User reviews

Henry Fonda, Vincent Price and the film noir genre are reasons enough to see any film, and The Long Night did show a lot of promise. I didn't find that the The Long Night quite delivered enough, but it certainly has a lot of good things. It's very well made for starters, one of the most beautifully shot and visually atmospheric film noirs of the 1940s in my opinion. Dmitri Tiomkin's music is far from his best work with a lot of it sounding like re-arranged Beethoven(you decide whether you consider that a compliment, but it is very haunting and fits the film very well. But the high point of The Long Night was the acting. Henry Fonda gives an intelligently sensitive lead performance, and Barbara Bel Geddes- managing to look younger than she was- in her film debut is very touching as the love interest. Ann Dvorak is deliciously cynical, and Vincent Price is effortlessly ominous and smarmy as an utter sleaze-bag of a character(people will argue that he was at odds at the rest of the film but I rest the blame on the writing not Price). The Long Night does have faults though, the characters are not fleshed out enough to make me care for them(I would have cared more for Joe if the "when he's in jeopardy" scenario had been made less emotionally hollow and senseless), while the script is of rather rambling quality with Bel Geddes' final speech particularly contrived-sounding. The Long Night also lacks momentum pace-wise- well the final twenty minutes picks up a bit but comes too late- and the constant switching back from past to present and vice versa is enough to cause confusion. There are even some ideas like with Joe and Charlene's involvement with one another that are shoehorned in but not explained satisfactorily. So in conclusion, interesting for the cast and how it was made, but with stronger script and story execution it would've been less underwhelming than it turned out to be. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Henry Fonda goes through "The Long Night" after committing murder in this 1947 film noir directed by Anatole Litvak and also starring Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak and Barbara Bel Geddes. Fonda plays Joe, a returning veteran, now a blue collar worker who falls in love with young, pretty fellow orphan Jo Ann (Bel Geddes), only to come up against Price. Price plays Maximilian, a creepy magician with a show that features dogs and Charlene (Ann Dvorak). At first, Maximilian asks Joe to stay away from Charlene because she's his long-lost daughter and he wants better for her. From Charlene, Joe learns the truth - Maximilian is not her father, and she's attracted to his worldliness - though she claims to love Joe. Depressed, he turns to the sexy Charlene, his heart still with Jo Ann. During a fight in his apartment, he shoots Maximilian, and spends the entire movie under siege in his apartment as he relives in flashback and flashback within flashback what led him to this moment.

Litvak, a talented director, stages this film in an interesting manner - it begins with a blind man (Elisha Cook Jr.) stumbling across the body of Maximilian in the hallway of the apartment building where he lives. Joe will not leave his room, and the police work throughout the film to get him out. The photography and direction capture the darkness and drabness of Joe's surroundings, the cheapness of the nightclub where Maximilian performs, and focuses a harsh light on Charlene's room and Charlene herself.

Despite all of this great style, the film has a cheesy quality; the characters aren't really likable except for poor Joe; and the motivations of the characters aren't fully fleshed out, so the story ultimately doesn't make it. The acting is very good - Fonda shows us some still waters that run pretty deep in an excellently crafted performance. He's sexy as all get-out, too, when he lays down on Charlene's bed and smiles. Dvorak does a great job as a brittle Charlene, and Price is a complete sleazebag as the cruel Maximilian. Bel Geddes is incredibly young - this is her first film, and though she was 24 or 25, she looks and acts about 18, which is appropriate for this small-town, inexperienced girl.

"The Long Night" has some interesting elements, but because of a spotty script, we're not invested enough in the film for it to be really intriguing or exciting.

