The Long Night (1947)

Police surround the apartment of apparent murderer Joe Adams, who refuses to surrender although escape appears impossible. During the siege, Joe reflects on the circumstances that led him to this situation.

Director:

Anatole Litvak

Writers:

Jacques Viot (earlier script), John Wexley

Stars:

Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Henry Fonda	...	Joe Adams
Barbara Bel Geddes	...	Jo Ann
Vincent Price	...	Maximilian the Great
Ann Dvorak	...	Charlene
Howard Freeman	...	Sheriff Ned Meade
Moroni Olsen	...	Chief of Police Bob McManus
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Frank Dunlap
Queenie Smith	...	Mrs. Tully
David Clarke	...	Bill Pulanski
Charles McGraw	...	Policeman Stevens
Melinda Byron	...	Peggy
Davis Roberts	...	Freddie (as Robert A. Davis)

Storyline

The credits fade onto a blind man tapping his way down the sidewalk,he enters a dingy boarding house and hears a shot fired in one of the upstairs bedrooms. A door opens from audience POV. A man tumbles out of the door and falls, slides and slithers down two flights of stairs and is dead when he hits the bottom. Then follows nearly 100 minutes of flashback and flashbacks-within-flashbacks about a veteran returing from the war, tired and disillusioned, only to find that he girl he loves has lied to him about her relationship with another man, and that man is sadistic, boastful and tauntful.

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Plot Keywords:

siege | police | blind man | murder | rust belt | 

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Taglines:

The impassioned story of a love that promised the world -- and paid off in bullets!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 May 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die lange Nacht

Company Credits

Production Co:

Select Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Barbara Bel Geddes.

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Quotes

Maximilian: In a strange way I'm honest... even about my lies.

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Connections

Remake of Daybreak (1939)

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Soundtracks

"Symphony No. 7: II. Allegretto"
(uncredited)
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven

User Reviews

Coded Remake Of Le Jour Se Leve

Maybe one of these fine days I might get to see the French film, Le Jour Se Leve that The Long Night is based on that starred Jean Gabin and Arletty. Just reading the user comments from that board kind of tells me where The Long Night went wrong.

Henry Fonda for one thing is horribly miscast in this film. This was a part better played by someone like John Garfield or Montgomery Clift. Either of those two might have better showed the angst that Fonda was feeling as Vincent Price ruins the woman of his dreams.

The title The Long Night refers to Fonda holed up in a fourth top floor apartment after he shoots Vincent Price. The film opens with Price staggering out of Fonda's room at the boarding house and falling dead at the top of the stairs. The police investigate and Fonda shoots at them. They settle in for a long siege overnight. The reasons that led up to the homicide unfold in flashbacks.

Price plays a Snidely Whiplash type villain. He's a nightclub entertainer with a magic act. Ann Dvorak is his many times around the track assistant, not a few of those times with Price and Barbara Bel Geddes is the young girl who Fonda falls for but Price seduces. Price overacts outrageously to cover the script defects.

The problem with adapting Le Jour Se Leve to the American cinema seems to be the Production Code still firmly in place. What they could show in France, they could not show here. Made for an absurd plot.

This and The Fugitive are Henry Fonda's two flop films in his post World War II period before going to Broadway and Mister Roberts. I'm sure he would love to have forgotten The Long Night.