Night Unto Night (1949)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

Kathryn Scola (writer)
Philip Wylie (novel)

Release Date:

22 August 1949 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Whatever it is, there's nothing you can't tell the woman you love.

Plot Keywords:

Contemplated Suicide | Beach House | Epilepsy | Old House | Seclusion

Cast

Ronald Reagan	...	John Galen
Viveca Lindfors	...	Ann Gracy
Broderick Crawford	...	C.L. Shawn
Rosemary DeCamp	...	Thalia Shawn
Osa Massen	...	Lisa
Art Baker	...	Dr. Poole
Craig Stevens	...	Tony Maddox
Erskine Sanford	...	Dr. Gallen Altheim
Ann Burr	...	Willa Shawn
Johnny McGovern	...	Willie Shawn
Lillian Yarbo	...	Josephine
Ross Ford	...	Bellboy
Almira Sessions	...	Hotel Maid
Dick Elliott	...	Auto Court Manager
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lois Austin	...	Mrs. Rose (scenes deleted)
Irving Bacon	...	Real Estate Agent (scenes deleted)
Billy Bletcher	...	Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)
Jack Mower	...	Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)
Paul Panzer	...	Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)
Larry Rio	...	Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)
Ramon Ros	...	Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)
Leo White	...	Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)
Jack Wise	...	Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (original rating) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Australia:G

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Viveca Lindfors’ first Hollywood film.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995)

Soundtrack:

Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven

Take The Last Plane To Sweden

The best thing to come out of Night Unto Night, a rather dull melodrama that none of the cast can bring any life to is the fact that the director, Don Siegel married leading Viveca Lindfors and the two of them contributed Kristoffer Tabori for our entertainment pleasure a generation later. When a film is held up for two years before being released you know it has some problems.

The story is about a reclusive and sensitive scientist who has developed epilepsy played by Ronald Reagan who rents a house on a then lonely stretch of Florida beach to be alone and do his research without people's gossip. He rents from Viveca Lindfors who is a widow and who's husband was lost at sea years ago. Being Swedish Lindfors had another Hollywood Scandinavian cast as her sister with Osa Massen. They are completely unalike, they remind me of the Sternwood sisters in The Big Sleep.

Broderick Crawford is also around as an artist and neighbor and Reagan's doctors are played by Art Baker and Erskine Sanford. The film plods on and on without you developing any real interest in the story or the characters.

Don Siegel had scored great success with the Warner Brothers B film, The Verdict and this was his second film. He left Warner Brothers for RKO after this where he went on to great acclaim and bigger budgets even at RKO. His wife had the good fortune to get two American films released including the Errol Flynn spectacular Adventures of Don Juan where Lindfors played Queen Margaret. If this had been released first poor Viveca might have caught the first plane back to Sweden.

I don't think Reagan's biggest political and acting fans could sit through this one without falling asleep.