Night Unto Night (1949) User Reviews

To regard death as the end of everything puts a low premium on life

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 5 March 2009]

***SPOILERS*** Extremely deep and heavy stuff directed by Don Siegel who's known for his shoot em up police flicks like "Madigan" and "Dirty Harry". It's here where Siegel directs the kind of movie that you would have expected the famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman to do.

The films title "Night Unto Night" even sounds like an Ingmar Bergman movie but that's where the similarities, between Siegel and Bergman, ends. In the movie Bio-Chemist John Galen, Ronald Reagan, is looking for a place to stay, on the Florida East Coast, to conduct his experiments on bacteriological agents to improve the healing powers of penicillin. Staying at Ann Gracy's, Viceca Linfors, almost empty mansion John soon comes to realize that Ann is a bit off center in her insisting that she communicates, verbally, with her dead husband Bill.

John being a man of science knows that the dead can't communicate with anyone but keeps that fact from Ann in order not to ether embarrass or hurt her feelings. It's when John comes in contact with C.L Shawn, Broderick Crawford, an artist as well as deep thinker whom he considerer's to be in full control of his mental faculties that his opinion about Ann starts to change. Shawn sees nothing strange at all in the existence of ghosts and unfamiliar spirits that John feels is nothing but pure unadulterated BS!

Ann soon falls in love with John, a life long bachelor, but he doesn't seem that interested in her because it, having an affair with Ann, will interfere with his scientific research. It's then that the cat is let out of the bag in John's very strange and bizarre behavior. It soon comes out that John is suffering from a severe case of epilepsy and is trying, in the Florida sunshine, live with the disease. John's epilepsy according to the doctors treating it-Dr. Pool(Art Baker) from his hometown of Chicago and Dr. Altheim (Erskine Sanford) from here in Florida-is getting worse by the day and will eventually render him useless as a man of science or anything else!

It's later when Ann gets the news, from Shawn, about John's condition that she does everything to get him to overcome the stigma, back then in the 1940's, of being an hopeless epileptic. It's when Ann's jealous sister Lisa, Osa Massen, who's also crazy about John, and whom John earlier rejected, insults and humiliates John, in front of Ann among others, about his condition that he tried to keep secret that he went into, what seemed like, an epileptic seizure. Hurt and ashamed about being exposed, as an epileptic, John goes into his room planing to end it all by blowing, with a .45 caliber revolver, his brains out.

***SPOILER ALERT*** As it turned out it was Ann who came to Johns aid and, by threatening to kill herself, kept him from committing suicide. John looked at things, like the scientist that he was, as being either black or white without any grays in between. It was both Ann as well as Shawn who believed in things beyond science, like life surviving death, that made John see the light that always eluded him. It also made John realize that even though his illness, epilepsy, was not curable faith in a higher power as well as the whole hearted support of those who love him will do a lot more for him then all of medical science put together.

Offbeat, brooding drama with metaphysical yearnings ultimately reaches too far

[bmacv · 6/10 · 8 February 2003]

A curious, brooding drama with metaphysical airs, Night Unto Night holds interest by its very oddity (and to some extent as an early directorial effort by Don Siegel). It's set in pre-boom, primitive Florida near the Everglades and takes its redemptive close during a purging hurricane, along the way touching on transcendent themes - though it seems to confuse spirituality with spiritualism. These are its dramatis personae:

. Ronald Reagan plays a biochemist (!) come to coastal Florida seeking a simple, reclusive life; he's been diagnosed with epilepsy and, man of science or not, he views his condition as a mysterious and terrible curse. So he rents a gloomy old pile of a house from a young widow where he sets up a laboratory to fiddle with his molds and spores. He's a disturbed, perhaps suicidal man, but, Kings Row notwithstanding, Reagan is an actor who leaves the impression of never having been troubled a day in his life.

. Viveca Lindfors is the widow, who must vacate the house because in it she keeps hearing the voice of her dead husband, whose boat was torpedoed just offshore. Lindfors was imported to Hollywood in an attempt to recreate the mystique of Ingrid Bergman, whom she resembled in voice and visage, but the imposture never quite worked. Still, she's as good here as she ever was and gives a glimpse into the thinking that brought her from Sweden.

. Broderick Crawford is a friend and neighbor. In a drastic stretch, he plays a painter who earns his living doing commercial art but saves his talent for vast murals in what looks like the Socialist-realism school. Nonetheless, he serves as the spokesman for faith, which he carries like a chip on his shoulder, waylaying the scientists and psychiatrists he meets with harangues about their puny rationalism.

