Micheline Cheirel), who kind of plays both ends against the middle. Nanette is already engaged to someone she's known from childhood, and she tells him that she loves him. Meanwhile, she's attracted to the older detective's perceived money and Paris residence. One day, they both end up dead - and there's more tragedy to come.I would have loved to see this plot directed by someone like Hitchcock, who could build the suspense. As it is, it's a good story, but the film is on the lifeless side. Only 29 at the time of filming, Micheline Cheirel comes off as a bit too mature for some reason. Since the movie was low budget, however, there wasn't any attention paid to lighting or soft lenses to give her a more ingénue look. Geray is very good and underplays his role."So Dark the Night" plays about an 1:15 minutes. It's intriguing, but it could have been so much more.

The famous French detective Henri Cassin takes his first vacation in 11 years in St. Margot where he meets Nanette, the daughter of the vacation spot proprietors. Despite Nanette being promised to childhood sweetheart Leon, Henri and Nanette fall in love and decide to marry, despite Nanette's father objecting due to Henri's age. On the day of their wedding, Leon returns and Nanette runs after him. Nothing is heard of the two until both are found dead, and Henri swears he won't rest until he can find the killer. The only clue Henri has to work with is a footprint found by Leon, but he is also getting written warnings that others will die soon. Soon Nanette's mother is found dead and Henri has no idea as to the identity of the killer. Thinking himself a failure he returns to Paris, then he realizes (and fears) that the killer can be only one person, even though none of his colleagues can believe his explanation. Out of the ordinary murder mystery that doesn't really follow the formula in other of the genre by Columbia or other B studios. Credit to that certainly goes to director Lewis who does manage to turn this into a noirish film despite the setting of the film, also aided by the use of good camera-work and lighting. Geray turns in a very good performance in probably his only lead and the rest of the cast is able to carry their performance. Rating, 8.

So Dark The Night poses a tough challenge: It's very hard to write about it in any detail without ruining it for those who haven't yet seen it. Since it remains quite obscure, that includes just about everybody. The movie will strike those familiar with its director Joseph H. Lewis' better known titles in the noir cycle – Gun Crazy, The Big Combo, even My Name Is Julia Ross, which in its brevity it resembles – as an odd choice.For starters, the bucolic French countryside serves as its setting. Steven Geray, a middle-aged detective with the Surété in Paris, sets out for a vacation in the village of Ste. Margot (or maybe Margaux). Quite unexpectedly, he finds himself falling in love with the inkeepers' daughter (Micheline Cheirel), even though she's betrothed to a rough-hewn local farmer. But the siren song of life in Paris is hard to resist, so she agrees to marry him, despite the disparity in their ages, which inevitably becomes the talk of the town. But on the night of their engagement party, she fails to return to the inn. Soon, a hunchback finds her body by the river. Her jealous, jilted lover is the logical suspect, but he, too, is found dead. Then anonymous notes threaten more deaths, which come to pass. For the first time in his career, the bereaved Geray finds himself stumped....A particularly weak script all but does the movie in; it plays like bad Cornell Woolrich crossed with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. But Lewis does this creaky vehicle proud. He takes his time near the beginning, but then the story – and the storytelling – gain momentum (alas, just about the time the script breaks an axle). Burnett Guffey lighted and photographed the film, with an intriguing leitmotif of peering out of and peeping into windows; there's also an effective score by Hugo Friedhofer, who supplied aural menace to many noirs. A good deal of talent has been lavished on So Dark The Night, but at the end it boils down to not much more than a gimmick – and not a very good gimmick at that. It's a one-trick pony of a movie.

Really not much to keep you locked to the screen here. Cassin is not exactly charismatic or intense enough for you to believe his role in that twist (or is it wrench?) of an ending and the supporting cast is as two dimensional as the "French countryside" backdrop. The only thing of interest is how Lewis attempts, somewhat perversely, to employ noir conventions and build suspense in a sun-dappled bucolic landscape. Hey, at least the guy was always mixin' it up! 5/10.