Balas Contra a Gestapo

A wonderful, funny B movie with an A cast. Bogart made this one between THE MALTESE FALCON and CASABLANCA. Lorre and Veidt and Dame Judith Anderson are wonderfully villainous, and a couple of future superstars -- Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason -- make their debuts as members of Bogart's gang. This has everything Warner Brothers films loved: a murky waterfront, an old abandoned warehouse, a sinister auction gallery run by foreigners, a swanky nightclub that seems to be inhabited exclusively by gangsters (the Good Guys) and Nazis (the Bad Guys). Puns galore. Probably audiences didn't want to see a comedy about the Third Reich back in 1942, but it gets better (and given the cast, historically more important) with age.

A very funny war era movie. Bogart had played a gangster in comedies (Brother Orchid with Edward J. Robinson), but played it straight as a tough guy. This movie highlighted Bogart's great comedic timing which was also evident in harder edged movies from the same period: The Big Sleep, Casablanca, and the Maltese Falcon. All Through the Night makes a fun companion piece to these movies and like the others, has a great supporting cast.

Vincent Sherman's "All Through the Night" has a feeling of a B picture, although probably was not intended to be that way. This 1942 Warner Bros. film is much more enjoyable than we suspected, because even though the film was supposed to tackle a serious problem, it has a lot of fun moments that make the film much lighter in tone than perhaps the film makers intended.

At the center of the story we find 'Gloves' Donahue, a small time gangster and his crew. They are a fun group that are drawn into an international spy story right in their own backyard. Ma Donahue comes to ask her son's assistance in trying to solve the murder of her baker neighbor, and the fun and games begin in full force.

There are a lot of good moments in the film, but it is dominated by Humphrey Bogart who runs away with the picture. His crew is also a great asset to the film, Frank McHugh, a fantastic actor, no matter in what picture is excellent, as well as William Demarest, one of the best character actors in the movies of that era. A much slender Jackie Gleason puts in an appearance as Starchy, a member of Donahue's team.

The heavies are amazing. Conrad Veidt is wonderful as the Nazi spy trying to blow up a ship in New York's harbor. Mr. Veidt was such an elegant figure in everything he did. Judith Anderson is seen as the mysterious assistant to Mr. Veidt's character. Ms. Anderson had a way about her that she dominates the scenes in which she appears. Peter Lorre does a lot with his small piano player, Pepi.

The film never ceases to entertain. Thanks to Mr. Humphrey and the wonderful cast assembled for the movie, it will not disappoint anyone with an open eye for a lighter take on a serious matter.

A neat little comic thriller out of Warner Brothers with Bogart as Gloves Donahue and a great supporting cast filled with names that run on and on. Two particular scenes stand out. Bogart, a lowbrow New Yorker, finds himself stuck at a fancy auction and in an attempt to get backstage begins making outrageous bids -- a woman bids two thousand and Bogart tops her with, "I'll see da lady and raise her five." He gets backstage but is conked unconscious. Recovering, he finds the warehouse filled with incriminating Nazi junk. He spills all this to the dubious police. "I can't grasp it," says the Lieutenant, "maybe I'm not big enough mentally." But finally the cops agree to investigate the warehouse, only for Bogart to discover that everything has been rearranged or removed in such a way as to make his tale sound like a fantasy. (Does any of this sound familiar? You might have seen it in Sam Taylor's screenplay for "North by Northwest.") Great snappy lines -- Bogart to a girl singer: "Sister, I like da way you sling dem obligattos around." While digging around for evidence with his friend Sunshine, "Da police are frequently skeptical." Not as tightly wound as the best comic thrillers, including "North by Northwest" and "The Thirty-Nine Steps," but well worth wasting time on.

Actually, this movie is better than most, with a good deal of the credit going to the myriad cast of star-quality actors. I suspect it was part of the Hollywood WWII propaganda stable but the story still resonates today and, just maybe, provides a cautionary tale as well.

Interesting seeing a young and slim Jackie Gleason (billed as Jackie C. Gleason) and noting this was just one of seven movies he was in in 1942! Bogart had perfected his small-town crook role by the time this movie came out. He unwittingly gets involved in a Nazi spy ring and it all begins with his love of a cheesecake made by an old man who is found murdered. The chase for the killer(s) is on...

You cannot watch this movie without smiling at the antics of Frank McHugh, the character actor who endeared himself to many during the 30s and 40s.

Conrad Veidt is phenomenally evil as the Nazi spy and it's important to remember this man actually fled from Germany to reside in England and America, giving all of his monies and salaries to the British Government to fight the Nazi menace. He is always good in the Nazi genre but it surely must have galled him to play these roles on so many occasions when he despised the very people he portrayed. His interaction with the imperious Judith Anderson (later, Dame Judith Anderson) is actually a la film noir at its best.

Excellent cast brings this movie up a notch from the formulaic movies during WWII and this one is well worth watching.