. Osa Mussen, though a Dane not a Swede, plays Lindfors' twisted sister, a spiteful hedonist who throws herself at Reagan and does not suffer rebuff kindly. She drinks too much and ignites the volatile gases of the plot's alchemy.

The story, from a novel by Philip Wylie (whose 15 minutes of notoriety would come in the mid-1950s with his book Generation of Vipers), has a reach which far exceeds its grasp. While it does hold interest - thanks chiefly to Siegel's shifting but steady pace - it raises questions which it does not bother to (or cannot) resolve. Too many of its strands (the spirit of the dead man, the murderous enmity between the sisters, Crawford's ill-packed intellectual baggage) start to flap in the winds of the concluding hurricane and fly off, never to be seen again. At the end, all that we're left with of the ineffable is plain old guy-meets-gal chemistry.

Night unto night - answers from the novel

[BSKIMDB · 6/10 · 3 January 2018]

This review will not be centered on technical or artistic aspects because others have done so and there´s no need to repeat; it is added to supply the information the film fails to give to round the story.

When watching this psychological story with supernatural accents about two human beings meeting and helping each other cope with their mutual ghosts (a recent war widow and a biochemistry scientist diagnosed with epilepsy) it struck me, besides the great athmosphere helped by Franz Waxman´s music, that several facts remain unexplained and are left unsolved : the dead husband´s voice haunting his young widow, her sister´s attitude towards life and Ann, the dramatism assigned to being an epileptic which is here equalled to a death sentence, and what comes after the hurricane at the end. All these questions remain unexplained in the movie.

All of them are answered in the novel by Philip Wylie. The book is more centered on the metaphysical consideration of life after death and the supernatural phenomena than the picture. There are several more than Bill´s voice and also happen to Galen himself once, troubling him and, as the intellectual scientist he is, making himself both question and discuss them with Ann, friend artist Shawn (who also recalls a couple of unusual experiences himself) and his Psychiatrist and close friend Dr. Johann Altheim (one wonders why they changed the Swiss doctor´s leading and key role, purely anecdotic in the film, for his American colleague Dr. Poole). It will in fact be the inquisitive and open-minded Psychiatrist who will in the end find the answer about the mystery haunting the Gracey mansion, shortly before the hurricane breaks out. This secret is left out of the plot, taking half of the mystery and motivation off.

At one point Altheim tells Galen (approximated) "John, you are an architect. You build new structures in your mind where people want to live. Interesting people come in and interesting things happen". That gives us a clue not only about Galen´s personality but about him taking interest in the metaphysical events.

Shawn, by the way, is not only the commercially successful unconventional artist but has a darker artistic side not precisely socialist.

Lisa, Ann´s sister (Gail in the novel), is so seductive, hedonistic and selfish because she can´t cope with a trauma from her past, one which is connected to the haunted house mystery. It is quite nonsense watching her in the picture acting as she does and towards Ann without much reason for it.

Epilepsy as a fatal illness ? Well, back in the 40s there were limited options for resistant cases. Patients not responding to potassium bromide or barbiturates (phenobarbital = Luminal) had only phenytoin (discovered in 1938) to try until II World War ended. The original story happens during the war, that´s why Ann is recently widowed. SPOILER : We are shown that Galen suffers from partial disconnection crises and finds out that he is allergyc to the drug. He later suffers a serious convulsion on the beach. This means the illness is progressing (END OF SPOILER). What should be added is that he had epileptic relatives that ended in mental hospitals. Also that he was turned down by Dr. Poole when applying for military service. AND that´s why he is scared and has even suicidal thoughts at one point, why he is reluctant to make his mind about Ann, and why he says that "death is not the worst thing that can happen to a man, only the last".

Finally - the hurricane. It breaks out at the right point, when the truth is known by all, when Galen must decide if love is stronger than his founded fears, and when the secrets that haunt the mansion are discovered and Lisa´s past unveiled and cleared out. After this climax each character will evolve. But we are not told about this, only partially regarding John and Ann. Why not conclude the story, as the novel does? What we don´t see is how they struggle together to survive both the hurricane and their psychological suffering, and then which choice takes each one of them.

