Nightfall (1957)

ridiculous rating

Memorable, crazy movie

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Aldo Ray, in case you didn't know, had 'it'. Big athletic tough guy with sensitive eyes and heart on both sleeves, and a sharp intelligence. In this noir he plays an artist pursued both by the cops and the crooks -- and Anne Bancroft leaps at the chance to hitch her wagon to the big lug with a nice face and trouble from all sides.Jaques Tourneur (Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie) directs with exceptional taste and restraint. All the actors are nicely human as they go through some pretty grisly stuff at a brisk pace.Brian Keith as the big bad guy plays him low-key and reasonable but not averse to torture if it works. Rudy Bond as his partner makes the wise-cracking sociopath genuinely funny thus ridiculously menacing.Ray is such a unique presence -- intuitive, always connected, soft raspy voice. He is in very good shape at this point in his career -- as is Bancroft -- a very interesting chemistry between them. Bancroft's take on the woman is grand -- he has her at hello, thus she's game for any number of perilous adventure to save him. Ray handles Sterling Siliphant's dialog with not one false move. 'Nice place. I'll try not to bleed over everything.' in lesser hands would be much lesser indeed. People who liked Ray (John Wayne et al.) liked him for his direct honesty -- which is probably why Hollywood knocked him around for a while without making him a huge star. And yeah the booze . . .

Nightfall sees an innocent man drawn into a crime and trying to get out from under. He is being followed by two groups – one is an insurance investigator looking into the theft of a large amount of money that he believes James has, the other group are the men who actually stole the money but misplaced it and now also believe that James has it. The film follows this thread, using flashbacks to fill in the details while also moving he story forward. It is a pretty nice device as it goes, because it allows a lot of action to be happening at the same sort of time in the film even if events were further apart at either end of the story.The downside of the flashback device is that it is trigger by James telling "love interest" Marie about his past; Marie doesn't seem to exist for any other reason than enabling this plot device to be used, so when she is not being used this way then she feels a little bit redundant as a character and does get in the way a little bit. Despite this though the film does have a good pace to it and, more importantly, I liked how mean it was. Although it is not graphic (or even shown) the violence is suitably cruel and mean-spirited at several points – I like this because it adds real danger to the film. Equally, the two criminals have a friendly callousness to them where they don't make a big deal out of murder – they do it with the same air as they would stop you to ask the time, it is nicely played and again it adds to the threat level.Ray plays against this well, he isn't overly moral or innocent and he has a bit about him. Bancroft is OK but mostly is just a device and, when not being that, she does the obvious love interest thing – she often breaks the tough feel since she never convinces as a woman drawn into this violence dangerous world. The villains are the best played for my money though, don't know their real names but both have a morally vacant friendliness that is quite chilling for the film and the period. Tourneur directs well to make the most of this threat and I liked the delivery and structure.In the end it is what it is and it does the job well. The plot is straightforward but the structuring makes it more interesting and well paced, while the tough edge is effective in giving the action a real sense of threat and danger that makes it more engaging.

Someday, this taut little noir will be acknowledged as the blueprint --- unconscious or not --- for Alfred Hitchcock's and Ernie Lehman's "North by Northwest." NxNW, released 2 years after Nightfall, features a number of strange similarities to Nightfall, too many to be considered coincidental.For starters --- 1.) Both films have protagonists who are "kidnapped" by hoods, and it appears that there are cases of mistaken identity or misunderstood information in both situations.2.) Both protagonists fight off the hoods and escape in a car.3.) Both protagonists appear to have been set up at some point by a beautiful femme fatale.4.) Both protagonists return to the femme fatale to demand an explanation.All right, perhaps one could argue that these 4 similarities are merely coincidental, or "standard thriller fodder." But wait -- there's more ! Both films also feature: 5.) An older, paternal "watchdog" or "shadow" who is aware of the problems of the hero, watches from afar, and yet eventually becomes involved in the chase process.6.) A shaving scene in a public washroom --- played for tension and then comic effect in NxNW, but as an opportunity for the older "shadow" to chat with the hero in Nightfall.7.) A scene in which the hero buys a ticket (bus in Nightfall, train in NxNW) in order to get to the bottom of the mystery.In both scenes, the whereabouts or destination of the hero is revealed to the pertinent authorities who are present at the stations. Also in both scenes --- we see the hero mostly head-on, to the left of the scene, while we see the ticket clerk mostly from the back, to the right part of the scene.8.) Romance and smooching between the hero and the femme fatale during a cross-country trip --- by train in NxNW, and by bus in Nightfall.9.) Chicago plays a major role in both movies.....and perhaps most revealing of all......10.) A very public scene in which both the hero and the purported femme fatale are placed in danger with the bad guys. Tension and comedy both are played out in each scene. There is even a "voice-over" in each scene --- the voice of the auctioneer in NxNW, and the voice of the fashion show emcee in Nightfall. IMDb poster hisgrandmogulhighness has uncovered these other similarities, some present in the original book Nightfall, by David Goodis, and some present in the movie Nightfall as well --- 11.) Hero in Nightfall is named Vanning; villain in NxNW is named VanDamm.12.) Both men, Vanning and Thornhill, through widely different circumstances, are wanted for murder . . . both, indirectly, cause the death of the victims . . . both, for whatever reason, leave the murder weapon at the scene of the crime, and, most conveniently for law enforcement, leave their fingerprints all over the murder weapon . . .13.) (In the book Nightfall and in the movie NxNW): Both men, Vanning & Thornhill, have a liquid forced down their respective throats in the houses the thugs have taken them.14.) (In the book Nightfall and in the movie NxNW): Both Vanning and Thornhill are in hotel rooms they're not registered for . . .While leaving the hotels, both are followed out by thugs, or a thug . . .Both are in taxicabs looking at the back of the head of the taxi driver . .15.) In the book "Nightfall," James Vanning is already using an alias, "Rayburn." In NxNW Thornhill takes on the trappings of the non-existent "Kaplan." 16.) . . . trout shows up in both works . . .Once you've watched both movies, these numerous plot similarities will become evident. The sheer number of plot similarities indicates that it is likely that Sir Alfred and / or Ernie Lehman used Nightfall as a skeleton, onto which they fashioned their masterpiece, NxNW. The fact that Nightfall has been out of the public eye for 40 years or so may explain why no one has yet caught up with one of the main sources of NxNW.Enjoy !(AJD)

In this Hitchcockian thriller, a good Samaritan becomes the target of vicious bank robbers who mistakenly think he has stolen their loot. This low-budget film noir is marvelously entertaining, with fine black-and-white cinematography and a good cast. Tourneur keeps things moving at a fast pace, maintaining the suspense at a high level. Although the beefy Ray does not necessarily look like everyman, he is surprisingly effective as a man at the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming unwittingly involved with gangsters. Equally good is Bancroft as a woman who joins him on his adventures. Keith is the level-headed goon while Bond is hilarious as his high-strung partner.