Somewhere In The Night (1946/Film Noir)
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: B Film: B+
In his sophomoric effort director Joseph Mankiewicz proves
how to turn a low-budget production into a Film-Noir classic. The atmosphere created in this film alone is
shear brilliance and helped forge this film to become a corner-stone in the
genre that would help set the pace for future filmmaking of it’s caliber. Highly influential the film would also be on
the ‘Blaxploitation’ genre of all things ironically in its person-to-person
approach.
The film centers around our main character, a soldier,
returning as so many did post-war to a ‘different’ world then what they
left. However, suffering from amnesia,
there is a possibility that our anti-hero main character could perhaps have
been involved in a murder case, but as he stumbles to recollect the pace of the
film is off and running with the hunt for a mere $2 million, plus enter our
damsel played by Nancy Guild as well as some gritty black and white photography
capturing our Los Angelos setting and the recipe for Noir is put into
place.
The film is along the lines of the more complex of Noir’s
and ranks as a highly involved piece that requires special direction in order
to pull it off well, in this case that is accomplished. Not only that, but the performances from the
B-cast is top-notch, which only helps place the film in a higher tier of
excellence. No doubt this film would establish
Mankiewicz and enable him to have a good relationship with Fox. He followed this film up with The Ghost
and Mrs. Muir, the classic All About Eve, and would have such clout
that by 1963 could demand the necessary means to make Cleopatra the
spectacle that it became, plus a highly expensive and over-the-top production
the likes of few studios have seen since.
Fox is truly keeping their mark of excellence high above
most studios at this point when it comes to their catalog of older titles and
their Film Noir series is a perfect example of this. We have enjoyed reviewing many of these titles and look forward
to more in the months ahead. The 1.33 X
1 full-frame image looks good with some minor dirt and scratches still apparent
on the transfer, but aside from that there is a superb balance of grayscale and
detail. Blacks look appropriately deep,
while whites are never overexposed and keep the definition in the print. Equally important here is Norbert Brodine’s
camerawork and his stamp on other films, including Film Noir’s like The
House on 92nd Street, reviewed on this site already, is well
noted.
Sound is also not a problem with a Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo and 2.0 Mono option making both purists and non-purists alike
happy. I prefer the Stereo just for a
little more breathing room with the sound design and despite Fox’s best efforts
there is a minimal amount of noise still left on the audio track that would
take loads of work to fully eliminate, but nothing that detracts from an
otherwise near-perfect example of great DVD producing. The Eddie Muller commentary track is great
and adds huge value to owning this disc, along with a funny theatrical trailer
that will make anyone crack up just because of the way they boost the films ego
like you wouldn’t believe. Like most
Noir’s the trailers are indeed worth seeing just to get a good laugh as how
silly they appear to be after all these years.
An ultimately good investment here!
- Nate Goss
