Home Before Dark (1958)

Director Mervyn LeRoy's psychological drama follows recovering mental patient Charlotte (Jean Simmons)... See full synopsis »

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

Eileen Bassing (screenplay), Robert Bassing (screenplay),

Stars:

Jean Simmons, Dan O'Herlihy, Rhonda Fleming

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jean Simmons	...	Charlotte Bronn
Dan O'Herlihy	...	Arnold Bronn
Rhonda Fleming	...	Joan Carlisle
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	...	Jacob 'Jake' Diamond
Mabel Albertson	...	Inez Winthrop
Stephen Dunne	...	Hamilton Gregory
Joan Weldon	...	Frances Barrett
Joanna Barnes	...	Cathy Bergner
Kathryn Card	...	Mattie
Marjorie Bennett	...	Hazel Evans
Johnstone White	...	Malcolm Southey
Eleanor Audley	...	Mrs. Hathaway

Storyline

Director Mervyn LeRoy's psychological drama follows recovering mental patient Charlotte (Jean Simmons)... See full synopsis »

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel

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Taglines:

In the darkness she thought he was her husband!

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 January 1959 (France)

Also Known As:

Badz w domu przed zmrokiem

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,390,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The harsh winter in Marblehead, Massachusetts proved to be a problem when filming scenes outdoors. Equipment had to be de-iced quite often, and actress Rhonda Fleming took frequent breaks, complaining that her tongue was freezing.

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Soundtracks

"Some Sunday Morning"
(uncredited)
Music by M.K. Jerome and Ray Heindorf
Played when Charlotte and Jake leave the New Year's party

User Reviews

A devastating yet remarkably liberating experience

Charlotte Bronn (Jean Simmons), the wife of a college professor (Dan O'Herlihy), has been released from a State Mental Hospital only to return to the same environment that led to her breakdown. Adapted by Robert and Eileen Bassing from Eileen's novel of the same name and nominated for a Golden Globe in three categories, Mervyn LeRoy's 1958 masterpiece Home Before Dark is a devastating yet remarkably liberating exploration of a woman's struggle to achieve mental health. I first saw this film many years ago and I never forgot the towering performance of Jean Simmons or the film's shattering emotional truth -- that some people are simply incapable of showing compassion to those who are vulnerable. On a bootleg copy taped from television, I was able to revisit it again this week and it flooded my mind with memories of those days of turmoil.

The film is set in an upwardly mobile neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts. Charlotte has long suspected that her husband, Arnold Bronn, was secretly in love with her stepsister Joan Carlisle (Rhonda Fleming). But is unable to confront the fact that her husband does not love her, and slips into mental illness. After one year in treatment, she is released but goes back to face the same nagging suspicions and the same well-meaning but overbearing people including her sister Joan, stepmother Inez Winthrop (Mabel Albertson), and housekeeper Mattie (Kathryn Card). Charlotte does have some support, however, in the person of Jacob Diamond (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.), a visiting professor that is living with the family for one semester and has to confront anti-Semitic innuendoes at the college.

Diamond reaches out to Charlotte and provides some much-needed kindness but she has difficulty gathering the emotional strength to accept his support. She continues to blame herself for her illness and clings to the notion that her previous suspicions were delusions. Still unsteady and trying to please everybody, she buys a dress that doesn't fit and has her hair done to look like her stepsister Joan, then shows up at a dinner party out of control. Little by little, however, Charlotte begins to muster the strength to confront the truth and the film delivers its message without having to resort to the intervention of a hero-psychiatrist who makes everything right. Charlotte's growth is achieved through her own personal transformation and the payoff is deliciously worth the 136-minute length of the film. Sadly, the original negative of this great movie has been lost and Home Before Dark may never be released on DVD, a loss not only to cinema buffs but also to a world needing an injection of love and inspiration.