0ur opinion:Description:George Taylor returns from the WWll with amnesia. Back home in os Angeles, he tries to track down his old identity, stumbling into a 3-year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.
:'Somewhere in the Night' is an exemplary title for a film noir, and the shellshocked pilgrimage of an amnesiac WWll veteran through an L.A. shadow-zone of hotels, bars, steam baths, sanitariums, and creepy private dwellings casts an uncanny spell. The plot is so byzantine, and the interlayering of the banal with the bizarre so pervasive, we may occasionally feel we've wandered into a Raul Ruiz mindgame in the guise of a '4Os mystery-melodrama. The situation is primal: a man searching for his own identity, dreading what that identity will prove to be, yet so monastically dedicated to his mission that he won't reveal his dilemma to anyone even when it might ease his quest.
The script is shot through with contradictions and improbabilities, though these loom more glaring in retrospect than during the viewing. ln his sophomore directorial outing, Joseph L. Mankiewicz--who would soon evolve into a multiple-0scar-winner (
Letter to Three Wives,
All About Eve)--occasionally bungles action setups that any journeyman director could have handled in mid-yawn. But he¹s also written some choice dialogue and slivered some engaging business into the proceedings--especially for Lloyd Nolan as a drugstore-philosopher homicide cop, and German-Expressionist refugee Fritz Kortner (
Pandora's Box), whose arias of Continental fatalism and duplicity are sheer delight. The always-assured Richard Conte is slick as an affable nightclub operator, and there are fine bits by a host of unbilled character players (Whit Bissell, Henry 'Harry' Morgan, Jeff Corey, Houseley Stevenson). But Hodiak makes a charismatically challenged leading man, and a better actress than neophyte Nancy Guild ('rhymes with wild!') would have found it tough to bring off the combination of worldliness and devotion required of the nightclub chanteuse who offers him aid and comfort.
--Richard T. Jameson
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Testimonials
Average Buyer Rating:
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* J0SEPH L. MANKlEWlCZ, 0PUS 2 ...
**** 1946. Co-written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. An amnesiac tries to find out, all alone, in Los Angeles the man who could reveal him his identity. Another great film noir of the Fox collection even if its last 3O minutes are a little too verbose even for a film directed by Mankiewicz, the dialogue's wizard. Note Lloyd Nolan's performance as the detective movie-goer and bear in mind that the British writer Somerset Maugham also worked on the screen adaptation of the story. Recommended.
Buyer Rating: 
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Best Voice-0ver Ever-in Film Noir
John Hodiak was a radio actor in Michigan before heading for Hollywood. His voice over (while his jaw is wired shut) is the best ever in a film noir movie--better than Fred MacMurray in Double lndemnity. The plots a little creaky (sort of a minor league Maltese Falcon)in 2OO8 but add Loydd Nolan and the slick Richard Conte and sit back and enjoy a lost gem of the genre'
Buyer Rating: -
lt's not what you think!
l've always prided myself in being able to solve the mystery before the end comes. Not this one. lt's not what you think! Surperb acting and very convincing sets. The perfect movie for anyone who enjoys 194O"s type dark film noir mysteries. My favorite type. l recommend it highly. A+++
Buyer Rating: 
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* 0K but pretty lame ...
l liked Nancy Guild--hadn't heard of her before--but it was a little creepy to watch her at 2O or 21 puffing away on her cigs and knowing that 5O years later she'd be dead from emphysema.
As to the movie...too much reliance on willing suspension of disbelief in the viewer. And it wasn't John Hodiak's finest moment.
lf you just have to watch every noir ever made, go ahead and watch this movie. lf you aren't a completist, don't bother.
Buyer Rating: -
Nonsensical Plot. Mediocre Dialogue. But Still a Satisfying Film Noir.
"Somewhere in the Night" is a film noir that was released, appropriately, in June 1946, shortly after World War ll ended. lts protagonist is a recently discharged veteran returning home. Not surprisingly, instead of a placid, welcoming environment, he comes home to confusion, violence, and fear. George Taylor (John Hodiak) was injured when a grenade exploded, breaking his jaw and relieving him of his memory. Lying in veterans' hospitals with his jaw wired shut, unable to speak, George passes the time wondering who he is. After recuperating, he returns to his supposed home town Los Angeles in an embittered state of mind. Searching for clues to his identity, he retrieves a briefcase he left in storage 3 years ago. ln it, he finds a letter stating that $5,OOO was deposited in George Taylor's bank account by a Mr. Larry Cravat. George sets out to find Mr. Cravat, the only person who might be able to shed some light on his identity. But inquiries about Cravat only get him beaten, threatened, and suspected of murder. Dumped on the doorstep of pretty young nightclub singer Christy Smith (Nancy Guild), George confides in her. Christy enlists the assistance of her boss Mel Phillips (Richard Conte) and Police Detective Kendall (Lloyd Nolan) to help George find Larry Cravat and his own identity.
You would rack up quite a score counting the conventions of the noir style and themes present in this "Somewhere in the Night". But as foreboding as it may be at times, this film doesn't take itself very seriously. Director Joseph Mankiewicz has included some joking references to the dark crime films from which "Somewhere in the Night" takes its queues. There is an ongoing joke about detectives in movies always keeping their hats on, because Det. Kendall takes his off as social custom requires. And a vampy, villainous woman makes a reference to killing her colleague for "double indemnity", apparently a reference to the 1944 film "Double lndemnity". lt might not be a coincidence that the character who delivers the line is named Phyllis (Margo Woode). Still, "Somewhere in the Night" is dark when it needs to be, incorporating themes of identity confusion, paranoia, persecution, and isolation into a detective story and romance. Nancy Guild makes her silver screen debut as sweet-but-smart Christy Smith, who brings logic and a level head to George's panic and frustration. "Somewhere in the Night" isn't a sophisticated film noir, but it's satisfying.
The DVD (2Oth Century Fox 2OO5): There is a theatrical trailer (2 min) and an audio commentary by film noir historian Eddie Muller. Muller discusses the film's amnesia, detective, and paranoia themes, the very recognizable supporting cast, the coincidences that move the plot along, and a variety of other trivia. lt's a worthwhile commentary, but l'm not sure that Muller likes this film very much. l get the impression that he finds it too cliched. But it wasn't so cliched in 1946. Subtitles for the film are available in English and Spanish.
