A Night of Adventure

Tom Conway is a very successful defense lawyer, but he's losing his wife, Audrey Long, through lack of attention. She's enamored of artist Louis Borel, and he of her. They're in his studio where model Jean Brooks barges in. She's drunk, and accusing Borel of making love to her, of them being engaged. Borel and Mrs. Brooks leave. Jealous Conway enters the studio and they talk. She starts to brandish a gun and it goes off. Mrs Brooks is killed, and Conway exits post haste. Borel is charged with murder, and Miss Long calls on Conway to defend him.

It's a remake of HAT, COAT, AND GLOVE and is a rapidly moving courtroom drama. I found it to be an adequate B, but not enough to be terribly interesting on its own, except for questions about how this movie got past the Hays office, when Conway gets away with it scot free. True, it's an accidental death, but he is never identified, despite some courtroom antics that should have been noticed. With Edward Brophy, Addison Richards, Russell Hopton, and Emory Parnell.

This film is competently made and acted. No one can dispute that fact, but there is the problem. Its just competent. The excellent supporting cast is merely asked to do competent work, while capable of much more.

The leads, Conway and Ms. Long, while not really A-list actors, are also capable of more in the right role with the right production (for example Conway's work in Val Lewton films is excellent and perfect for him). But they are not asked to shine here and don't try to come up with chemistry between them. Instead, some sappy canned string music is used throughout all their romantic scenes together as a substitute for true romantic acting. I do believe it is the producer's or directors' fault, not the actors.

The courtroom activity rings true to me and I believe it is as a courtroom drama that this film succeeds. Succeed it does, but is relentlessly limited to "B" territory by the producers.

"A Night of Adventure", while rather standard and unimaginative, will hold your attention so you might want to view it if you are a fan of the actors involved. Fortunately none of the actors gives a performance that you could call less than "competent".

The film's title is obviously ill chosen since the word "adventure" implies excitement, suspense, and fun and there is none of the three in evidence in this half hearted effort to yet again reproduce the magic of "The Thin Man". Indeed, everything about this movie is third hand. Tom Conway is a poor man's George Sanders (appropriate, since they're sibs) who is a poor man's William Powell while Audrey Long is at least two removes from Myrna Loy. As for Crane Wilbur's screenplay, let's just say that it improves by the movie's being over scored so that a lot of it is drowned out. I could go on but I have exceeded the dreaded 600 character minimum which is 597 more than this dog deserves. (I'd have just written "ugh"). C minus.

Tom Conway, with his smooth, urbane air, plays Mark, a hotshot defense lawyer, whose busy schedule leaves little time for his wife, played by the lovely Audrey Long. Tired of waiting hours for him to show up for dinner, and other forms of benign neglect, the wife pursues a platonic relationship with Tony, an artist. Confrontations lead to someone getting killed, and Mark finds himself defending Tony against murder charges. Corrupt officials also figure into the mix. The court room proceedings have a nice blend of drama and humor. Plus, there's the always amusing Edward Brophy. At 65 minutes long, this movie is hard not to like.

This is a reductio ad aburdum that conjugal love is laudable and may be stronger than affairs ;the screenplay is pretty astute,since it blends two or three plots and the movie does not suffer for it;the long trial,for once,is not boring,and is not the moment when the lawyer hams it up;on the contrary,Tom Conway gives a restrained performance and the scene has plenty of suspense;in a small part,Nancy Gates almost steals the show,when she says she has never sworn ; a story of a defendant defended by his lover's husband ,it's not derivative for the time,and it is a pretty good thriller by Gordon Douglas,not Hitchcock,but worthwhile all the same.