Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Wordiezett So much average

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

LeonLouisRicci Nerve Racking and Powerful Film-Noir can be Seen as a Seminal Work and a very Accurate Display of the Noir Tropes that Defined the Genre.The Film is Exquisitely Photographed using Forced Perspective and is Bathed in Shadows and a Working Class Environment. The Script is also Purely Working Class with its Small Town, Claustrophobic Template of Trains, Smoke Stacks, and Seedy Hotels.Henry Fonda and Barbara Bel Geddes are Orphans who find each other. Fonda's Joe has just returned to "Civilization" from the War and there is much Dialog about the Experience and Semi-Traumatic Residue on the Veteran. Vincent Price is a Fake Intellectual, Liar and Lech.Dimitri Tiomkin's Score comes close to Overwhelming some Scenes but is Effective most of the Time. The Supporting Cast of Ann Dvorak, Elisha Cook, Charles McGraw, and others all lend Superior Support. A Minor Nitpick may be the Accelerated Pace of some of the Dialog that at times is a bit Breathtaking.The Movie's Strong Suit is the sometimes Expressionistic Frame and the Good Acting and Melodramatic Story. It is an Off-Beat, Interesting, and Little Seen Film that is a Must-See for Fans of Film-Noir, Henry Fonda, and the Post-War Milieu.

calvinnme I've never seen the original French film upon which this film was based, but I can tell you I kept waiting for a plot line payoff that never came. It has everything going for it - solid cast giving good believable performances, good direction, even a good speech that Fonda's character delivers from this broken out window as he is under siege by the police that gives us some insight into what it's like for an average guy who has returned home from years of killing and seeing killing in the war expected to pick up where he left off. But ultimately, I never see anything that Fonda's character, factory laborer Joe Adams, has been put through as far as shock or emotional torment or even disillusionment that would justifiably cause him to kill a man. Is Vincent Price's character Maximillian eloquently taunting and creepy? Yes, and in a way that Price excelled at over the years starting in noirs and proceeding on into his horror films. However, at no time does he do anything that would drive anybody to do more than shoo him away or stuff earplugs in their ears or possibly call the ASPCA (You'll have to watch the film to understand this last remark). I'm giving this film a five just for the fact that I believe the production code is the reason any hard edges that seem to be just under the surface never appear. I'm almost positive the script would have gone further if the censors would have allowed it to be so.The real point of interest to me was the action of the police, who behave a lot like the fascists that Joe Adams spent years fighting in WWII. Sure they have a murderer holed up in his rented room, but he's holding no hostages, they've emptied the building, and still they spray him twice with automatic gunfire unannounced - once from the outside into his window, then from the stairwell into the door. When he pushes a sturdy dresser against the door and they realize they can't force their way in THEN they try talking to Joe, starting with the line "We're not fooling"?? No kidding! After Fonda's speech to the crowd, once the crowd starts voicing their support for Joe and promising financial help with a lawyer the police form a line and practically trample the crowd forcing them out of the street. I don't know if the heavy handedness of the police was something that Litvak wanted the audience to notice, but it was something I noticed.I'd recommend this one just for the good performances and atmosphere and some imagery you don't see that much in films immediately after WWII, but don't expect something shocking or even interesting to happen just because of all of the talent assembled here.

secondtake The Long Night (1947)This Anatole Litvak movie is about four things: Henry Fonda, Sol Polito, and Le Jour se Leve.1) Fonda is a nice surprise here. He's got those sad, brooding, innocent expressions that make you hang in there for him alongside the young Barbara Bel Geddes, who is both demure and a screaming desperado in her support role. Fonda also has time of downright cheerfulness, and when you see him being lively and chipper you realize how often he is cast as a solid, sober, dignified type (from The Grapes of Wrath to 12 Angry Men, on and on).2) Polito is the cinematographer, and a great one (see any of his films for proof). He moves the camera up and down that stairwell, around the darkened room, through the crowded streets, on and on, really making the experience visceral and lyrical. It's no small feat. Watch.3) Le Jour se Leve is the 1939 French movie that is the basis for The Long Night. The writing for this Litvak version is really sharp (and a couple times, hilarious in the best way), and they make the most of the original idea, of a man thinking over his crime and the causes for it. Which bring up number four, the essence of film noir. We often think of "film noir" as a style, and this one has lots of night shooting and deep shadows. It's also sometimes a period, which is mostly post World War II (so late 1940s into the 1950s). One of the key elements to classic noir is the idea of a man alone, out of step with the world, often vulnerable to a woman (or two) who may or may not have such good intentions. And this man represents the returning soldier, who in reality was out of step with the new booming America.4) So here we have a textbook example, a soldier who was forced to do his murderous job during the war and now faces an America that he can't quite fit into. The struggle is all on the surface here (even the crowds make clear they are ready to support him through his adjustment), and even though there are no classic noir lines from some detective hardboiler, and even though Fonda is no Mitchum or Bogart, this is a perfect noir in other ways, and more about inner human struggles than external drama. Is it good? Yes, for all these reasons. It's not flawless (Vincent Price is an odd presence, but if you like Price you'll enjoy him, too), but it has its flawless aspects, and is guaranteed to move you. For many men in a 1947 audience, it had to have been gutwrenching and inspiring. And it still is.

edwagreen Eerie film showcasing an excellent chain-smoking Henry Fonda as a distraught lover who kills the eerie mad-like magician,Vincent Price, who discovers his girl-friend, Barbara Bel Geddes and begins to stalk here.The acting here is good especially by Fonda, who wears the same hat and acts in a similar fashion as he did in "The Grapes of Wrath." He is essentially a beaten down character, at war with society who vacillates between pessimism and optimism.Bel Geddes is outstanding especially in the latter part of the film. Her justification for living would ever serve as an inspiration to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.Ann Dvorak, as the mysterious Charlene, is also quite good. The film is really uneven as it doesn't explain why the Fonda character becomes involved with Charlene, Price's assistant in his magic.