I agree with another reviewer on this one. The premise was so ridiculous that it was almost enraging and for about the first half of the movie I wanted to see Carole Lombard suffer and get busted because she was such an idiot. Who needs a martyr like that, especially after the sister told her how much she hated nursing and didn't want to be a nurse?! This would be a good example of masochistic personality disorder, if the American psychiatric association hadn't eliminated that diagnosis from the DSM a couple of decades ago. I wonder if one of the rationales for nixing it was that it was a disorder almost exclusively observed in Hollywood movie characters. Despite these significant misgivings, Carole and the drama eventually won me over, and I have to admit I shed a few tears near the end when the nurses were bravely fighting the epidemic sickening the children of the village. I was nevertheless satisfied when Peter Cushing gave Carole a good dressing down. She responded by demonstrating her covert narcissism and repressed hatred of her sister with a pompous speech, then waltzed off into the figurative sunset with her soon to be doctor husband. It's a strange one, but I'm glad I saw it. Carole Lombard was a real treasure. Interesting that the "selfish" sister was played by Anne Shirley, the brat from Mildred Pierce.
Review of Vigil in the Night