I've never seen the original French film upon which this film was based, but I can tell you I kept waiting for a plot line payoff that never came. It has everything going for it - solid cast giving good believable performances, good direction, even a good speech that Fonda's character delivers from this broken out window as he is under siege by the police that gives us some insight into what it's like for an average guy who has returned home from years of killing and seeing killing in the war expected to pick up where he left off. But ultimately, I never see anything that Fonda's character, factory laborer Joe Adams, has been put through as far as shock or emotional torment or even disillusionment that would justifiably cause him to kill a man. Is Vincent Price's character Maximillian eloquently taunting and creepy? Yes, and in a way that Price excelled at over the years starting in noirs and proceeding on into his horror films. However, at no time does he do anything that would drive anybody to do more than shoo him away or stuff earplugs in their ears or possibly call the ASPCA (You'll have to watch the film to understand this last remark). I'm giving this film a five just for the fact that I believe the production code is the reason any hard edges that seem to be just under the surface never appear. I'm almost positive the script would have gone further if the censors would have allowed it to be so.

The real point of interest to me was the action of the police, who behave a lot like the fascists that Joe Adams spent years fighting in WWII. Sure they have a murderer holed up in his rented room, but he's holding no hostages, they've emptied the building, and still they spray him twice with automatic gunfire unannounced - once from the outside into his window, then from the stairwell into the door. When he pushes a sturdy dresser against the door and they realize they can't force their way in THEN they try talking to Joe, starting with the line "We're not fooling"?? No kidding! After Fonda's speech to the crowd, once the crowd starts voicing their support for Joe and promising financial help with a lawyer the police form a line and practically trample the crowd forcing them out of the street. I don't know if the heavy handedness of the police was something that Litvak wanted the audience to notice, but it was something I noticed.

I'd recommend this one just for the good performances and atmosphere and some imagery you don't see that much in films immediately after WWII, but don't expect something shocking or even interesting to happen just because of all of the talent assembled here.

I wouldn't say The Long Night is a great film, and if anything it only peaks my interest more to see how much more classic the film it's based on is- Marcel Carne's La Jour se Leve. But for the time it ran, I was mostly glued to the screen, and got wrapped up in the plight of Henry Fonda's character Joe, and his predicament of his downfall from normalcy. It probably isn't very original, taking aside its connection with the French source; it's about a factory worker, very nice guy, who falls in love with a woman whom, he finds out, was an orphan just like him. But one night he follows her to a bar, sees her cavorting sort of with a sleazy magician (Vincent Price), and his perfect image of her is shattered, and grows only darker after he meets him (he first tells Joe he's her father, which is a truly great scene between two huge stars of classic film), and when she tells him about her history with him.

While I could never take my eyes off the screen, it should be said that for all of the strong craftsmanship with the picture (it's one of the finest photographed 'noirs' of the late 40s, especially for those stark scenes of Joe alone in his room with the whole town on the street calling for him) and for all of the tremendous talent in front of the camera- besides Fonda and Price, who the former it's a splendid and rewarding if not best-ever performance and for the latter a triumph of playing sneaky and villainous, the girl playing Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes) is very good- it only works up to a point. I was engrossed the most in the last twenty minutes or so, as the film revved up its pace and tempo to the "will Joe or won't Joe" beat. Before that, it's many scenes that mostly rely on the presence of the actors to uplift the material past the breezy and conventional air of the dialog. There's nothing especially "wrong" with the material, but it doesn't go anywhere aside from hitting its main points.

The Long Night is something of a minor lost marvel- only recently did it come out on DVD in an OK print- and for Fonda and Price fans its a can't-miss kind of picture. Just don't go expecting anything that will change your perception of what film-noirs can go that don't go for the easy routes.

A remake of Marcel Carnes French film Le Jour Se Leve, with excellent performancies, Henry Fonda is very good in the leading role and Vincent Price at his smarmiest. Barbara Bel Geddes makes a very good debut as movie actress. The director Anatole Litvak have done the film with great flair, it has a nice feel to it and is interesting and dramatic. I think this film is very underrated and should receive more attention than it does, Sol Politos camerawork is very interesting and give some scenes a claustrophobic feeling with his use of light and shadow. If you like atmospheric, dramatic noir dramas I can recommend this one.

