Noche tras noche

Let's just get the best part of Night Unto Night out in the open: Ronald Reagan looks great in a uniform. He's very handsome, and when he smiles the entire screen lights up, but the movie isn't very good. He plays an epileptic recluse looking for peace and quiet, but when he rents a beach house from Viveca Lindfors, he doesn't find either. Viveca has mental problems and is grieving over her late husband, and her emotional outbursts are cries for attention. She and Ronnie share a romance, but it's difficult because of their own issues, and also because of her flirtatious, manipulative sister.

If you're a particularly big fan of Broderick Crawford, you might want to check this one out. He plays against type, an artistic intellectual who lends a sympathetic and wise ear to Ronnie's plight. I was watching it for the eye candy, and while I wasn't at all disappointed, I'm objective enough to realize any other Ronald Reagan movie could have done the trick. On paper, the plot is very interesting, as it discusses philosophy, mental illness, suicide, and the afterlife. However, Viveca was pretty irritating, as were the supporting characters, save Broderick. If the entire movie was just Ronnie and Brody talking, it would have been very good.

Stunning photography and Don Siegel's direction make the most of an unusual overly melodramatic story starring Ronald Reagan as a scientist with epilepsy who goes to south Florida on doctor's orders and meets a young woman, (Viveca Lindfors) recently widowed, who is haunted by the voice of her dead husband. Reagan rents her slightly dilapidated beach mansion and experiences several epileptic episodes, but tries his best to keep his condition a secret. Broderick Crawford's role as an artist who lives close by verges on annoying as he goes on and on about art and life. Ossa Massen gives the film a boost as Lindfor's scheming, jealous sister who tries seducing Reagan and later drunkenly blurts out his secret when she realizes that she can't have him. The concluding hurricane arrives just in time, with all the main characters assembled for dinner in the creaky old mansion, and Reagan pushed to verge of suicide by the shame of his medical condition, while Lindfors begs him to reconsider.

Someone missed the boat here, but I'm not sure where it all went wrong. Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp and Osa Massen star in "Night Unto Night," a 1949 psychological drama directed by Don Siegel.

The story concerns a scientist, John Galen (Reagan) who rents a house in South Florida owned by a widow, Ann (Lindfors) who believes she hears her husband's voice. She continues to mourn her husband and can't embrace life; Galen has been told he has epilepsy and has taken the house to work and try to deal with his situation.

Filmed mostly on sets, despite the beautiful cinematography, a lot of scenes look fake. The photography does give the film a brooding atmosphere.

There are some interesting metaphysical, "today" ideas tossed around in the script, but the dialogue is pretentious, not at all like normal people speak. Also, epilepsy here seems to be treated as almost a death sentence or at least a communicable disease. Perhaps back in 1949 that's how it was viewed.

Reagan, a pleasant actor, didn't have a great range and was much better in comedy. He seems miscast here, and the role didn't play to his main assets, which were charm and a genial presence.

Viveca Lindfors was brought over from Sweden as the next Ingrid Bergman; it came as a surprise when husband Don Siegel made a name for himself when he directed "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" when she was supposed to be the star. Despite being beautiful and a wonderful actress, she never made it to the top tier. The actresses who were part of the foreign influx post-war: Alida Valli, Valentina Cortese, Maria Schell, Hildegarde Knef, Mai Zetterling -- all met similar fates. Of all of them, Lindfors was the only one who stayed in America and worked, in film, television, and on the stage - until her death in 1995.

A bizarre film, with spirited performances by Lillian Yarbo, Rosemary DeCamp, Osa Massen, and Broderick Crawford.

In the wake of WW II, when so many lost so much, a story about the nature of death that offered hope for a spirit world, must have seemed appealing. In this, Don Siegel's second feature, a good cast giving strong performances, keeps interest alive. The moody atmospherics work very well, but there is some confusion in the script between the supernatural and epilepsy, which keeps this picture out of the "Rebecca," "Wuthering Heights" or "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" territory.

NIGHT UNTO NIGHT ('49) struggles to be a message film with something important to say about life and love--and does carry an unusual theme. However, despite the dramatic intensity in the performance of Swedish actress VIVECA LINDFORS (who looks radiant in all of her close-ups), no one else in the cast seems to be in the same picture. RONALD REAGAN seems to be sleepwalking through a role he clearly doesn't comprehend, displaying none of the emotional fireworks that Lindfors is capable of. He makes any notion of chemistry with Lindfors seem absurd. A stronger actor might have brought some credibility to his role of a botanist who keeps a dark secret from the woman he loves.

And unfortunately, the supporting roles are too colorless to add much to the proceedings. BRODERICK CRAWFORD is cast inexplicably as an artist in touch with "the truth" and OSSA MASSEN is a bit over the top in her drunken stupor as the jealous sister who reveals Reagan's dark secret to Lindfors at the height of a thunderstorm.

Could have been so much better with a tighter script and more emotional response from Reagan, but this is clearly not one of his better films at WB. Technically, the storm is a stunning sequence--too bad it isn't supporting a better script. Reagan redeemed himself later with some better roles at his home studio but this is clearly a dud.