Mientras arde el fuego

I happened to catch this one on late night TV and was unable to switch it off and go to bed. The central character reminded me of Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' - how after committing the crime, his own guilt was more effective in punishing him than the efforts of the law.

While the acting tended to be very theatrical as was typical for the period, the camera work, sets and general appearance were above average and the plotting was tight and tension well maintained thoughout the film.

I gave it an 8.

Debate and confusion will always exist about when film noir starts and finishes, or if it should only appertain to one country. Importantly it will always be in the eye of the beholder, more so since many of the film makers back in the day didn't know they were making films that would soon become a film making style phenomenon.

On the Night of the Fire (AKA: The Fugitive) has everything a film noir lover could want. Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and adapted from F.L. Green's novel of the same name, film stars Ralph Richardson, Diana Wynyard, Romney Brent, Mary Clare and Henry Oscar. Plot has Richardson as Will Kobling, a Tyneside barber in the North East of England, who after spying an open window at the local mill, lets temptation get the better of him and climbs in to steal the money that will hopefully end his family's financial woes. On such impulsive decisions does life alter...

From the off the pic is exuding a period of working class Britain from days of yore! It's all brickwork and cobbled streets, of musky docks, gin houses, beat street coppers and sweat stained barber shops where graft and honest toil is the order of the day. Magnificently hovering over proceedings is a swirling score by Miklós Rózsa (Double Indemnity/Criss Cross) and Germanic cinematography by Günther Krampf (Pandora's Box/The Ghoul), with these in full effect and director Hurst firmly dealing in a mood of pessimism, this really becomes a picture not complying with any sort of code ethics.

The characterisations are superbly dubious, story is awash with folk who are quick to turn on a sixpence to meet their ends. There's hysterical alcoholics, shifty loners, a business man who is not beyond expecting sexual favours to pay off a debt. Added into the pot is murder, blackmail and the corruption of someone we could quite easily sympathise with, all this and the fire that smoothers the town in smog, water and floating burnt cinders. The backdrop is set in noirish stone, Richardson is superb, and then the devilish hand of noir fate steps in to not cheat lovers of the film making medium.

A bit stagy at times and the likes of Mary Clare are too hysterical with their acting - where the director should have reined it in - but small complaints for anyone interested in British Proto-Noir before it even had a name. 8/10

Will Kobling, a hard working barber, succumbs to a temptation that so many of us might given the right circumstances and sets in motion a devastating train of events. Brian Desmond-Hurst was not a great director but a very capable one and keeps the momentum going. The fickleness of the mob and the way in which gossip spreads like wildfire are very well depicted. This would be a far lesser film however and would not be nearly as effective were it not for the presence of Ralph Richardson as Kobling and Diana Wynyard as his adoring wife. They are both magnificent. Excellent cinematography by Gunther Krampf but the score by Miklos Rozsa is far too biblical. Judging by the preponderance of Cockneys one finds it hard to believe it is set on Tyneside!

If the only movie he had directed had been 1951's 'A Christmas Carol', Brian Desmond Hurst would have been a great director. Imagine my happiness to watch this movie and discover another great movie from the man.

Ralph Richardson is a barber in a poor street in an unnamed port city; wife Diana Wynard has just given birth to a daughter and money is tight. One evening, Richardson is walking through the street. He passes by a bank and spots a pile of cash. He hops through the window, grabs it, hops back out and goes home -- to a life that involves blackmail, murder, riot and suicide.

It's about two whiskers from straight film noir. Small man seeking a place in a decent society? Check. German Expressionist cinematographer? Check (it's Gunther Krampf, whose work on NOSFERATU was uncredited). Echoes of French Poetic Realism and doom? Check. It misses on a couple of points, like the presence of actual criminal masterminds, but it delivers on almost everything else.

Ralph Richardson is superb -- as he is in every role I've seen him in. For those who like to play spot-the-star, Glynis Johns has a role with two lines in her second year in the movies; she does has a credit at the bottom of the cast list.

Brian Desmond Hurst may have lived to 91 but he did not direct that many films - only 29. That said, THE FUGITIVE (aka On the night of the fire) remains one of his best and darkest efforts, rightfully ranking as one of Great Britain's earliest films noir.

Born in Northern Ireland, Hurst had the British authorities in 1936 prohibit his film OURSELVES ALONE from being shown because of its anti-British stance. The British government then banned his adaptation of Edgar Poe's TELL TALE HEART because it was "too horrible." So THE FUGITIVE attracted considerable attention from the British powers that be upon release... but got the approval certificate, despite being a tragedy of near Shakespearean dimensions.

Thankfully, Sir Ralph Richardson had a sound knowledge of, and flair for playing Shakespeare, so he delivers a performance that ranges from deadpan to love conveying eyes to a smile upon the death that releases him from a life robbed of happiness by his very surrender to the tempation of stealing.

Sir Ralph is ably seconded by Diana Wynyard as his devoted wife who, too, falls prey to the temptation of living beyond her means, prompting debts that she has to pay on pain of blackmail from the sinister figure of usurer Pilleger (brilliant show from Henry Oscar), a legally-backed businessman with a taste for classic music.

The law that Kobling (Sir Ralph) so wishes to avoid on the one hand, he takes into his other hand by taking Pilleger's life in an intelligently shot sequence to the tune of Pachelbel's Canon.

Superior cinematography from Gunther Krampf, born in the former Austro-Hungarian empire and with a background in German expressionism in films. The scenes with Henry Oscar and his gramophone are memorable.

The night of the fire of the original British title refers to a city fire that provides Kobling with an alibi, but deceit is something neither he nor his beloved wife can live with. Certainly no happy ending... but a honest one. 8/10.