SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Memorergi good film but with many flaws

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

dougdoepke A Paris detective encounters mysterious murders while on vacation in the French countryside.Some day when I have absolutely nothing to do I'm going to count the number of window shots in this film. I hope I can count that high. Actually, all that imagery pays off with a richly symbolic final shot. The movie itself has a rather sumptuous look for a cheap second feature, a credit to the art department and director Lewis' visual imagination, I suppose. Anyway, it's an interesting little noir with an ironical ending, even if it doesn't reach the suspenseful heights of My Name Is Julia Ross, Lewis' previous movie.I wasn't sure where So Dark was going since it begins in rather leisurely fashion. However, once the apparently motiveless murders occur, the plot thickens into a mystery. Still, the screenplay doesn't really play up the whodunit potential, which it could have. Then too, stronger lead performers, I think, would have helped. Steven Geray made a notable career as a waiter or maitre'd in upscale night spots, but as a detective, his presence is a little thin. Also, I agree with the reviewer who thinks Cheirel a shade too old for the ingénue role.Anyway, Lewis' visual talent is on vivid display, making this a very watchable 70 minutes, even though I'm canceling my next visit to the French countryside.

Scarecrow-88 French detective, Henri Cassin(Steven Geray) finally gets a vacation after eleven years, heads out into the countryside for some much deserved rest and relaxation. His reputation known outside of Paris, even in a small village it seems Cassin can not escape murder and investigation.This little movie was a nice surprise because I'm not familiar with the director, Joseph H Lewis, but his camera is quite arresting and fluid. The ensemble cast is spirited, with a delightful lead performance from Geray as the chipper, celebrated detective, a bachelor with eyes for Nanette(Micheline Cheirel) , whose parents run the inn for which he's staying in the village. Nanette is engaged, though, to a handsome, young farmer, Leon(Paul Marion), while dreaming of a life in Paris, away from the mundane life of the country. Monsieur Cassin is in love for the first time, life as a detective has aged him and so this moment is quite rewarding for someone so associated with crime and murder, during an entire career.I particularly love how Geray gazes lovingly at Micheline Cheirel when she appears, his face emanates. But, this feeling of sudden joy is only temporary as Nanette's body is found in a nearby river, having run after Leon who didn't respond well to the news that, while he was gone, she had agreed to marry Cassin. When Leon is found in his barn strangled like Nanette(bottle of acid in his hand to supposedly assume he had took his own life after strangling Nanette), Monsieur Cassin's sleuthing turns up a double homicide, a footprint implicating someone. A note is presented to Cassin as a word of warning from the murderer that another would die. No motive befuddles the detective and when the next target turns up being Nanette's mother, he becomes consumed with solving this puzzling case. Even Cassin's credibility is in question as he tirelessly(mind, body and soul) pursues the killer.What positively stuns me is what Cassin turns up, and I wouldn't dare give this development up. Not in a million years. The evidence points to one man, only one could match the description, the footprint, the handwriting of the death notes..the revelation throws this genre, the murder mystery, for a loop, with schizophrenia/split personality disorder even tossed in the mix for extra oomph. Definitely recommended to fans of Hitchcockian kind of fare. I dig Lewis' style, he has an affinity for arranging big open shots(his shot of the bridge, an object of symbolic importance throughout as it is where a lot of the drama transpires, including the discovery of Nanette's body, especially striking), and tightly confined close-ups(it is said that Lewis had to shoot so much up close due to budgetary and time constraints). Consider me a Joseph H Lewis fan..why is it always these guys who are used by studios to churn out little movies to accompany supposedly great ones that wind up standing the test of time?

bmacv 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.

muddlyjames 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.