# Somewhere in the Night (1946)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT(director/writer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz; screenwriter: From story "The Lonely Journey" by Marvin Borowsky/Howard Dimsdale/Lee Strasberg; cinematographer: Norbert F. Brodin; editor: James B. Clark; cast: Richard Conte (Mel Phillips), John Hodiak (George Taylor), Lloyd Nolan (Lt. Donald Kendall),Nancy Guild (Christy Smith), Fritz Kortner (Anzelmo), Margo Woode (Phyllis), Houseley Stevenson (Conroy), Lou Nova (Hubert), Josephine Hutchinson (Elizabeth Conroy), Charles Arnt (Little Man), Sheldon Leonard (Sam), Harry Morgan (Bath Attendant), 1946)

    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A dark, moody noir tale about a marine who gets blown up by a grenade in the South Pacific during a squirmish in WW11 and survives, only to become an amnesia victim. He is released from duty by the marines, only knowing that his name is George Taylor (John Hodiak) and that he's from Los Angeles, but without treatment and without them knowing about his amnesia. He has earned the Purple Heart and seems like a tough hombre, willing to take chances.

He tries to piece together who he is with the only two leads he has to go on: his name and a letter found in his wallet from a girlfriend who is dead, telling him how much she hates him. In Los Angeles, he finds another letter in a briefcase, stored in a train station terminal, that is signed: your friend, Larry Cravat, telling him that $5,000 has been deposited in the name of George Taylor at the bank. There is also a gun in the briefcase. He realizes that he will probably find that he was not a very nice guy, but continues the search to find himself, anyway.

At the bank, he arouses the teller's suspicion when he tries to make a withdrawal and flees. He then goes to a Turkish bath because of the heading on the stationary on one of his letters and tracks down a nightclub his dead girlfriend worked in nearby. At the nightclub he is set-up by the bartender and has two thugs go after him. He escapes into the dressing room of one of the club singers, Christy Smith (Nancy), and sees the photo of his dead girlfriend signed by her, as he steals the photo and leaves behind his current hotel address. It turns out Christy was best friends with her and tells her how her heart was broken by Cravat, who stood her up at the altar, and she was so depressed, that she didn't look up when crossing the street and a car ran her over after she gave up waiting for him.

When he returns to his place, he finds someone named Phyllis (Margo) waiting for him by the door who tries to get some information from him. When he leaves his place after his visit with Phyllis, he is forced into a car by a strongarm giant named Hubert (Nova) and a German accented man named Anzelmo (Fritz). They beat him silly, trying to pump him for information about Larry Cravat, but to no avail. When they are through with him, they dump him in Christy's place, the only address they find on him, where she patches him up and he levels with her that he can't remember anything. It is love at second sight for her, as she decides she believes him and offers to help.

The help comes from her amiable tough-guy nightclub boss Mel Phillips (Conte), who introduces him at a Chinese restaurant, under a false name, to Lt. Donald Kendall (Lloyd Nolan). But the cop figures it out whom he is talking to, and he leaves a note with Phyllis' address on Christy's car. Phyllis leads Taylor to Anzelmo's place, who it turns out, is a small time chiselling fortune teller and she is his assistant. They all lay their cards on the table and Taylor learns that Cravat got his hands on $2 million dollars, money smuggled into this country by a Nazi, and that somehow the fortune teller knew about this though he never met Cravat. The problem was the Nazi died and a trail of bodies followed, as that money and Cravat are still missing. It is also learned by him that Cravat is wanted for murdering a man and the last one to see him with the money was the one Cravat supposedly murdered.

The chase will become even more suspenseful now, as Taylor visits a man (Houseley) who witnessed the murder but who was immediately run over with a truck, only to survive and be placed as a mental case in a private sanitarium, where he is allowed no visitors and is not able to recall anything. Taylor's chase will take him through the dark night, as he hits the sanitarium, the spooky dock area, the missionary shelter, and to the bar where he finally learns everything he needs to know by having a showdown with Cravat's silent partner, the one who killed the other person on the dock and is now trying to cover his back.

Mankiewicz does a nice job of creating the dark noir mood. The film is laden with comedy, excellent performances, plenty of suspense, plus a voice-over by John Ireland, and it manages to keep the pot boiling with a quintessential amnesiac story.

    REVIEWED ON 6/3/2000     GRADE: B-

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

    ozus@sover.net

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