The movie ends with the impression they went out of budget and had to conclude somehow, leaving loose ends the script had been good enough to have been building from the beginning. The original story does give a clue for everyone. But no spoilers here are intended about the novel either, only answers to better enjoy this movie, which could have been even better.

one of a kind

[RanchoTuVu · 7/10 · 12 March 2005]

Stunning photography and Don Siegel's direction make the most of an unusual overly melodramatic story starring Ronald Reagan as a scientist with epilepsy who goes to south Florida on doctor's orders and meets a young woman, (Viveca Lindfors) recently widowed, who is haunted by the voice of her dead husband. Reagan rents her slightly dilapidated beach mansion and experiences several epileptic episodes, but tries his best to keep his condition a secret. Broderick Crawford's role as an artist who lives close by verges on annoying as he goes on and on about art and life. Ossa Massen gives the film a boost as Lindfor's scheming, jealous sister who tries seducing Reagan and later drunkenly blurts out his secret when she realizes that she can't have him. The concluding hurricane arrives just in time, with all the main characters assembled for dinner in the creaky old mansion, and Reagan pushed to verge of suicide by the shame of his medical condition, while Lindfors begs him to reconsider.

Storms at night

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 18 August 2016]

This melodrama from Warner Brothers is drenched in atmospheric touches. It hits like a heavy stick that is thick on the outside and somewhat hollow in the center. Ronald Reagan plays a young man suffering from epileptic seizures. He is in most of the scenes, but this is not a man's picture. It's a woman's picture, so ultimately everything that happens to him has to affect Viveca Lindfors, who plays his love interest. Reagan's character will sacrifice himself in the end for her own good.

Key supporting characters, played by Broderick Crawford and Rosemary DeCamp, are more balanced and finely played. However, some of Crawford's speechifying gets too heavy-handed and the philosophical pontificating doesn't stop with him, because the screenwriter sees fit to squeeze the same ponderous thoughts into the dialogue of others. Some films need a philosophical slant and a slight bit of preachiness the audience may need to hear. But it shouldn't come from all sides, bombarding the viewer to the point where it overtakes one's enjoyment of the story.

There are some interesting scenes with children, and another good scene with a barking dog that give the whole affair added psychological layers. The actress who plays the Negro maid (Lillian Yarbo) is excellent, bringing her part vibrantly to life with her realness offsetting the clichés. It's easy to understand why some of the improvisation which occurs between her and Crawford was left in the movie.

The story takes place in a coastal region, and there's tropical storm during one tense sequence of the film. These hurricane shots resemble ones the studio used in KEY LARGO a year earlier. This is not the story's detriment, since the shots were were edited in wisely. The raging storm outside is smartly simulated in the studio, complete with palm tree branches banging against the windows and the loud noise of the wind on the other side of the walls. So, for the most part, it's convincingly staged.

There's another scene, earlier on the beach, where we are given a vital piece of information concerning something that happened in the past, which is intercut with horses' hooves. This suggests a symbolism that might have been more detailed in the novel and was only casually alluded to in the script.

Yet it's the storm sequence that has the most impact. Everything builds to it. After the elongated speeches and gradual revelations, the picture ends dramatically, just short of the main character's death. But we are told earlier: death is not an end. I find it interesting to watch performers who are long dead now, talking about life after death. I suppose classic cinema keeps them alive.

Folks, it's only epilepsy!

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 27 September 2017]

"Night Unto Night" was made in 1947 and was not released until 1949. That is a very bad sign...a sign that the studio thought they had a bomb on their hands. While I would not call this one a bomb, it certainly could have been a lot better...and it's a shame because the acting is really nice in this one...particularly by Ronald Reagan in the lead.

When the film begins, John (Reagan) moves to the Florida coast and finds a home to rent. A widow (Viveca Linfors) wants to leave her home...and not for the usual reasons. She thinks the place is haunted and she hears her dead husband's voice there! John thinks this is nutty but is a gentle man and treats her well despite her odd delusion. Eventually the pair fall in love...but he has a secret he broods over...he has epilepsy.

The acting and production values are really nice in this one but the film acted like epilepsy is some sort of death sentence...or at least a life destroyer! It certainly isn't and handling the illness this way seemed pretty crass and silly. Overall, some nice moments but the plot just didn't make a lot of sense...and marrying a man who occasionally goes blank (which happens with many types of seizures) is NOT something that destroys your life or makes you destined to be a lonely recluse! The writing sinks this one....and it's a shame as Reagan is at his best in this one. And, I wonder how epileptics felt when they watched this film...as if they were somehow destined for hollow lives because of the disorder!

