While New York Sleeps (1920)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Charles Brabin

Writers:

Charles Brabin (screenplay)
Charles Brabin (story)

Release Date:

23 August 1920 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Three short stories with the same cast in each: "Out of the Night," in which a woman is saved from a...

Cast

Estelle Taylor	...	A Wife / The Vamp / The Girl
William Locke	...	Her husband
Marc McDermott	...	Strange Visitor / The Man / The Paralytic
Harry Sothern	...	Burglar / Friend / His Son
Earl Metcalfe	...	The Gangster

Runtime:

USA:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

A Nitrate Print of this film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archives, and is not listed for Preservation.

The Three Story Twist!

Highly entertaining silent crime/suspense drama which showcases three vignettes of the city, all featuring the same small group of actors. The first story tells the tale of a woman left home alone one evening while hubby works late. Her baby is scared in bed (and a dream of demons is visualized above the toddler's head), the wife is shaking in her boots for good reason - an unkempt, grubby-looking man suddenly appears in the house who turns out to be her first husband whom she thought to be dead (and at the same time, an actual burglar is in the house, trying to break into the safe!). The second story features a vamp who seduces a man while attending the Follies. He is married but doesn't know *she* is until a man shows up at her apartment just as he is about to cut off the affair - twists to follow.

The third story is about "the paralytic", an old man completely paralyzed - he can hear, blink and move his eyes, and that's it. Unable to talk, he simply sits and watches - his only joy, his "heaven" as the title card states, is his adult son, a night watchman who lives with him. A rather seedy local seamstress has a side job caring for the old man for $3 a week - but when she loses her main job after a brawl with another woman, the son convinces her to marry him and have use of ALL his money. In a loveless marriage she soon turns to a secret love affair with a gangster who she has hidden in their attic after he has committed a robbery - and soon they have murdered the husband and disposed of the body (down an oddly placed trapdoor leading to the outside, placed right in the center of the main room of the house), all witnessed by the paralyzed father who can't talk!

This film includes lots of twists and turns, each short story in itself quite absorbing and interesting. I especially enjoyed the third story in this - the image of the "paralytic man" has really stuck in my head, quite memorable. Marc McDermott, who plays him, gives a really top-notch performance here portraying his emotions with just his eyes. Beautiful Estelle Taylor is also very good playing the female in each of the three stories. This film is a real winner; well worth seeing.