Night Without Sleep

Six years ago, Gary Merrill was a rising composer whose career was about to be cut short because his Broadway show had run out of money before opening. Joyce Mackenzie came up with the money and now they are married and thoroughly miserable. Merrill can't write and drinks. After a blank night he wanders down to New York City to see his occasional girlfriend Hildegard Knef. He runs into Linda Darnell, who had been an unnoticed chorus girl in the show. Now she is a big Hollywood star, and still in love with Merrill.

It's an exercise in self pity, with everyone reciting overblown, self-pitying lines while Cyril Mockridge's ludicrously lush score plays in the background, and a terrible forgotten memory will destroy everything. It's complete tripe.

1952's "Night Without Sleep" is an obscure Fox 'B' that popped up on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater on February 28 1976, followed by second feature "Beginning of the End," the Bert I. Gordon cheapie about giant grasshoppers. The prospect of sitting through this snoozefest does indeed chill the blood, basically a feature length exposition centering on a once famous musician, now an unhappily married alcoholic who finds more camaraderie with his dog than with the numerous females in the cast. Star Gary Merrill made a career out of roles like this, especially on the Hitchcock teleseries, but never once raises the scale on the dramatic meter. Earlier on Chiller Theater was the even more obscure "Run Psycho Run," a 1965 melodrama that Merrill did in Italy, even tougher to find. In 1974, he and June Vincent would be reunited, again as husband and wife, on an episode of KUNG FU, "The Way of Violence Has No Mind." Any audience that braves "Night Without Sleep" may have trouble avoiding 90 minutes of boredom.

This is one of those obscure minor masterpieces that get sorted out for being not very sensational, but it is a highly developed psychological drama and thriller, Gary Merrill makes the most of it, and it is probably his best film. He wakes up five in the morning with a weird feeling of having killed somebody, but he can't remember whom. He tries to reconstruct what happened, he remembers his wife, who went away to Boston for her father's birthday, he remembers his meeting with Linda Darnell, whom he hadn't seen for six years, and he remembers his upsets with his other dame, Lisa Mueller (Hildegard Knef), who scolded him and had every reason to. But it was the Linda Darnell episode that made an impression on him, and it does indeed on the audience as well - this is romance at the highest possible level and the main charm and lasting impact of the film, which will make you want to go over it again, almost immediately, because it is so beautiful and well made, with the composer Gary playing for her his own music and all. It is very noir and hopeless, but the impression of its love affair will leave as lasting an impression on you as it does on poor Gary and Linda Darnell, who was never lovelier.

I don't really know where to start with Night Without Sleep. I began with thinking I'd give it 5 stars, but worked my way down to three. Maybe it deserves a four, but I was so bored with this film I stood my ground.

On the positive side, it starts out fairly well. And the ending is quite downbeat...qualifying it as a bonafide film noir (although it tries very hard to extricate itself from that description by turning into a melodrama). The cast is impressive and the Roy Baker directed many fine films.

On the flip side: It is a total bore. It's not that the script is amateurish, but it is very uninteresting at best. 77 minutes feels like eternity. Gary Merrill endlessly talks to himself - out loud and in his brain - and to his dog(!). Overall, the acting does nothing to save the film. There is some typical (for the era) psycho-babble and a racist line (delivered by Merrill).

Apparently, this was filmed in 3 weeks. That probably didn't help, but it doesn't feel like a bad B film. It feels worse.

Awaking one morning out of a drunken stupor, composer Richard Morton (Gary Merrill) can't shake the feeling he has murdered a woman during the night.

In a flashbacks as he tries to piece things together, we return six years ago Richard was a rising composer, however his career was about to be cut short because his Broadway show had run out of money before opening. Emily came up with the money and it's a loveless marriage as his wife just wants him to write a play for her own benefit. Merrill can't write and drinks. After a blank night he wanders down to New York City to see his occasional girlfriend Hildegard Knef. He runs into Linda Darnell, who had been an unnoticed chorus girl in the show. Now she is a big Hollywood star, and still in love with Merrill.

Night without Sleep is quite talky and drifts into a romantic interlude, however it's quite engaging, the dialogue is sharp and there's great performances all round - Gary Merrill stands out as a composer who feels used by the women in his life; he wants someone to appreciate him for himself, not for what he can do for them. Quite offbeat, it's an interesting thriller which ends sadly.