Watch The Night of the Following Day For Free

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

hyped garbage

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Seldom has a movie so wildly vacillated between being suspenseful and being irritating. It's about a kidnapping which goes wrong. In it, a chauffeur in Paris with a criminal record (Marlon Brando) reluctantly agrees to take part in the kidnapping for ransom of a young British heiress (Pamela Franklin), which is being masterminded by his good friend, a washed-up pickpocket (Jess Hahn). The girl will be held hostage at the English Channel home of a heroin-addicted stewardess (Rita Moreno), who is both Hahn's sister and Brando's girlfriend. Added to this motley group is a sadistic pimp (Richard Boone), whom Hahn brought in but Brando doesn't trust. The kidnapping goes well enough, but complications set in. A neighbor of the beach house is a French policeman. But even more importantly, the characters become increasingly mistrustful of each other while the captive is menaced by Boone, who is clearly a psychopathic predator. Of course, there is the inevitable climax when things go wrong at the last minute. The film alternates between crime drama and psychological drama, with a lot of chat and only a few action scenes. The talented actors and the nice scenery help make the film watchable until the end, in spite of the pretentious script. But then the entire story is undercut by one of the most stupid endings one could imagine, which could not possibly be more out of place. I had only grudgingly sat through this film because of the cast, only to have the rug yanked out from under me. It left me feeling betrayed.

This is a noirish film about a kidnapping that goes wrong. I have to assume the filmmakers intended it to be some kind of postmodern and ironic commentary on the genre and the subject matter. I have to assume that because judged on its own merits, The Night of the Following Day is a hideously awkward and amateurish movie.A young girl (Pamela Franklin) flies into France and is almost immediately abducted by a band of 4 seasoned criminals. Wally (Jess Hahn) is a fat loser who's spearheaded the kidnapping as his final grasp at crime's brass ring. Bud (Marlon Brando) is a buff, beatnik hipster who wears a black turtleneck. Vi (Rita Moreno) is Wally's sister, Bud's woman and a junkie. Leer (Richard Boone) is the outsider brought into to the group for this job who quickly proves to be a vile and violent degenerate. They hold up at a French beach house with the girl and try to execute an overly complicated plan to get away with the ransom money from her rich father, all the while avoiding the local cop (Gerard Buhr) who keeps running into the kidnappers by unknowing chance. Things go wrong, there's a double cross and most of what you'd expect in this sort of story happens.I fervently hope these filmmakers and these actors were trying to do something different and unusual with The Night of the Following Day. I would like to think that there was some cultural or artistic point to the creative decisions they made. If there wasn't, then this is one of the most poorly made movies I've ever watched. It's even more graceless and anomalous than the cheap, videotape crap churned out since 1990.There are looooong stretches where there is no dialog and nothing interesting happening on screen. What dialog there is sounds like the first take of a bad improv session. Scenes are staged and shot like co-writer/director Hubert Cornfield's sole previous experience in show business was directing pre-school Christmas plays. There's one scene that goes on for a full minute where the camera is focused on the back of Marlon Brando's head. There's no dialog. Nothing's going on. It's just the back of Brando's head on screen for a full minute. The film ends with an epilogue that feels more like an editing mistake than anything intentional.I'm perplexed by this movie. It appears to be so thoroughly rotten and inexplicably crafted that I wonder if I'm not missing something. Was The Night of the Following Day responding to or referencing something in its own era that I don't appreciate or comprehend? Was the cast and crew all high when they were making this? Did someone kidnap Cornfield's or Brando's children and force them to make this film? I really want there to be some explanation for how dreadful this thing appears to be, because the alternative is just too depressing.

I haven't watched any other films directed by Cornfield, but if they are all blessed with this subtle pacing, I'm going to consider it. The only other adaptation of a Lionel White story I've seen was The Killing, and obviously Kubrick is not easy to equal, meanwhile, this is actually quite well-done. There's an underlying vague tension throughout this, and a feeling of unpredictability that pays off. This is not for those who need something to happen often, or for flicks to move speedily. The atmosphere is pretty good, and the gradual build-up is marvelous. This has rather great acting, Brando and Moreno in particular. The minimal cast works exceptionally well, and aids the sense of isolation. I'm not sure what to think of the ending... I've read several theories, and I suppose in the end, what you want to believe it means is up to the individual. In any case, apart from it, this is an entertaining movie, and worth watching. There is infrequent strong language and disturbing content, if this is seldom terribly graphic. Apart from text features, the DVD comes with trailers for no less than 17(!) other releases, apart from this one(for a total of 18). I recommend this to fans of crime-thrillers and/or those who made it, provided you aren't too squeamish. 7/10

Wondering through the list of "free movies" available from my cable provider I stumbled on this rarely screened suspense film from the late 60's about an unstable group of kidnappers whose plot to snatch a rich heiress go completely wrong. The film has a slow, deliberate pace that is evident from the opening credits. It is not surprising that the younger generation brought up on MTV and comic book action sequels and prequels would be so bored by a film that takes it's time in unspooling its simple plot. The picture was made in a different era when directors could actually present a vision and let the audience decide if they liked it; not a focus group or committee of studio executives. American films reached a certain creative peak in the late 60's and early 70's before the blockbuster knocked everything else off the playing film. This is a serious movie for people that are looking a little deeper than the surface for enrichment. This is a movie that causes you to FEEL something. You may feel bored, hypnotized or energized but you won't walk away feeling nothing.The performances are all strong, especially Brando as a "chauffer" that leads the gang. While the heavy (Richard Boone) may explain to the kidnap victim that "we are all professional criminals" they certainly don't act like it. Their desperation is evident as the plot unravels.The ending is much discussed (on this very site, for instance) but it is quite satisfying along the lines of Fritz Lang's "The Woman In The Window" but it is not an obvious copy as it took me several hours to come up with the comparison.