Watch Night Must Fall For Free

I'll tell you why so serious

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Robert Montgomery (Danny), Rosalind Russell (Olivia), Dame May Witty (Mrs Bramson), Alan Marshal (Justin Laurie), Kathleen Harrison (Mrs Terence), Eily Malyon (nurse), Matthew Boulton (inspector), E.E. Clive (guide), Merle Tottenham (Dora).Director: RICHARD THORPE. Screenplay: John Van Druten. Based on the 1935 stage play by Emlyn Williams. Photography: Ray June. Film editor: Robert J. Kern. Music: Edward Ward. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Fredric Hope. Producer: Hunt Stromberg. Copyright 18 May 1937 by M- G-M. Released: 30 April 1937 (U.S.A.), 8 July 1937 (U.K.), 6 January 1938 (Australia). 117 minutes. COMMENT: Thanks to solid performances from nearly all his players, quickie director Richard Thorpe has acquitted himself nobly on this atmospheric thriller. May Witty never gave a more engrossing study, and Montgomery is equally riveting. Only Marshal is a bit wet—but he is supposed to be, as lines from the play (deleted from the movie) make clear.Although most of the action is confined to the one superbly crafted stage set, Thorpe never lets up on the underlying tension for a moment.

(Some Spoilers) Very probably the very first psycho or psychological murder mystery movie released in 1937 23 years before the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Psycho" with the person in question, the psycho, revealed almost as soon as he made his appearance in the film. We get to meet the cute and lovable Danny Boy, Robert Montgomery, when his girlfriend Dora, Merle Tottenham, tried to get her boss Mrs. Bramson, Dame May Ghitty, to act as a matchmaker for her and Danny who's been ignoring her, after promising to marry Dora, of late. Soon Mrs. Barmson forgets about Dora's love life and turns her attention to Danny Boy who's secretly turning the screws or his boyish charms on her. Just before Danny showed up a local woman Mrs.Shellbrook ended up missing in the woods and was feared to have been murdered by a escaped psycho from a nearby mental institution. It seemed that the only person who suspected Danny of being the murderer was Mrs. Barmson's niece Olivia Grayne, Rosaland Russell, who like her aunt and boss Mrs. Bramson fell under Danny's spell.Danny for his part kept on pushing his luck in his relationship with Mrs. Bramson is getting in real tight with the wheelchair ridden old lady where she soon looked upon him as her new found friend sweet Danny the Sailor Boy. Even though it later turned out that Danny's wasn't a sailor at all but in fact a butcher in how he treated his victim, Mrs. Shellbrook, or later victims. He decapitates them! It's when Mrs. Shellbrook's headless body is discovered that Olivia finally comes to the conclusion that it was non other then the sweet and lovable Danny Boy who murdered her. In fact Olivia was so stuck up on Danny that she even helped him cover up his crime by claiming the hat box where he kept Mrs. Shellbrook's severed head was in fact her's when Inspector Belsize,Matthew Boulton, asked Danny if he could examine it!****SPOILERS*** It was Danny's feeling of indestructibly that in the end did him in. Going so far as murdering his boss and benefactor Mrs.Bramson for no other reason then stealing her money, that amounted to about as little as 200 pound shilling, he turned his guns or meat cleaver on Olivia who just happened to come on the murder scene. The fatal mistake Danny made on his part was soon picked up by Olivia's boyfriend and the late Mrs. Bramson's family lawyer Justin Laurie, Alan Marshal, who got in touch with Inspector Belsize and the local police before Danny could go, kitchen knives and meat cleaver in hand, into action!

Apparently, I am atypical of most people's reaction to this film. With a very respectable 7.2 score, you'd assume it's an above average film and to many it is. In fact, my review and one other are the lowest rated reviews so far on IMDb for this film. However, despite having a great atmosphere and sense of foreboding, I really disliked the film because of its many plot holes and irrational decisions by the characters. And, because of all the very serious plot problems, I am amazed so many people saw this as a perfect or near-perfect film with many reviews giving it a 9 or 10.What I liked, at least initially, was Robert Montgomery's characterization. He played a very charming narcissistic sociopath. He was able to insinuate himself into a rich widow's confidence because he was so clever and manipulative and I loved this aspect of the film. Likewise, at times the atmosphere of the film was very dark and foreboding--it really set you on edge.However, there was so much to dislike if you actually paid attention to the characters. At first, Rosalind Russell seemed very smart and insightful. She saw right through Montgomery's false charms. However, late in the film she simply behaved like she'd had a traumatic brain injury!! First, when the police inspector went through Montgomery's belongings, he came upon a suitcase that obviously had SOMETHING incriminating inside. Yet, inexplicably, Russell then claims the bag is hers!! Why?! She already assumed he was a murderer and was afraid of him--so why stop the inspector from looking inside the bag?! Then, at the end of the film, she leaves the home--and she announces it's for good because she is so afraid of Montgomery. BUT, just a bit later, she returns and brings no one with her--no police backup--nothing. And, she then confronts Montgomery ALL ALONE and insists that he is a killer--at which point he naturally tries to kill her (duh)!! Only because the police happen to arrive at that moment is this dumb dame saved at all!! A truly horrible ending to the film. Now if she'd returned with the police waiting outside and got him to try to kill her or confess to the murders, then this could have worked. As it is, it just seemed stupid.Other things to dislike is Montgomery's performance late in the film where he transforms from smart and evil to silly--like a kid in a high school play trying to pretend to be crazy! He gyrates, faints and over-emotes so badly, it's laughable and transformed a brilliant performance to a campy one. Additionally, the biggest other complaint is that unlike a good mystery/suspense film, there really are no "red herrings". In other words, no one else in the film COULD have committed the murders and so there is no sense of suspense. Having someone else be the actual killer and Montgomery only a schemer would have been a great twist--especially if Montgomery eventually had to take on the real killer. Instead, it was all so obvious and dopey as the film concluded.My verdict is to watch the first 2/3 of the film, then turn it off and create your own ending in your mind. Up until then, it's rather brilliant. You certainly couldn't do any worse!

