During One Night

Gifted workhouse director, Sidney J. Furie's palpably bizarre wartime morality play about an especially 'sensitive' captain in the USAF, and his singularly fraught Journey to lose his virginity before a final bombing run, climaxes awkwardly after a series of uncommonly strange happenings! 'During One Night' is demonstratively not great cinema, yet it is, arguably, not an entirely objectionable film either, since it fortuitously errs all-too tantalizingly into proto-John Waters, Ed. Wood Jr. WTF territory. With only a modicum of irony, I earnestly claim that it merits a cautious recommendation for those twisted cineastes who savour the more esoteric elements of forgotten cinema! And, Holy Bromide!!! For the not-yet swinging 1961s, the weirdly didactic potboiler proved to be a remarkably racy one; and should anyone have longed to witness eternal English Rose, Susan Hampshire desultorily disrobing during a 'romantic' tryst in a bucolically-imagined, salaciously straw-slathered studio/barn, well, needfully yearn no longer, because Furie delivers said frisson-inducing titbit with a laudable lack of taste!

While Sidney J. Furie's moderately compelling cinematic oddity, 'During One Night '(1961) aka 'Night of Passion' remains a curate's egg, and stodgy lead actor, Don Borisenko, is stultifyingly imbued with all the electrifying screen presence of day-old semolina pudding, miraculously, the pleasantly naive drama's inadvertent lapses into wholly unexpected mondo movie eccentricity proved fitfully amusing!

Thanks to British television I saw this gem of a film. A War film it shows the terrible anxiety of those engaged in it, but also it deals with both male emasculation ( due to a war wound ) and to the sexual impotence of a fellow air force pilot. It shows the emasculated soldier begging for suicide, and Don Borisenko, his sexually impotent partner in the plane, going with a ' kind ' prostitute who tries to arouse him sexually. Failing he learns of his friend's suicide and in a pub meets up with Susan Hampshire who gently ' helps ' him. A rarity this film was originally cut in the UK ( what's new ? ) and poorly distributed. Even now it is a disliked film, and was poorly rated recently in a certain famous British TV magazine. It is a study of male sexual distress and of course this is not exactly a subject often aired. There is no jingoism about WW2 and that was still expected even in 1960. Quite simply the young man played brilliantly by Borisenko does not want to die before he experiences sexuality and no more spoilers. Psychologically it is a tragic film and as Borisenko says sadly ' boys are different '. His sexual need accompanied by loving tenderness is the core of the film, and the camera is honest in showing the mental distress he is in. Don Borisenko was a real find for cinema but cinema should have given him much more than it did. His acting with Susan Hampshire is full of wonderful moments and the film is about the very natural need for the right kind of sexual intercourse with the right person. Shame on those who consider it either dated or somehow distasteful. Furie directs with sensitivity and the power of many images are amazing.

It's World War II. The American pilots are gathered inthe hospital to see if Graydon Gould will survive. He will, but he won't have any children. He asks Captain Don Borisenko to get him something sharp. Borisenko refuses, but he's got only one mission left before he's rotated back to the States, and it puts the heebie-jeebies into him. He takes a 4-hour pass and tries to get rid of his virginity with a professional, but it's too stressful him to perform. He goes to a bar, and overstays his pass. He hits it off with bar girl Susan Hampshire, and she's willing, but again, he can't. Now he's in danger of being declared a deserter. Plus her mother is convinced they've done the deed and has him slung in jail.

It's one of those movies that in the late 1950s and early 1960s was called "sensitive". It certainly tries to be, with the two young actors offering hesitant and sweet performances as two unsophisticated people thrown into the we-may-never-meet-again maelstrom of war. It's not to my taste, but for an industry that was trying to grow up as the Hays Office crumbled in America, and the authorities in Britain lost their power to compel, it seems like a good effort.

Watching this film one is reminded of the old joke about Doris Day before she was a virgin; since this features Susan Hampshire before she was signed up by Disney (and with the Bad Girl ironically played by Jackie Collins).

Three years before she briefly but dramatically donned a wet bikini in homage to Ursula Andress in 'Dr No' in 'Wonderful Life', Miss Hampshire appeared nude (if that IS her!) for director Sidney J. Furie in this earnest little drama inspired by 'Tea and Sympathy' about an aspect of life in wartime Britain still little dealt with in films about that time (and that not all war wounds were in the arm), which carried an 'X' certificate in the year of the Lady Chatterly trial.

It could have done without that insistent music score by Bill McGuffie though...

During One Night is written and directed by Sidney J. Furie and stars Don Borisenko & Susan Hampshire. Story tells of a soldier (Borisenko) who after seeing his friend suffer castration during an accident, takes leave from his unit to lose his virginity. But upon meeting Jean (Hampshire) his ideals and fears are turned in another direction.

A little unknown piece that occasionally shows up on British TV in the early hours of the morning, During One Night is far better than any plot synopsis suggests. It's a very tender movie, one that is impeccably acted by Borisenko & Hampshire. Very much dialogue driven, it finds two people confronting issues that affect them psychologically. Brought together by chance, they each have to go deep into themselves to hopefully reap the benefits. Will they make it? What does life have in store for them? Thankfully we do care what happens to this couple because it's so well written. For those willing to give their undivided time and attention to a human interest piece then this is certainly recommended. 7/10