Nightfall (1957)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The suspense is sustained all the way to the last fall, and Hitchcock couldn't have made it better. It's an amazing maze of inrtigue, the protagonists themselves not really knowing what is going on, while the only one who knows everything doesn't say anything, as he has practically given up as deepest down in the mess. Only Anne Bancroft brightens up this very dark and hopeless situation constantly getting worse, and in addition she is here young and beautiful, especially when dressing up and acting for a fashion show. This is really the best scene of the film. Aldo Ray is credible enough as an all too honest victim resigned to the fact that he actaully can do nothing about the hopeless situation, while the gangsters are truly awful, the laughing one making himself even more abominable than Richard Widmark.The greatest asset of the film is the brilliant script, though. It's impossible all the time to guess what will happen next, as the whole film is a charade of surprises. But don't worry. In the end you will find that it all fitted together after all.

Nightfall sees an innocent man drawn into a crime and trying to get out from under. He is being followed by two groups – one is an insurance investigator looking into the theft of a large amount of money that he believes James has, the other group are the men who actually stole the money but misplaced it and now also believe that James has it. The film follows this thread, using flashbacks to fill in the details while also moving he story forward. It is a pretty nice device as it goes, because it allows a lot of action to be happening at the same sort of time in the film even if events were further apart at either end of the story.The downside of the flashback device is that it is trigger by James telling "love interest" Marie about his past; Marie doesn't seem to exist for any other reason than enabling this plot device to be used, so when she is not being used this way then she feels a little bit redundant as a character and does get in the way a little bit. Despite this though the film does have a good pace to it and, more importantly, I liked how mean it was. Although it is not graphic (or even shown) the violence is suitably cruel and mean-spirited at several points – I like this because it adds real danger to the film. Equally, the two criminals have a friendly callousness to them where they don't make a big deal out of murder – they do it with the same air as they would stop you to ask the time, it is nicely played and again it adds to the threat level.Ray plays against this well, he isn't overly moral or innocent and he has a bit about him. Bancroft is OK but mostly is just a device and, when not being that, she does the obvious love interest thing – she often breaks the tough feel since she never convinces as a woman drawn into this violence dangerous world. The villains are the best played for my money though, don't know their real names but both have a morally vacant friendliness that is quite chilling for the film and the period. Tourneur directs well to make the most of this threat and I liked the delivery and structure.In the end it is what it is and it does the job well. The plot is straightforward but the structuring makes it more interesting and well paced, while the tough edge is effective in giving the action a real sense of threat and danger that makes it more engaging.

The teaser I read for this movie called it "exceptional film noir". I take exception to that description. While beautifully filmed, this movie features a less than stellar performance by the lead Aldo Ray, who I found to be a bit wooden. I don't think he can carry a movie as leading man - unless maybe it was about a football player or wrestler. The rest of the cast does a nice job, and Ann Bancroft is young, lovely and talented. The biggest problem is the plot which gets worse the further along you go and climaxes in an unbelievable (not in a good way) and contrived ending, which if re-written, could have made this a pretty decent film.

Notwithstanding its very title, for his penultimate noir thriller (stylishly shot by the great Burnett Guffey), director Jacques Tourneur – who could easily lay claim to having made the quintessential example of this most beloved and influential of film genres, OUT OF THE PAST (1947) – largely abandons the safe familiarity of rain-swept Los Angeles night streets for the deadliness of blindingly white Wyoming snowscapes.Screenwriter Stirling Silliphant's adaptation of noted crime writer David Goodis' novel is well-served by a second team cast: Aldo Ray is an artist on the run from both police (who think he killed his older best friend on account of his young wife) and thugs (who think he made away with their $350,000 loot from a recent bank job); Anne Bancroft is the fashion model he takes it on the lam with after the usual "getting off on the wrong foot" start (she practically lands him into the villains' lap thinking they were policemen!); the bumpy and gradually explosive relationship between ruthless but level-headed robber Brian Keith and his trigger-happy partner Rudy Bond is spiced with several witty put-downs of one another and their quarry; finally, sympathetic insurance investigator James Gregory is forever leaving his understanding wife Jocelyn Brando for his quest of tracing the missing money (although, believing him innocent from the outset, his intention is more to protect Ray than to apprehend him).Beginning with an inappropriately upbeat and disposable title tune over the opening credits and unfolding in a complex flashback structure, the film is highlighted by four outstanding set-pieces: the car crash/murder incident in the snow that sparks off the whole narrative; one in which Ray is threatened with grievous bodily harm at an oil derrick until, eventually, he manages to escape his tormentors' clutches; a fashion show in which a costume-shifting Anne Bancroft warns an obliviously admiring Ray of the villains' presence at the same venue by running off with him in the latest creation she is exhibiting!; and, finally, the snowbound climax in which both thugs get their just desserts with a surprisingly grisly comeuppance reserved for Bond at the hands of an out-of-control snow plough!