Olivia Grayne (Rosalind Russell), a prim-looking, bespectacled young woman in tweed skirts, twinsets, and sensible shoes, lives in a country house with her crabby aunt Mrs. Bramson (Dame May Witty) and suffers the indignity of being treated like a servant while employed as her aunt's companion. She is ardently pursued by her aunt's lawyer Justin Laurie (Alan Marshal, a ringer for Laurence Olivier), who is handsome and good. Frankly, I would have left with him long ago. He asks her to marry him and says, "Even if you don't love me, aren't I better than the old lady?" Indeed!! Olivia longs for some adventure or excitement in her life of drab monotony, but doesn't think it's ever going to happen.That changes when Dora, one of the maids, confesses tearfully to being "in trouble" by a messenger from another house. Mrs. Bramson agrees to see him to make him do right by the girl. Into their lives comes Danny (Robert Montgomery), a strutting Irish charmer whose silver tongue so enchants the old lady, she offers him a job. He nonchalantly agrees to marry the maid, like many sociopaths who toss off the answer they know needs to be said without any intention of actually doing so. Indeed, soon enough Danny is taking dinner with the ladies of the house and being served by the maid presumably carrying his baby.Olivia sees right through Danny from the start. She becomes interested in him, though, because he's good-looking, different, and has that dangerous bad-boy vibe going on. But she's also repulsed my his servile attitude to the old cantankerous battle-axe and his facile way with the truth. Nonetheless, after he tells her she would be prettier "without them glasses on," we don't see her wearing them much.When the lady of the house from his previous employment turns up dead, nude, and decapitated in the woods, Danny seems to know her far too intimately to have been just her servant. Olivia twigs onto this immediately, and has her suspicions. Olivia wonders what is in the hatbox under the bed that is much too heavy for a hat and why he's never unpacked his things. Nonetheless, Olivia saves his bacon when the police inspector wants to look through his things and she claims his hatbox as her own. She feels a little sorry for him and we guess that even she doesn't know quite why she did this.There's a lot of sexual tension between Danny and Olivia. This is played out in quite a charged fashion in the kitchen scene. Olivia goes to make tea because she can't sleep. Danny is also awake, troubled by something. He hears someone in the kitchen, goes to investigate, and scares the bejesus out of Olivia. He pegs her spot on, telling her, "You want adventure, don't you? It's right here in this house, right here in this kitchen, with the two of us, alone here, at this time of night. It's exciting, isn't it?" He tells her, as she is breathing hard and blushing, that she's never been alone with a chap like him but she likes it, and it's a secret part of her she never knew existed. He comes closer to her, close enough to kiss…It's true, she is excited. But it's dangerous too, and she knows it. I won't spoil the scene for you; you'll have to see it for yourself.This was the first performance I had seen Montgomery give. I went back and saw his romantic comedies and then saw this again. He is wonderful in it, and indeed was nominated for an Academy Award. His Irish accent is very good. His demeanor as the insouciant servant who starts out mouthing platitudes to all and sundry and by the end of the story is displaying his contempt of them is very well-played. His good looks worked for him in this role, as who would believe someone so handsome would be a killer? Indeed, would many women have cuddled up with Ted Bundy had he looked creepy and frightening? That's just how sociopaths work; and Montgomery pretty much nails it. Russell is good as well in the kind of role that would be left in the dust as she moved on the screwball comedies in just a few years. Dame May Witty, as the malingering old biddy, is too perfect with her complaints of palpitations, bosom-clutching, and rattling around in a wheelchair she clearly doesn't need. Her hysterics late in the film, when everyone has left her alone and she has the "jitters," is classically comical.The story holds up but some of the film's flaws include staginess and talkiness (over two hours long). You can tell it started life as a play because most of the action takes place in one room from which all others open off. I also found heavy-handed the device of using threatening music when Danny enters the room. Also, mention is made that the body has not been found yet and promptly there is a scream from offstage and a policeman rushes in to use the phone to report that the body has indeed been found. Stagy! It doesn't quite hold up to thriller standards by today's viewpoint but still atmospheric, and the set design is beautiful and the performances, especially Montgomery's, are well worth seeing. In fact, this role was not given to Montgomery as some sort of punishment by MGM, as suggested by another post. Louis B. Mayer was astounded Montgomery wanted to play this type of role at all, and Bob had to fight for it. If all you know of him is the fluffy romantic movies where he waltzed around pretty women and said things like, "I love you, and you love me too, admit it," do see him acting quite differently in this film.