Holed up in his apartment after committing a murder, a depressed war veteran engages in a gun battle with the police while reflecting on the circumstances that led to the situation. It sounds intriguing on paper, but the script is rather sloppy, featuring flashbacks within flashbacks. It's basically an uninteresting story with dull characters. Fonda tries to make something of his role, but is given little to work with. Bel Geddes makes an impressive film debut, and Dvorak and Price are also fine, but they are all let down by the screenplay. Litvak has made better films, but here his staging of police work and the shootout is poorly executed.

Maybe one of these fine days I might get to see the French film, Le Jour Se Leve that The Long Night is based on that starred Jean Gabin and Arletty. Just reading the user comments from that board kind of tells me where The Long Night went wrong.

Henry Fonda for one thing is horribly miscast in this film. This was a part better played by someone like John Garfield or Montgomery Clift. Either of those two might have better showed the angst that Fonda was feeling as Vincent Price ruins the woman of his dreams.

The title The Long Night refers to Fonda holed up in a fourth top floor apartment after he shoots Vincent Price. The film opens with Price staggering out of Fonda's room at the boarding house and falling dead at the top of the stairs. The police investigate and Fonda shoots at them. They settle in for a long siege overnight. The reasons that led up to the homicide unfold in flashbacks.

Price plays a Snidely Whiplash type villain. He's a nightclub entertainer with a magic act. Ann Dvorak is his many times around the track assistant, not a few of those times with Price and Barbara Bel Geddes is the young girl who Fonda falls for but Price seduces. Price overacts outrageously to cover the script defects.

The problem with adapting Le Jour Se Leve to the American cinema seems to be the Production Code still firmly in place. What they could show in France, they could not show here. Made for an absurd plot.

This and The Fugitive are Henry Fonda's two flop films in his post World War II period before going to Broadway and Mister Roberts. I'm sure he would love to have forgotten The Long Night.

I just have to say... It seems as though every negative comment about this film starts out with "this is a bad REMAKE of..." Surely, I suppose it's nearly impossible to view THE LONG NIGHT as itself when you have already seen Marcel Carne's 1939 flick (and maybe even harder if you have created within yourself a dedication to anything foreign, slightly obscure, or non-Hollywood). The great thing about this movie, if one can get over the remake aspect of it, is that it is truly LOADED with great things! The set design and artwork are fantastic! Tiomkin's music is, once again, a fine creation! Polito's cinematography, camera work, and use of light are brilliant! Sure, the great story is, for the most part, taken from somewhere else, but the screenplay by the great John Wexley is excellent. I might be reading a bit to much into this, but I saw working class heroism, touches of popular justice, and just a hint of bourgeois deceit. The latter showed in the fantastic performance by Vincent Price as his character continued to try to sell a fantasy to Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes) by means of magic and falsehood. All in all, I think this one is just like any good work of art: if you put a little into it, you can get a lot out of it.

I don't like remakes--and that is why I waited so long to watch "The Long Night". Originally it was a dandy French film ("Le Jour Se Leve") and I saw no reason to redo the film, as the original was quite good. And, after seeing it, I stick by my original opinion--there just wasn't a need to make this remake. However, I can understand why they made it, as folks in the States back in the 1940s did not watch foreign films--and when they saw this American version, it did seem original. But now with DVDs, Turner Classic Movies and Netflix, you should just stick with "Le Jour Se Leve".

The film is a talky picture about a brooding guy (Henry Fonda), his sweetie-pie (Barbara Bel Geddes) and a completely bizarre blabber-mouth (Vincent Price). Fonda and Bel Geddes are in love but Price is determined to break them up--and push Fonda to the breaking point. The story is told through flashbacks and is similar to the Jean Gabin film--without the film noir camera-work and lighting. Also, the American version comes off as much talkier--much. All in all, not a terrible film at all--but not the 9 that the other film deserved when I rated it a couple years ago.

