Nightfall (1957)

Through a series of bizarre coincidences artist finds himself falsely accused of bank robbery and murder and is pursued by the authorities and the real killers.

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Stirling Silliphant (screen play), David Goodis (from the novel by)

Stars:

Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Aldo Ray	...	James Vanning
Brian Keith	...	John
Anne Bancroft	...	Marie Gardner
Jocelyn Brando	...	Laura Fraser
James Gregory	...	Ben Fraser
Frank Albertson	...	Dr. Edward Gurston
Rudy Bond	...	Red

Storyline

There is money missing from a bank job, an attractive model, an insurance investigator, and two extremely dangerous thugs. James Vanning (Aldo Ray) portrays an innocent man on the run, being pursued by the criminals who stupidly misplaced their take from the crime and think he has it or knows where it is hidden. Add model Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft) who crossed paths with nice guy Vanning, while he is on the run. This all adds up to a thriller wherein the viewer is drawn into the story and becomes part of the drama. When Marie says "things that really happen are difficult to explain" it captures the theme of this film. A nice girl helps a nice guy, who is innocent and is drawn into the drama. As tension mounts she says: "I am always meeting the wrong man, and it leads to doomed relationships." Marie inadvertently leads Vanning into the hands of the villains. However, she is a pseudo-femme fatale, innocently involved in the intrigue and, like the viewer, is gradually drawn into the ...

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Plot Keywords:

murder | model | wyoming | bank robbery | oil well | 

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Taglines:

On a night made for lovers... and killers.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

13 May 1957 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

A Maleta Fatídica

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Copa Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

78 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Marie Gardner: What time is it?
James Vanning: Early.
Marie Gardner: I have an eight o'clock sitting and a twelve o'clock fashion show.
James Vanning: You're a model?
Marie Gardner: How do you think I pay the rent?
James Vanning: Oh, well, I should have figured your being a model. I mean, believe it or not, I'm an artist.
[He chuckles]
Marie Gardner: Soup cans or sunsets?
James Vanning: Soup cans, toothpaste, automobiles, and girls once in a while.

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Connections

References The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

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Soundtracks

"Nightfall"
Music by Peter De Rose and Charles H. Cuppett (as Charles Harold)
Lyrics by Sam Lewis (as Sam M. Lewis)
Performed by Al Hibbler

User Reviews

Another Wonderfully Inventive Film from Jacques Tourneur

Jacques Tourneur used his vast reserves of creativity to turn small-budget films into fascinating movie-going experiences. If "Out of the Past" is one of the best films noir to be released in the 1940s, then "Nightfall" must be one of the best from the succeeding decade.

Aldo Ray plays James Vanning, who, with his doctor friend Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson), finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up knowing the whereabouts of a bag of stolen money, wanted mightily by two bank robbers (one played with droll relish by Brian Keith). Fate, always a principal character in any film noir, brings James together with Marie Gardner (an impossibly young Anne Bancroft), a fashion model who becomes his girl Friday. Meanwhile, an insurance investigator (James Gregory) working on behalf of the robbed bank has James's number and comes calling. All of these characters finally collide in a memorable and rather grisly ending.

"Nightfall" is tremendously stylish and playful. It very much resembles Tourneur's earlier noir, "Out of the Past," in its thesis that a man can run but never hide from his past. But it also reminded me of "On Dangerous Ground," Nicholas Ray's strange offering from 1952, in its juxtaposition of a shadow-filled urban environment filled with anonymous (and perhaps dangerous) strangers with the wide open (and no less frightening) spaces of the country, where anything can happen and no one will know. I don't know if Aldo Ray was considered a good actor at the time, but he does a terrific job here -- who better to play an American everyman caught up in a sticky web than this all-American jock of an actor? He and Bancroft sizzle in their scenes together, and one of the movie's highlights comes when they are racing away from one of Bancroft's fashion shows with the bad guys in hot pursuit, and Ray, frustrated by the fact that Bancroft can't run in the impractical gown she was just modeling, picks her up and runs with her into the safety of a cab, after which she leans against him and says, "You're the most wanted man I know." This scene and line got laughs and applause at the screening I attended, but you could tell that people were laughing with the film and not at it.

This film is one of the highlights of the noir genre, and I highly recommend catching it if you get a chance.

Grade: A