Night Into Morning (1951)

Very best movie i ever watch

Lack of good storyline.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Ray Milland had plenty of experience coming off as a drunkard in this 1951 film from his 1945 Oscar winning performance in "The Lost Weekend."As an English professor, College secretary Nancy Davis, runs in to inform him in front of the class that his house exploded. Of course, in this type of situation, he would have been called out privately. He is devastated by the loss of child and his wife.Milland is again terrific as always. While he descends into heavy drinking, he is still able to maintain his position, though he becomes an embittered and quite nasty at times. As the secretary who is sympathetic to his plight, because she lost her husband to World War 11, Nancy Davis is marvelous here and it's probably by far the best performance she has given on screen. John Hodiak plays a member of the faculty who is involved with Davis, but feels threatened by her overly sympathetic embrace of the Milland character.It is only when he is involved in a car accident helped by his not being sober does Milland come to grips with the problem and speaks in a memorable way to his outgoing class at term's end.

Although Night Into Morning gets a bit overwrought at times in most of it Ray Milland hits the right note as the college English professor just overwhelmed with the tragic accidental deaths of his wife Rosemary DeCamp and his young son in a furnace explosion in their house. The pain gets so bad that Professor Milland has many a lost weekend because of it.Helping him through the crisis are fellow faculty member John Hodiak and department secretary Nancy Davis try to keep Milland grounded. Davis is a war widow and she held on to the memory of a husband killed in the Pacific for quite a bit, she's come to terms and hopes Milland does the same. Hodiak and Davis are an item, but Hodiak is afraid that Davis just might be going a bit overboard in her concern, that she's falling for Milland and putting their relationship in danger.Lewis Stone has a small role as chair of the English department. I was surprised he was not used more, possibly a Judge Hardy moment with all three of the leads. Jean Hagen has a small memorable role as a cheery woman in the next apartment who has a most interesting scene with Milland. Can't say more, you have to see it.Those stages of grief we go through, Milland just can't let himself go. But when he does you know it will work out.Leads and supporting cast bring home a winner in Night Into Morning, a textbook study in grief.

A realistic look at the sorrow and despair that most human beings suffer after a sudden and horrific loss. This is a mature Ray Milland who suffers the loss of his wife and son in a home explosion. His grief is so raw that it overwhelms even those of us watching his spiral into darkness. He finds solace in alcoholic slumber only to wake and find it was not a dream but stark reality. This is not the story of an alcoholic as in his award winning role as Don Birnam in the Lost Weekend. Birnam was lost because of his disappointment in himself, not in grief over the loss of his loved ones. Milland once again proves he was a terrific actor, who could swing from crazy comedy to the depths of reality. Only after Nancy Kelly, who has also suffered a loss, comes to find him on the ledge of a building ready to jump, does he finally break down the shield of false bravado. An outstanding performance from Milland again.

With an unusually moody script by Karl Tunberg and Leonard Spigelgass, this must be one of the gloomiest films ever made! Admittedly, it's well directed by Fletcher Markle, although Ray Milland's portrayal of the bereaved professor is somewhat overwrought. On the plus side, the screenplay is more literate than the usual Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offering and Markle does ensure that the atmosphere of a small university town is effectively conveyed. The support cast led by John Hodiak and Nancy Davis is fine, and it's good to Lewis Stone, Dawn Addams, Jean Hagen and company. Also helpful for creating the right ambiance are the sets created by art director, James Basevi. The use of the clock tower as a recurring symbol is dramatically presented with fine aerial photography and eye-catching camera set-ups. Also unusual by M-G-M standards is the use of off-screen sound effects in the fire sequence – a notion by writers Karl Tunberg and Leonard Spigelgass that is chillingly effective.