Reagan battles personal problems in Florida

[bill-790 · 6/10 · 15 March 2009]

"Night Unto Night" is by no means outstanding, but is not the bottom of the barrel effort that some reviewers have claimed. It is a serious attempt to portray two serious personal problems.

The first is the difficult task of coming to grips with the death of a spouse; the husband of Vivica Lindfors' character has been killed in the war (WWII). The second is having to face a serious medical condition; Reagan's character, a scientist, suffers from epilepsy.

The pace of the film is, to say the least, leisurely. The climax, which comes during a Florida hurricane, finally provides a bit of action. The acting is good throughout. Reagan's performance is competent if not outstanding. Vivica Lindfors and Broderick Crawford are better.

The attitude toward epilepsy was somewhat different in 1949 from what it is today, and one sees that portrayed in this film. (I believe that the symptoms displayed by Reagan's character are not accurate.) "Night Unto Night" was produced with the best of intentions, but the final product does not live up to expectations. It is, however, worth at least one viewing.

beautiful cinematography, beautiful Viveca wasted

[blanche-2 · 5/10 · 13 December 2014]

Someone missed the boat here, but I'm not sure where it all went wrong. Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp and Osa Massen star in "Night Unto Night," a 1949 psychological drama directed by Don Siegel.

The story concerns a scientist, John Galen (Reagan) who rents a house in South Florida owned by a widow, Ann (Lindfors) who believes she hears her husband's voice. She continues to mourn her husband and can't embrace life; Galen has been told he has epilepsy and has taken the house to work and try to deal with his situation.

Filmed mostly on sets, despite the beautiful cinematography, a lot of scenes look fake. The photography does give the film a brooding atmosphere.

There are some interesting metaphysical, "today" ideas tossed around in the script, but the dialogue is pretentious, not at all like normal people speak. Also, epilepsy here seems to be treated as almost a death sentence or at least a communicable disease. Perhaps back in 1949 that's how it was viewed.

Reagan, a pleasant actor, didn't have a great range and was much better in comedy. He seems miscast here, and the role didn't play to his main assets, which were charm and a genial presence.

Viveca Lindfors was brought over from Sweden as the next Ingrid Bergman; it came as a surprise when husband Don Siegel made a name for himself when he directed "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" when she was supposed to be the star. Despite being beautiful and a wonderful actress, she never made it to the top tier. The actresses who were part of the foreign influx post-war: Alida Valli, Valentina Cortese, Maria Schell, Hildegarde Knef, Mai Zetterling -- all met similar fates. Of all of them, Lindfors was the only one who stayed in America and worked, in film, television, and on the stage - until her death in 1995.

A bizarre film, with spirited performances by Lillian Yarbo, Rosemary DeCamp, Osa Massen, and Broderick Crawford.

Europe com'a America

[krocheav · 8/10 · 15 May 2013]

This fascinating title 'Night Unto Night' was perhaps an American film ahead of it's time. In the late 40's you might expect Europe and Britain would be more prone to produce works with the themes found in 'Night'. Maybe this explains why the film was better received outside the USA.

It's a serious story written by Philip Wylie, also known for 'Island of Lost Souls', 'When Worlds Collide', etc. Here we have a story that reaches into the darkness of the human condition, uncovering the vulnerable surfaces that either hold us together or tear us apart. Obviously, after producing this film Warner Brothers did not quite know what to do with it so, shelved it for over a year. It's more along the lines of the socially conscious stories that First National Pictures were unafraid to make in the 30's IE; 'Heroes For Sale' etc. The screenplay adaptation by Kathryn Scola, who had earlier worked on 'The Glass Key', 'A Modern Hero', etc, has a sharp edge to it, bringing to life Wylies' troubled characters quite nicely. The two European female imports do very well in vastly different character turns. Swedish Viveca Lindfors is near perfect as the haunted feminine lead, while Danish Osa Massen plays her superficial, vampish sister to the hilt.

American Producer Owen Crump, while not generally well known, was himself not unfamiliar with making films in Europe. He is also known to Write: "Zeppelin" 71, ~ and to Direct: "The Couch" 62. The weakest link in this production lies with his allocated Director, Don Siegel. This was only Siegel's 2nd feature and he was not up to the material. Siegel tended to be more suited to the simple 'shoot em up' Eastwood type films.

