A Trágica Noite de Amor

A death row inmate has one last wish before he is hanged: to spend the night with a woman. The police bring him a suicidal prostitute. After their night, the two decide they are in love and are married by the prison priest. How will this turn out for the prisoner?

Hugo Haas is a unique filmmaker; his films never really fit into the category of Hollywood productions that follow rules like a happy ending or feature women who are always moral angels without flaws. The latter, in particular, is, in my opinion, a major reason why he never achieved A-list status in Hollywood.

Undeservedly so, in my opinion, because his films are always full of feeling-sentimental perhaps, but that makes his films human, with a different, refreshing view of society.

The acting by Moore and Agar is very solid, and the story is compelling.

Perhaps one of Haas's best films.

This is a very original film on a very original story with very original actors, and even the music is original. Hugo Haas was something of a buccaneer in Hollywood, doing his own films, writing his own scripts, finding his own actors and team work, and the result is something of the most original and fascinating of film making during the great age of noirs. Here the film begins with a girl trying to drown herself by jumping into the river, she is rescued against her will and has to return to her more than dreary existence of nothingness, being threatened by being thrown out of her shabby room, having no place to go and no one to care about. By chance two policemen look her up with the strangest of offers: she will be paid $200 for keeping company with a prisoner sentenced to death during his last night, since that is his last wish. She doesn't care about anything and therefore accepts, and most of the film is just the two of them talking together in his cell, airing their mutual hopelessness and finding each other. That's the whole story. The dialog is amazing, extremely intriguing and well written, and the warden, the watchmen, his stepsister also play some part, but as a chamber play this is perfect and enduring. She will never forget her last night with a man sentenced to hang, and no audience could possibly ever forget this film.

First, this is not a film noir, nothing to do with crime, but a noir drama, yes, of course, how could it be otherwise? Director Hugo Haas is a film maker whose filmography should be discovered again. After a brief European career, before he escapes from Nazis, he went to the USA and began a second part. And he never made something different from drama. All those films are rather gloomy, desperate, forget any happy ending - as far as I know. All those films involve women - more or less fatale chicks - and engrossing plots, gripping, for not too long films. His films are nearly all alike but who cares? I definitely like his films.

This is my favourite performance from the otherwise rather sterile John Agar. He is "Joe", on death row having been found guilty of strangling three women. He's decided to go out in Garbo style, wanting to be alone and angrily resisting any attempts from his family, or the priest, to comfort him as the big day nears. With twenty-four hours to go, though, he decides that the "company" of a lady might help ease his burden and obliged to help him out, the prison manage to recruit "Dora" (Cleo Moore). Now she's not in a very good place either - indeed had earlier tried to jump in the river; so a few dollars for a quickie with "Joe" didn't seem such a bad offer. Whilst there is certainly a predictability about the latter portion of this drama, it's still performed well and is tautly directed by Hugo Haas. Moore delivers an impassioned effort, indeed in many ways her character is far more intriguing than the sorry-for-himself "Joe". It is a bit dialogue-heavy, but for the most part that dialogue is worth listening to as we head towards the expected denouement - expected on just about every level. It does sail perilously close to melodrama at times, but it has a compensating grittiness and realism that I felt made this a much better than average tale to tell. You probably won't remember it for long afterwards, but it's enthralling enough when you watch.

I would love to see a Hugo Haas festival. At a theater or on television. If anyone was an auteur, it was Haas. His movies are similar to but better than those of Ed Wood. They are below the standards of some other contemporaries. But they seem to have been shot with little money.

Here we have a brunette Cleo Moore and Death Row inmate John Agar. She is a self-described "pickup girl." She looks it, too. It's very sleazy -- as it is meant to be.

This basically two-character piece was ahead of its time. I can imagine it with Al Pacino and Edie Falco.