La confessione della signora Doyle

Far from vintage Fritz Lang, but still enjoyable in its high-strung melodramatic antics, accentuated in a needlessly symbolic way by the raging of the sea and the clouding over of the sky.

Tough girl Barbara Stanwyck returns to her hometown after ten years of being the mistress of a married man. "Home is where you come, when you run out of places", she says, characteristically". She meets and marries simple, goodhearted fisherman Paul Douglas, but is bored by ordinary married life: "Every day you get a little older, lonelier, stupider", and soon succumbs to her attraction to cynical, boozy movie projectionist Robert Ryan.

The power of 'Clash by Night' lies not in its trite plot or in its overblown imagery, but in the no-nonsense acting of Stanwyck and Ryan, tough as nails but raw at the core. They have an animal eroticism together between them that sparkles like fireworks, but they are also, alas, quite self-pitying.

Many of the bit parts are surprisingly unsavory, but then we also get the young Marilyn Monroe as the naive young girl who hopes to marry Stanwyck's hunky brother, played by Keith Andes, more often than not strutting his naked torso.

Barbara Stanwyck is so good at playing rough-hewn women--characters with a cynical edge--that it's easy to take her presence here for granted. Once again, she's remarkably fine cast as a tough cookie returning to her hometown along the waterfront and eventually reuniting with her estranged brother. Meanwhile, Marilyn Monroe is fun as a sassy local girl (although her lines sound as if they were looped in post-production) and Paul Douglas is terrific as usual playing a lovestruck skipper. Tempestuous melodrama from director Fritz Lang is decent fare, with heated emotions and florid dialogue, but perhaps more subtlety and nuance would've made it a more memorable picture. **1/2 from ****

CLASH BY NIGHT is a melodrama that betrays its stageplay origins with some artful but sometimes arty dialogue that attempts to get us beneath the skin of its three main characters--and occasionally does. But it's a tribute to the acting skill of Stanwyck, Paul Douglas and Robert Ryan that their characters come alive with all their flaws and longings exposed.

Barbara is excellent as a woman who returns to a fishing village after a long time away, a bitter, defeated woman still trying to find a niche for herself. Paul Douglas does a remarkably fine job as a good-hearted man, simplistic in nature, who latches onto her only to have her betray him with the lusty Robert Ryan. Lookers on include two very interesting performers--Keith Andes and Marilyn Monroe (on her way up). Andes breathes life into the role of Barbara's disgruntled brother and should have been groomed for stardom--he had the looks and appeal of a major star.

A somewhat downbeat ending resolves the conflict--but along the way there are some very high-strung moments from Stanwyck that she plays to perfection. Marilyn Monroe demonstrates talent in a minor role.

A bit talky and stagebound in some scenes--but an interesting melodrama thanks mainly to the gripping performances of Stanwyck, Douglas and Ryan. Ryan would have made a great Stanley Kowalski in 'Streetcar' based on his drunk scene in this one. He can play a brute about as well as anyone and here he's quite an actor, matching Stanwyck's intense performance with a sturdy one of his own.

Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe, and Keith Andes star in "Clash by Night," based on the play by Clifford Odets that flopped on Broadway. It gets the full-blown treatment on the screen, with Fritz Lang directing and a strong group of actors.

Stanwyck is a world-weary woman who comes back to her roots because "home is where you go when you run out of places," and immediately attracts male attention from both Ryan and Paul Douglas. She's instantly attracted to Ryan, and each recognizes in the other an edginess and need for excitement.

To fight these urges, which haven't brought her any joy in the past, she marries Douglas, a simple fisherman who is deeply in love with her. It's not long before she gets antsy.

The acting is terrific, but the emotions are very big - possibly too big for the screen and more suited to the stage. Though everyone is excellent, Douglas has the sympathetic role and breaks your heart as the cuckolded husband.

Ryan is great as a volcano waiting to erupt, and Stanwyck's portrayal is ferociously honest and layered. She was 45 at the time of thee filming and obviously playing someone a good 10 years younger, but it still works.

Marilyn Monroe has a supporting role playing the girlfriend of handsome Keith Andes. He mainly shows off his physique, though he was actually a good actor who had success in TV and was also a powerful singer, playing opposite Lucille Ball on Broadway in "Wildcat."

Monroe, mostly in jeans and with a swimsuit scene, is beautiful and her acting is very natural. Later on in her career, she overpronounced her words, which worked well in comedy but less so in drama.

This is a very good movie with vigorous direction by Lang. There's just not much about it that's subtle.

This Fritz Lang film has been largely ignored though in it's way it is as psychologically astute as many of his better known works such as "Scarlett Street". In transposing a Clifford Odets play from New York to a Californian fishing community some of the more florid dialogue seems unnaturally heightened but the performances of the three principals (Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan and particularly Paul Douglas) are stunning and the emotional core of the film is so strong that an audience can feel bruised by what's on screen. The blue collar milieu is perfectly evoked, the black-and-white cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca is first-rate and even the score seems understated, adding to, rather than detracting from the dramatic effect. Essential viewing.