Visually the film is absolutely stunning. Cinematographer John Peveral Marley who's known for all time classics such as the original 'Count of Monte Cristo' - 'Suez' - 'Night and Day' etc, crafts a treat for the artistic eye with his eerie floating camera, spiraling along dark stairways and over glistening waters. Marley is ably supported by Art Director Hugh Reticker ('Humoresque' etc) who creates a darkly Gothic look and feel to the interiors of Lindfors' rambling beach front house. Also adding a strong sense of mystic mood is Franz Waxmans' music, conjuring up the building torment of the two suffering leads.

Acting honours should go to Broderick Crawford for his strong portrayal as Reagans newly found Artist friend, he's a man who shuns commercialism and offers sympathetic spiritual support to both leads. If it's action you want, you wont get it here. Thoughtful viewers should find rewards if they approach it as a soul searching character study. If this was not meant to be 'A grade', then in so many ways it certainly is. Watch for Craig Stevens, TV's Peter Gunn, who two decades latter would again work for Producer Owen Crump in the 1967 theatrical feature version of 'Gunn'. Recently, at two private film appreciation group screenings of Night Unto Night (with an audience mix of young and older viewers) when the film ended, there was a round of enthusiastic applause, and much discussion followed ~ ninety percent said the film was quality melodrama of the 'superior' kind. Most also said it's one of the best performances they'd seen from Reagan, I have to agree. This unfairly dismissed film is highly recommended for lovers of late 40's romantic noir. Ken Roche......

Like its lead actresses, very pretty....

[theognis-80821 · 7/10 · 16 January 2022]

In the wake of WW II, when so many lost so much, a story about the nature of death that offered hope for a spirit world, must have seemed appealing. In this, Don Siegel's second feature, a good cast giving strong performances, keeps interest alive. The moody atmospherics work very well, but there is some confusion in the script between the supernatural and epilepsy, which keeps this picture out of the "Rebecca," "Wuthering Heights" or "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" territory.

Take The Last Plane To Sweden

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 5 March 2009]

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.

Ronald Reagan in an early Don Siegel film.

[SumBuddy-3 · 10/10 · 30 June 2004]

Long before Dirty Harry, you can see the excellent film-making, where Ronald Reagan gives what I feel is an excellent performance-not corny, not the "super nice guy" that everyone remembers him by. This is a hard edged film.

Broderick Crawford alone should be enough to get you to watch this one, but Vivica Lindfors and others are standout performers. SPOILER: Not to give too much away, but the film starts with Ronald showing up in Florida, to rent a home, so he can deal with his affliction, for which there is no treatment. Meeting Dr. Altheim, his first day there, almost floored me. The name is erie when heard, for me, as Mr. Ragan had just passed away when I saw this film.

The Films One Redeeming Moment.

[paulbrandis · 4/10 · 13 July 2009]

I was a young teenager when this film came out. I couldn't recognize a set from the real outdoors and, of course, knew nothing about plot and character development, pacing, conflict resolution, etc. But now, viewing it with a more critical eye I can see its weaknesses. Still I need to make one comment. In the film there is a romantic interlude that takes place at night on the beach. It culminates in a long, lingering kiss. For some reason the technicians, especially the lighting technicians, took a great deal of time setting up the scene. The amount of time and effort even became part of what little lore remains about the picture. Well, to a young, impressionable lad, that was my first sense of the warmth of romance in films. Before this, my only interest were comedies and adventures. Now I sensed their potential for romance--and I liked it.

A forgettable item among Reagan's resume at Warner Bros...

[Doylenf · 13 June 2004]

NIGHT UNTO NIGHT ('49) struggles to be a message film with something important to say about life and love--and does carry an unusual theme. However, despite the dramatic intensity in the performance of Swedish actress VIVECA LINDFORS (who looks radiant in all of her close-ups), no one else in the cast seems to be in the same picture. RONALD REAGAN seems to be sleepwalking through a role he clearly doesn't comprehend, displaying none of the emotional fireworks that Lindfors is capable of. He makes any notion of chemistry with Lindfors seem absurd. A stronger actor might have brought some credibility to his role of a botanist who keeps a dark secret from the woman he loves.

And unfortunately, the supporting roles are too colorless to add much to the proceedings. BRODERICK CRAWFORD is cast inexplicably as an artist in touch with "the truth" and OSSA MASSEN is a bit over the top in her drunken stupor as the jealous sister who reveals Reagan's dark secret to Lindfors at the height of a thunderstorm.

