Poursuites dans la nuit

There's little pretense in "Nightfalls;" it's made on a small budget and is only intended as a somewhat artful entertainment. And, in this, it succeeds.

Perhaps what's most remarkable about the film is its several expressions of affection. Remember that? If it's non-existent on TV, it's also extremely rare in movies that don't fit the romantic comedy genre, where it can occasionally sneak in today, and was far more common in the 1930s and 1940s.

Here it gets play in the budding relationship between Vanning (Aldo Rey) and Marie Gardner (Ann Bancroft), but also in the marriage of Ben (James Gregory) and Laura (Jocelyn Brando). It also seems to appear in the longtime friendship between Vanning and his old doctor buddy, whose younger wife he's close friends with.

How does this exceptional quality show? Mainly in Rey's open & engaging smiles when he's in the presence of Bancroft. Although it's Bancroft who is actually conveying & delivering the most and brightest affection, it's most noteworthy in Vanning, simply because he's male. Is it his virility and gruff voice that allows this unusual expressiveness? No, I think it's rather that Rey is not your typical leading actor, nor is Tourneur your typical male director, and that affection is hardly foreign to their lives. In fact, it may be prized by both, unintentionally in the former and intentionally in the latter, which is why it's not excised from the script.

In the case of Ben & Laura, the affection seems inherent in what appears to be a much more equal relationship than is generally shown on screen, especially in the film noir genre. The typical devoted, clingy, and overwrought detective's wife is expelled. Laura is fully involved (from home) in his investigation and is updated daily on the latest clues and findings. It's refreshingly adult, and highly welcomed, as is the affection the two radiate.

But "Nightfall's" interest in affection doesn't end here--not without an example of its opposite in the two gangsters. The psycho-killer partner very convincingly pleads his profound attachment to his boss, but only as a deadly maneuver with his life on the line. This one-way, "sincerely" expressed affection is only effective because encapsulated and final, and because the top dog is "soft." But not all "suckers" lose, though, as "Nightfall" amply points out.

Jacques Tourneur's Nightfall follows the classic Film-Noir pattern: a man hunted by someone for something he did in the past, a beautiful woman, expressionist black and white photography etc..

The action of the film takes place in Chicago where James Vanning (Aldo Ray), meets in a bar a beautiful young fashion model Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft). There is instant liking between them. Everything seems fine till James is picked up by two strange individuals whom as we understand he knew before and who begin to interrogate him, threatening his life, about a big amount of money that he supposedly possess and that actually belongs to them. James manages to escape and takes refuge at Marie's home. He's obliged to tell her the story about his past that led those to men to hunt him. The story which is shown to us in flash back sequences.

Though Nightfall doesn't stand comparison to Jacques Tourneur Film-Noir masterpiece Out of the Past, it's still quite an interesting film generally well acted with some very good dialogs in it and the most remarkable end sequence that probably served as an inspiration for the ending of brothers' Coen Fargo. 7/10

The artist James "Jim" Vanning (Aldo Ray) meets the model Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft) in a bar and they have dinner together. When they leave the restaurant, Marie gives her address but the gangsters John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond) abduct Jim and Marie goes home. They want information about a wallet with US$ 350,000 and Jim tells that he does not know where it is. They torture Jim, but he escapes and drives to Marie's apartment. He tells that she is in danger and he explains that he was camping in the snow in Moose with his friend Dr. Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson) when they see a car driving off the road. They go to the spot to help the victims but they are subdued by John and Red that kills the doctor and shots him. The criminals believe they are both dead and Red mistakenly takes the doctor's wallet leaving the money behind. When Jim awakes, he flees with the wallet with money but looses it in the snow. Now the criminals are hunting him down while he is also wanted by the police. Meanwhile the insurance investigator Ben Fraser (James Gregory) is also on the track of Jim and curious with his behavior without spending the stolen money and having a simple life. Will Jim prove his innocence?

