Imbarco a mezzanotte

Despite a few effective moments, Muni unaccountably overplays in this film & Losey's direction is without his usual control and taste. The story, of a drifter in Italy, is incoherent and the characterisation, especially Muni's role, so scanty that it's difficult to understand motivation.

Paul Muni stowed away on a ship, and has just been thrown off in port. He has nothing but the clothes he wears and a gun. He's tired and hungry. Joan Loring wants to go to see the boy she yearns for fight in the ring, but she has nothing. Vittorio Manunta has lost the money for the milk. Their paths will cross on this dark night.

Joseph Losey was hit with the blacklist, and was in Italy, so he made this dark story about absolute poverty and an uncaring world. It's easy to read something dark and personal into the movie, and I don't think that's incorrect, but although he would explore the same things many times in his career -- alternating with purely commercial stuff like MODESTY BLAISE, this neorealistic effort is pretty raw in its attitudes. Like most of his work, I find it a chore to watch, although there's no denying its excellence.

"Stranger on the Prowl" is probably the one Losey movie most people haven't heard of. He made it largely on location in Italy in 1952 from a screenplay by Ben Barzman, (like Losey, Barzman was also a victim of the blacklist), and it gave Paul Muni a late starring role as a drifter on the run who strikes up a friendship with a small boy who comes to share his hiding place. Although technically an Italian film, it's in English and while hardly a masterpiece it's still a remarkable piece of work, a cross between Italian Neo-Realism and American Film Noir and it remains an essential part of the Losey canon.

It's a story the cinema has tackled many times with varying degrees of success. This one works in large part to the fine performances of Muni and Vittorio Manunta as the boy but mainly due to Losey's mostly unsentimental handling of the material and his brilliant use of his Italian locations. It may be difficult to see these days but it shouldn't be missed if you get the opportunity.

This is a unique film in many aspects. It is all Italian neorealism with an all Italian acting crew and filmed on location in Livorno after the war in the aftermath of the war with everything in ruins which only the small boys are at home in and can find their way in. But the director is an American, it is perhaps the oddest film by Joseph Losey, and the hunted man at large is Paul Muni perhaps also in his most unusual role, as a poor hungry man just looking for some bread and to get away by a ship. He happens to a small boy, they try to make it together, but justice is blind and after him, in the long run he has no chance, but the boy gets to understand him and actually pleads for him in the end. It is a very moving and human film, Paul Muni's sad looks and tired eyes could make anyone's heart melt, he is always excellent whatever kind of role he plays, and he had a great register, perhaps one of the greatest for an actor in Hollywood. It is a step down from Vittorio de Sica, it is more painful in depth and misery, but it is totally convincing. And all the Italian actors are perfect.

A drifter (Paul Muni) is kicked off a ship he'd been stowing away in and begins wandering around town. At the same time, a poor young boy named Giacomo (Vittorio Manunta) is sent by his mother to get milk. He doesn't have enough money and decides to steal it while the shopkeeper isn't looking. As he leaves the shop, he passes the drifter, who begins eating a piece of cheese. The shopkeeper objects, he grabs and silences her, and she dies. (heart attack?) Now both are on the run from the police and they stick together.

This was an interesting one. It's a sort of slice-of-life-in-Italy film, focusing on the poor and abused, who just happen to get embroiled in some very difficult circumstances. The story is decent, the scenery is nice, and performances are solid, including that of Joan Lorring as a woman who steals from her lecherous employer and is forced to pay for it his way. But it all kinda feels a little average and a bit too long. It has its moments, but there are no real big moments that grab you (save for the end, to a degree), and the empathy for, or interest in, the characters isn't strong enough to make the tension tense enough.

Certainly not Muni's best, nor Losey's, but still worth a look.