I've seen bad movies. This is not a poorly made movie. But it's bad nonetheless.

Why? I asked myself as I sat through it, never bored for one minute. The black and white cinematography is often quite good. The acting, at least Henry Fonda's and Vincent Price's, is good, given what they had to work with.

The script, certainly, is terrible. Far too many things don't make sense. At the end, when all those men down below are calling up to Fonda saying that they're his friend and that they will help him, you remember that in all that preceded the end he had been shown as a loner with no friends. Where did all those very devoted friends come from all of a sudden? And how could Barbara Bel Geddes' character be so naïve as to go on trips with a man who had "forced his affections on her"? There is a limit to innocence, after all.

I kept having the feeling that there was a LOT of script that had for some reason never been shot, that we were missing out on a lot of details that would have made sense of some of what remained.

I honestly can't think of any reason to recommend this movie to anyone. I very much like Anatole Litvak's better movies - that's why I rented this one - but even so I found this very disappointing. Maybe if you're a fanatic about b&w cinematography you could ignore the plot and just watch the picture. Best to turn off the sound if you do.

I can't imagine why anyone would have made this movie, nor how anyone could have imagined it stood any chance of making any money.

Postscript: Having now seen the French original on which this movie was very closely based, Le jour se lève, I understand the reason the script of the American one so often makes no sense: puritanism. In the French movie, the young woman, Françoise, has evidently had an on-again, off-again affair with the animal trainer (Vincent). Jean Gabin's character, the one played by Henry Fonda, finds out about it. In fact, he shoots the animal trainer (Vincent Price's character) when this latter threatens to tell him about their sex life together.

The French movie is very beautiful, a real masterpiece. Everything makes sense. Including the end, which is the one thing they completely changed for the American version. I won't spoil the French movie by telling you what it is, but I will say that it is both very powerful and astoundingly beautifully filmed.

Don't waste your time on The Long Night. Yes, there are some good touches in it, but by the time they have taken all the sex out, what remains makes no sense. See Le jour se lève. It's a powerful masterpiece.

And if you have seen The Long Night, make SURE you see Le jour se lève. The very different end will overwhelm you, as it just did me.

This is an example of a very BAD remake.Proof positive that great actors and good directors do not necessarily mean good work.You have got to bear in mind that Carné/Prévert's "Le JOur se Lève" was made in 1939 at a time when France was not smiling .The movie was so depressing it was quickly forbidden by the military censorship (see my review of the French film for more details).The movie was an exact reflection of its time.Out of that context it's another melodrama.Besides,deprived

of Prévert's lines -when a poetic dialog is translated into another language,there's always a problem- it loses much of its appeal)

Although one of the best actors in American cinema,Henry Fonda could not succeed in Gabin's plebeian part.Ann Dvorak is the most adequate choice since her swagger imitates Arletty's.

And who could forgive the new ending?

The Long Night is a partially commendable knock-off of Max Ophuls outstanding 1939 Jour se Leve (Daybreak). With fine performances coming from the four principles and cinematographer Sol Polito's superb camera work it remains a gripping suspense most of the way before collapsing under the weight of its mawkish Hollywood ending.

Vet Joe Adams ( Henry Fonda) meets Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes) down at the plant and bond immediately as former orphans. A romance ensues but an unctuous travelling magician, Maxmillian the Great ( Vincent Price) is determined to have her to himself. Max, using the sleaziest of tactics makes Joe snap and he shoots Max before holding up against the law in his top floor apartment.

