Please don't spend money on this.

i must have seen a different film!!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is the real deal when it comes to film noir: Muddled plot, confused male lead, beautiful femme fatale, shadowy dangerous characters, clever dialog, love triangle, etc. It has all of the elements in a well directed and acting package. It does demand your full attention if you are to follow along. Not to be missed if you enjoy this genre.

Amnesia, confused identities and a number of characters with uncertain motives all contribute to the atmosphere of danger and distrust that prevails throughout this movie. The natural anxiety that accompanies memory loss escalates steadily as the main protagonist tries desperately to discover his own identity and his growing fear is reflected visually in Norbert Brodine's striking cinematography which skilfully uses shadows to give many of the scenes a particularly sinister look.A badly injured World War 11 veteran (John Hodiak), who recovers from a coma in a military hospital in Honolulu, is aware that he's suffering from amnesia but doesn't disclose this to the doctors who call him George Taylor. From certain documents in his possession, he's able to deduce that he previously lived at the Martin Hotel in L.A. and so when he's eventually discharged, he immediately heads to that address, but no-one there knows him or has any record of him having stayed there in recent years.A claim check that he discovers in his bag leads him to recover a briefcase that he'd apparently left some time ago at a nearby train station and in the case he finds a letter and a gun. The letter is signed by Larry Cravat who confirms that he's deposited $5,000 for George in a bank account. George has no success when he tries to claim his cash from the Second National Bank and so embarks on a search for Cravat. His search leads him to a local nightclub called "The Cellar" where on one occasion , he meets a singer called Christy Smith (Nancy Guild) and on another, gets beaten up by a couple of thugs who don't appreciate his interest in Cravat and tell him to call off his search.Christy introduces George to Mel Phillips (Richard Conte) who's the owner of "The Cellar" and his contact Police Lieutenant Donald Kendall (Lloyd Nolan) and all three offer him help. It soon becomes clear that Cravat was a private eye who was connected some years earlier with a crime involving murder and the possession of $2,000,000 which had been transferred into the country by a high ranking Nazi officer. As his investigations continue, George becomes increasingly concerned about what he might discover until ultimately, a number of surprise developments lead him to solve the mysteries surrounding his own identity and the stolen money."Somewhere In The Night" is a well paced and well written mystery with a complicated plot and an anti-hero who's been traumatised by his experiences in the War, disconcerted by his memory loss and made anxious by his inability to know who he can trust. John Hodiak conveys Taylor's mental state by emphasising how tense and humourless his experiences have made him and the supporting cast successfully adds considerable colour and interest to the array of characters that feature in Taylor's bewildering odyssey.

If you like a mystery full of shadows and moody lighting, you'll quite enjoy this rambling yarn. John Hodiak (who looks here like a classic co-respondent in a divorce case), is an amnesiac, who wanders from clue to clue, from character actor to supporting player, in a sort of bemused trance as he tries to piece together who he is and why a certain Larry Cravat wrote him a mysterious note. The mystery holds for a while, then this viewer became a bit tired of scene after scene of talky explanations, and not much cinematic action. Fortunately Hodiak meets a nice girl, played by the charming Nancy Guild, and things looked up (for me). Nancy falls for John, for some reason, and believes in him, although he is becoming convinced that he may be a killer. On he rambles, trying to unravel, in murky apartments, the docks, an insane asylum, etc. There's Nazi loot and a nightclub, and Lloyd Nolan as a chummy cop, and lots of quirky characters (including one of my favourites, Housely Stevenson), who are there mainly to distract you, because Hodiak's character is so passive that he isn't even in the final scene - a cheery wash-up reminiscent of a mild sitcom.

John Hodiak stars in this piece of Film-Noir. George Taylor(Hodiak)is a bitter WWII veteran Marine with amnesia. He returns to Los Angeles with hopes of rediscovering his identity. He has only two clues linked to his past: a vicious letter of woe from a woman that hates him and another mysterious note from a "Larry Cravat". George in search of Cravat becomes involved with a winsome lounge singer(Nancy Guild)and her boss(Richard Conte). Police investigator Kendall(Lloyd Nolan)informs the three that Cravat is wanted for murder and the robbery of two million dollars. But what is Taylor's connection? For all he knows, since thugs are chasing him...hell, he himself may be the mysterious Cravat.Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz co-writes the screenplay with Howard Dinsdale. Hodiak is a passive leading man, while the attractive Guild almost steals the movie from him. Nolan plays the copper with a dry humor. Also in the cast: Sheldon Leonard, Fritz Kortner and Lou Nova.