Could have been so much better with a tighter script and more emotional response from Reagan, but this is clearly not one of his better films at WB. Technically, the storm is a stunning sequence--too bad it isn't supporting a better script. Reagan redeemed himself later with some better roles at his home studio but this is clearly a dud.

Seizure Inducing Cinema

[wes-connors · 2/10 · 7 March 2009]

On the east coast of Florida, epileptic scientist Ronald Reagan (as John Galen) rents a house from attractive, but loony, Viveca Lindfors (as Ann Gracy). The house comes with a maid, Lillian Yarbo (as Josephine), who seems to appear from a different movie. Ms. Lindfors' sexy sister, Osa Massen (as Lisa), visits Mr. Reagan, and he begins to become intrigued by Lindfors' tragic history - she thinks her dead husband "Bill" speaks to her. Broderick Crawford (as Shawn) is a believer. The "house" sets, location, photography, and direction are strengths. Reagan is thoroughly unconvincing, and the story is wastefully insufferable.

** Night Unto Night (1949) Don Siegel ~ Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford

night unto night

[mossgrymk · 4/10 · 27 January 2022]

Noted crime/action director Don Siegel strays considerably far from his familiar turf in this early in his career, shadowy mood piece. Unfortunately, the main moods evoked are boredom followed closely by inappropriate laughter, especially when Viveca Lindfors and our fortieth president essay a love scene together, what with her junior high school drama class hysterics and his patented stolidity. Happy to report that the next time Siegel and Reagan worked together, on 1964's "The Killers" which was RR's last film (unless you count his second administration), the results were considerably better with Siegel content to be Siegel rather than some ersatz Edgar G Ulmer, and Ronny Baby showing considerable skill at playing a bad guy. Not sure if Lindfors ever improved that much though. C minus.

***

[edwagreen · 8/10 · 27 September 2017]

Fine acting by our future president and Viveca Lindfors adds to the drama of this 1949 film.

This is one of Reagan's best performances, next to "King's Row," of 1942. As the scientist suffering with epilepsy, who meets a woman (Lindfors) who can't get over her husband's death in World War 11, Ronald Reagan gives a searing performance, as a man hesitant to fall in love with death hanging over his head. Lindfors pulls out all the stops as the grieving widow in this melodrama.

In the year that he won the best actor Oscar for "All the King's Men," Broderick Crawford shows up in the film in a supporting role as an artist friendly with the Reagan character. He did not seem comfortable in the part due to his persona of playing tough, gritty individuals in films. His painter role with children married to Rosemary De Camp, just doesn't seem to fit the bill here.

There is a terrific supporting performance by Osa Massey as Lindfor's brooding, drunk, and nasty sister. She will stop at nothing to hurt her sister and even say things that could lead to our scientist killing himself.

The ending hurricane scene is appropriate for if we can come out of this fierce storm, we can conquer anything. A touching movie not letting a serious illness get in the way of finding true love.

Good-looking noir that doesn't make all that much sense

[dcole-2 · 8/10 · 6 June 2005]

The story is kind of a muddle and doesn't always make sense: Both Ronald Reagan and Viveca Lindfors are damaged, brooding people. She's obsessed with her dead husband. He has epilepsy and thinks his life will end soon. But they fall in love -- and somehow must overcome their personal problems to find happiness. Her 'turn' to the good side really is contrived, with no reason behind it. His is almost as bad. Plus Reagan is totally miscast and comes across as about as emotional as a block of driftwood. Lindfors, Osa Massen and Broderick Crawford all try hard. But the man who tries the hardest is director Don Siegel. He dismisses this movie in his autobiography (though he later romanced leading lady Lindfors) but he works his butt off on it with constantly interesting camera moves and shot compositions -- some amazing dolly-work and beautiful black-and-white cinematography. So I'm giving this high marks because Siegel makes it seem so much better than it actually is. And that's the mark of a first-rate director.

Beautiful and unexpected gem

[eigenheimer · 10/10 · 15 March 2020]

The movie can be seen on YouTube. And is a marvellous classic... dramatic and full of story tension. Well made, beatiful photography, and a Reagan who is in his prime.