Told in flashback, Fonda delivers his typical man of conviction and incertitude found in his best 40s work. A perfect example of isolation ( cold eyes, bony features ) and captured perfectly in the shadowy confines of his apartment by lens man Sol Polito, the film's finest asset delivering both interesting angles as well as a challenging light in shots that at times threatens to go pitch black. Daring for its time an unseen until decades later in some classics ( Apocalypse, GF2) Polito

Anatol Litvak's direction gets mired in some heavy melodrama along the way but Bel Geddes displays a wonderful touching Joan Fontaine like innocence while Ann Dvorak matches her with a cynical world weary turn as Max's assistant. Price steals the picture though as the low life Max as well as get the best lines, excusing his callousness to others with " Am I to be blamed for having a superior imagination."

An excellent looking, uniformly well performed film that allows the melodrama to pull the plug and shut off the power.

This is certainly an entertaining piece of film. It does have a bit of time getting to the point and Fonda's character is unyielding to a fault. Vincent Price has made the mistake of not only winning, but feeling the need to rub someone's face in it. He did seem a bit surprised when Fonda shot him. The movie is told in several flashbacks and works pretty well. Barbara Bel Geddes is pretty emotional. Why are movie guys so stuck in sacrificial mode. The guy had to know that the authorities had no choice but to arrest him and possibly shoot him. Unless his lower class status was so overwhelming, it seems he would have had a reasonable chance. Anyway, it's a tense little piece of entertainment. Cagney might have been better, but Fonda's big sad eyes fill the bill.

When I went to my local library to check some DVDs, I stumbled onto this obscure flick that starred Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes (in her film debut), Vincent Price, and Ann Dvorak. With that cast (I just remembered that Elisa Cook, Jr. has a memorable role as a blind man here), with Anatole Litvak as director, and Dimitri Tiomkin conducting his score (as well as some Beethoven pieces spread among it), I expected an excellent suspenseful movie and I got it! Well, maybe nearly so since the speech Ms. Bel Geddes says to Fonda at the end is obviously contrived to address the audience as well as the leading character about the faith of people. Otherwise, the dialogue was mostly spot-on especially the heated exchanges between Fonda and Price who, as usual, is absolutely charming even in his creepiness. And Ms. Dvorak marks a nice contrast with her cynicism as compared with Ms. Bel Geddes' optimism. Fonda himself goes the full range of emotions whether during the flashbacks or his present condition of being holed up in his apartment while the police are waiting outside. So for all that, I highly recommend The Long Night.

If you ever wanted to know what happened to Tom Joad, you might want to see this sorta OK film. Apparently Tom has found himself a menial, but steady, factory job, and, suffering still his usual vices, and short tempered, sorehead, violent ways, finds himself once again at odds with authority. The film seems shorter than it is, and that helps.

It's too bad THE LONG NIGHT couldn't have been a short one.

This is a disastrously dull movie with HENRY FONDA and BARBARA BEL GEDDES both playing implausibly motivated people who fall in love at first sight. Fonda plays another one of his "everyman" roles but is more of a lost puppy than usual in this depressingly dark noir directed without his usual style by Anatole Litvak.

The first twenty-five minutes had me wanting to switch the movie off, it was so poorly constructed. I found it impossible to watch the whole thing.

If any kind of film noir is your thing, you may stick around to see the whole movie. I found it a frustrating waste of time and certainly not a film that Fonda or Bel Geddes should be proud to have on their resume.

Perhaps this film isn't as appreciated by some because its a remake of Le uour se lève, considered by Sight and Sound magazine as one of the greatest films ever made.

I've not seen that film. But, I've seen this one and love it.

Sure, it's littered with Hollywood 1940s melodrama, but that's part of the art form.

Marvel at the performance of Henry Fonda as a lovelorn, working man drive to jealous rage.

Admire the screen debut of Barbara Bel Geddes as an innocent woman guilty of only being seduced by a lying cad.

Take in Vincent Price as the scheming Lothario.

And applaud the direction of Anatole Litvak and cinematography Sol Polito which perfectly captures the mood of the tragic story.

I'm going to now read the negative reviews of this film to better understand why it's not as beloved. But I will not waver. The Long Night is a short ride through a cinematic masterpiece.