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Great Film overall

A different way of telling a story

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

When a life-long bachelor police investigator from Paris takes a much needed vacation to the country, he finds more than he bargained for when a much younger pretty local maiden, excited by his glamorous city life, takes an interest in him. He's savvy as far as catching criminals and keeping law and order, but probably a bit too naive in the ways of understanding the female mind, especially one who longs more exciting things than what her provincial life has in store for her. They begin to spend romantic evenings together, but a young local farmer who has been away turns up to claim her, having been promised to her since they were children. This leads to the farmer becoming violently jealous, threatening both of them and resulting in murder, but not of who the audience suspects it will be.Steven Geray, a gentle European character actor, is perfectly cast as the seemingly mild mannered investigator who doesn't plan on falling in love but is obviously too lonely not to respond to the attentions of the pretty Micheline Cheirel. Her parents (Eugene Borden and Ann Codee) have differing opinions on her attentions towards Geray with the socially ambitious Codee pushing her daughter towards Geray and away from the handsome but brooding Paul Marion who makes threats both towards Geray and Cheirel, to whom he says, "I'd rather see you dead than in the arms of anybody else!". It's obvious that Cheirel is not in love with Geray but definitely infatuated with him, and her sexual desires towards Marion make it clear that a marriage with Geray would be doomed.The build-up to the murders makes the audience believe that somebody else is going to get knocked off first, not the actual initial victim. This gives the story some unexpected twists and turns that you don't see coming. It also builds up into great suspense. Beautifully moody photography and a gorgeous countryside setting make this lovely to look at, although certain physical elements give the impression that this was set some twenty years before it actually was. The twist of the plot as it reaches its conclusion, added with the performance of Helen Freeman as the hotel maid who realizes the truth, makes this a riveting melodrama, even if a few elements of its plot are somewhat unbelievable.

"So Dark the Night" is a frustrating film to watch. That's because it's such a high quality film and yet the finale is amazingly unsatisfying. In fact, up until near the end of the movie I might have give the film an 8 (a great score for a low-budget B-movie)--but because of the ridiculously improbable ending, I think it earns a 6.As I mentioned above, this film is a low-budget B-movie. None of the stars of the film have household names, though if you adore old films, you will at least recognize the face of the leading man, Steven Geray. Geray has a very rare chance to star here--usually he's a supporting actor and is hardly the leading man type. However, he's wonderful in this role and shows he really was a fine actor. The other star of the film is the director--Joseph H. Lewis. He was able to make the movie look great--a lot better than a normal B-movie. And, you'd swear the project took more than just 16 to complete.The story is about a famous French detective. He's highly respected but also a workaholic who desperately needs a vacation. So, he goes to a quite rural town where he is warmly welcomed. However, soon there are a pair of murders--and the detective's vacation is brought to an end. However, this killer is no ordinary murderer--this one has the detective totally stumped. At this point in the film, I was pretty impressed. What did NOT impress me was the weird psychological twist at the end of the film--it seemed a bit silly and just didn't work for me. It's a shame, as up until then it really was a pretty good film. Still, despite this silly twist, it's not a bad movie. See it yourself and let me know what you think about the ending.

STEVEN GERAY never got to play the leads in most of his films at Columbia, but he gets his chance here as a detective badly in need of a vacation in the French countryside. As in all such stories, he has no time to relax because he's soon involved in a double murder.The trouble with the film, for the most part directed stylishly by Joseph H. Lewis, is that it takes too long to become absorbed in the plot involving a double murder. The bucolic country scenes never develop the characters fully and they don't really come alive until we're midway through the story. And then, as the detective begins to study the case, the plot takes a twist in another direction entirely.It's a minor entry in the films that were taking on more psychological tones in the early '40s, but I can't say there's anything memorable about the characters or the script. But for a film produced on a shoestring budget, it's a lot better than you might expect.

Okay, so who dunnit? The answer here is a deus ex machina, a plot device frequently used in Hollywood in the 1940s and still used today. To me, it is a writer's cop-out. I hate it.Otherwise, this is a quick moving film which failed to engage me emotionally or intellectually. Ms. Cheirel looked a bit too old to be playing a naive young woman. This weakened the first part. Scenes seemed to be under-rehearsed. There was no build-up to what should have been a surprising climax, nor was there tension where there should have been tension building up. Performances were uneven.A French shrug of the shoulders on this one.