Viveca Lindfors in exquisite beauty taking on an epileptic case for life

[clanciai · 9/10 · 16 March 2020]

It was a positive surprise to see Ronald Reagan and Broderick Crawford for once in serious roles, Broderick Crawford playing an interesting artist with psychological insight and making great art, Ronald Reagan battling with personal problems of exacerbating epilepsy, which puts him off to a degree that he wants to kill himself. Well, Viveca is there to avert his attention from death to life, and she understands him, as she herself has battled with death all her life since her husband died at sea and at war, which trauma she has desperately tried to survive by constantly imagining his return in her dreams, going so far that she actually hallucinates hearing him. The question is what is true and what is self-suggestion. There are a few doctors as well, and although they don't play any great parts, they are necessary for the context, and they are both very knowledgeable, as they admit they know nothing. Above all, the film is beautiful with marvellous cinematography, Franz Waxman's music is among his best, Viveca Lindfors is as good as ever and as beautiful as a dream, while the other lady does her best to drag the whole story down. There is a storm in the end which eventually brings everything to some positive settlement.

Outstanding movie!

[tltru59 · 10/10 · 15 January 2022]

I cannot believe this showed a rating of 5.8 when we watched it on 1/14/2022. Acting, DIrecting and Music were all excellent. The storyline was great, the sets used during filming were beautiful. I guess they didn't release it properly. This movie deserves a FAR HIGHER RATING! We thoroughly enjoyed this one!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch for the gorgeous cinematography

[morganobx · 9/10 · 14 September 2022]

Viveca Linsfords is stunning. Combined with the extraordinary black and white cinematography by John Peveral Marley you have an exceptional visual paradise. It matters not that R Reagan sleep walks thru the entire film. I doubt he understood the character at all. I almost didn't watch this film because RR was the lead. His films have always left me flat. But I watched because one of reviewers stressed the visual. I am so glad I did. Even the plot is inconsequential to the enjoyment of the movie. This is a film noir hiding behind a simple plot line without the usual smoking gun. And it is still breathtaking. The beauty of a black and white shot by a real artist like Marley elevates this to major star status, even with the unremarkable cast with the exception of Ms. Linsfords. Thanks TCM!

..a hurricane that came-up too quickly..

[fimimix · 8/10 · 25 August 2007]

"Night Unto Night" - really don't understand what the title has to do with the plot, but it sounds nice. Director Siegel does what he can with a very weak script from Kathryn Scola...she must have a writer who helped doctor other scripts. The movie was not long enough to really get such a heavy plot off the ground. Yet, I enjoyed it, after watching "Kings Row" preceding it.......one of TCM's all-day-all-night "tributes" to Ronald Reagan ("John Galen"). "Kings Row" was far better, because Reagan was much younger for that role. Still handsome for "Night," the couple of scenes in which he had a happy demeanor were not strong enough to convince us that his helping a lovelorn lady back to happiness were enough.

Viveca Lindfors ("Ann Gracy") was very good in the movie. None of the other commentors mentioned the age-old cure for ALL love-problems is that itself: love. She found it quickly for "Galen", but Reagan didn't have the ability to portray his morbidity and suicidal intentions, although he was in love with her. The house he rented - in which she heard her dead husband's voice, at the beginning - would make almost anyone with neurotic problems quickly descend into deep funk.

It didn't help any with nasty vamp Osa Massen ("Lisa") throwing herself at "John", especially she being "Ann's" sister. I liked Broderick Crawford ("C Shawn") as a neighbor-painter; Rosemary DeCamp ("Thalia Shawn") was her usual, complete character. Art Baker ("Dr. Poole"), was on the scene to help "John" with his illness (epilepsy); his role was well-played.

The moody cinematography was very appropriate for this intended-to-be dark story....the tale just didn't get dark enough. With what we know now about hurricanes (Southerners have known about them forever), they don't just blow-up all-of-a-sudden. With all the characters - even the kids - assembled for a dinner party, the storm battered the old house right on the seashore. It was also during the storm which "Ann" gives her life-saving love-plea, and "Night Unto Night" quickly ends with the lovers in each others arms. Both cured, I guess.

...not good, not bad.....gives an older person an indication of Reagan's descent from a robust President of The USA, in real life, into total dotage. Sad.....

Dramatic Love Story of the highest caliber

[jimmystrupp · 10/10 · 23 March 2020]

For some reason I am usually quite fond of movies that take place in an old mansions and this was no exception. Spectacular scenery, and a thick plot that builds to a dramatic ending. I adored the well developed characters......loved everyone in it with the exception, of course, of the evil sister. " Lisa" who in so many ways will remind the viewer of the fabulous Bette Davis! A feel-good flick that will have you sobbing at the end!