"Nightfall" is a film-noir with a story of coincidences and bad luck. It is an entertaining film with a good villain despite the flaws. The screenplay is intriguing and the viewer only knows the truth after the initial scenes. How could Ben, Jim and Maries go after the killers without a weapon? My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Maleta Fatídica" ("The Fateful Wallet")

Jacques Tourneur used his vast reserves of creativity to turn small-budget films into fascinating movie-going experiences. If "Out of the Past" is one of the best films noir to be released in the 1940s, then "Nightfall" must be one of the best from the succeeding decade.

Aldo Ray plays James Vanning, who, with his doctor friend Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson), finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up knowing the whereabouts of a bag of stolen money, wanted mightily by two bank robbers (one played with droll relish by Brian Keith). Fate, always a principal character in any film noir, brings James together with Marie Gardner (an impossibly young Anne Bancroft), a fashion model who becomes his girl Friday. Meanwhile, an insurance investigator (James Gregory) working on behalf of the robbed bank has James's number and comes calling. All of these characters finally collide in a memorable and rather grisly ending.

"Nightfall" is tremendously stylish and playful. It very much resembles Tourneur's earlier noir, "Out of the Past," in its thesis that a man can run but never hide from his past. But it also reminded me of "On Dangerous Ground," Nicholas Ray's strange offering from 1952, in its juxtaposition of a shadow-filled urban environment filled with anonymous (and perhaps dangerous) strangers with the wide open (and no less frightening) spaces of the country, where anything can happen and no one will know. I don't know if Aldo Ray was considered a good actor at the time, but he does a terrific job here -- who better to play an American everyman caught up in a sticky web than this all-American jock of an actor? He and Bancroft sizzle in their scenes together, and one of the movie's highlights comes when they are racing away from one of Bancroft's fashion shows with the bad guys in hot pursuit, and Ray, frustrated by the fact that Bancroft can't run in the impractical gown she was just modeling, picks her up and runs with her into the safety of a cab, after which she leans against him and says, "You're the most wanted man I know." This scene and line got laughs and applause at the screening I attended, but you could tell that people were laughing with the film and not at it.

This film is one of the highlights of the noir genre, and I highly recommend catching it if you get a chance.

Grade: A

Nightfall is directed by Jacques Tourneur and adapted to screenplay by Stirling Silliphant from David Goodis' novel. It stars Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Rudy Bond, James Gregory and Anne Bancroft. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Burnett Guffey.

A pretty model, an insurance investigator, two thugs, an innocent man on the run and a bag of stolen money buried out in the Wyoming snow. Destiny awaits with devilish glee.

It resembles the earlier Tourneur classic Out of the Past, so loses a bit of freshness, it hinges on a major contrivance involving the bag of money and it's more blanc-noir than film noir, but Nightfall rounds out as being a well executed paranoid thriller. Pulling it into the film noir universe is the protagonist played by Aldo Ray (a mighty physical presence), he's the victim of mischances and coincidences, his situation worsening because of paranoia and the inability to comprehend how the vagaries of fate have put him into a life and death predicament. With Tourneur using a flashback structure to dizzy up the story and Guffey operating on high contrast for imagery, film doesn't lack for atmospheric fret, but having held the audience in a grip, the makers fail to deliver a satisfactory ending worthy of the build up. Though it's noted that a pretty gruesome death does precede the outcome.

As has been noted by many observers, the interesting trick here is that Ray's man on the run is exposed and in real harms way when in the brightly lit wilderness, his safety net comes via the dark shadowy streets and bars. This two-fold setting allows Tourneur and Guffey to craft some terrific compositions to frame the characters. These characters are always interesting, the thugs played by Keith & Bond are unusual because they need the help of Ray's protagonist, thus having to rein in murderous tendencies, Gregory's investigator is like an impartial observer on the periphery and Bancroft's babe starts out cold but becomes a woman prepared to go on the lam with a guy who clearly has issues to be resolved! All are well delineated. Ultimately, and rightly so, it's Ray's movie, his Vanning character is a haunted figure, the world weighing heavily on his huge gait, with gravel in voice and bemusement in eyes, it's a true film noir character that is excellently portrayed.

Interesting if a mixed bag, Nightfall is however comfortably recommended to those interested in noir cinema. 7/10