The Longest Night

This is a fairly entertaining programmer featuring Robert Young in his early screen career. He is again teamed with Florence Rice, an up and coming actress who never quite made it in the big times, though she showed potential. Of interest is Ted Healy as Police Sergeant Magee (yes, another dumb detective/policeman role). Healy was the comic responsible for introducing The Three Stooges to the world. That may be a blessing or a curse depending on how much you like Moe, Larry, and Curly.

"The Longest Night" is a compact comedy thriller with the entire story taking place on one night (hence the title) at one location, a department store, except for the opening sequence which takes place on the street. Sidney Toler, in his pre-Charlie Chan days, has the meaty part of Captain Holt, the one in charge of the investigation when a murder occurs in the store. The cast includes an assortment of character actors including the often corny Olin Howland as a floorwalker.

Thought there is much attempt at humor, most of it is lame by today's standards. Many of the supposedly funny lines fall flat; even the slapstick seems forced. This film would have played better with less comedy and more thrills and chills.

Taken as a short murder mystery, "The Longest Night" works. Taken as a comedy, it falls on its tush.

B-movies were short and relatively low-budgeted films intended as a second film in a double-feature. Usually, there was an A-movie, some more prestigious and larger-budgeted film as well as the B....along with various shorts (such as a cartoon and/or a news reel) shown at most theaters during this era. Many of them were made by small studios like Republic or Monogram and many more were made by practically microscopic studios that actually didn't own their own studio space but rented it from a larger studio and filmed mostly at night. But what many folks don't know is that the biggest studios ALSO made Bs, and "The Longest Night" is clearly a B...and it is from MGM...the largest and fanciest studio of the era.

So why is "The Longest Night" a B? Well, at only a paltry 51 minutes, this alone would make it a B-movie. But it's also a fancy B (almost a B+ film if there was such a thing), since it's cast has some A-list actors, such as Robert Young who is in the lead.

"The Longest Night" is a murder mystery. Apart from westerns this was probably the most common genre for Bs. A few of these mysteries were very good. Most, sadly, are filled with cliches and are very formulaic. Despite "The Longest Night" being a higher-budgeted B from MGM, I'd place it in the latter category...being mostly formulaic and cliched.

What are some of these cliches and formulas? Well, in this case you have the typical idiot cop investigating (Sidney Toler is particularly one-dimensional here), his even stupider sidekick (Ted Healy is practically sub-human in his stupidity and uselessness), a smart civilian who for no discernible reason is practically Sherlock Holmes (Robert Young) as well as predictable scenes, such as one where someone says "I didn't kill her, but I'll tell you who did..."....and a shot rings out and kills them!! In other words, no matter how enjoyable all this is, it's also predictable and a bit silly. This clearly is NOT a thinking person's mystery and it obviously was hastily written. On the plus side, however, the cinematography is unusually good and the film is slick looking and enjoyable. Overall, a very mixed bag.

Department store owner Robert Young (as Charles "Charley" Phelps Jr.) arrives to consider selling his asset, then stumbles upon a strangulation victim. He orders a lockdown and cooperates with lawmen Sidney Toler and Ted Healy. Connected to the victim is pretty Florence Rice (as Joan Sutton), who provides Mr. Young with romance. She is the sister of beautiful Julie Haydon (as Eve), who helps boyfriend Leslie Fenton (as Carl Briggs) rob a warehouse in the opening sequence. All are suspects, some are victims. "The Longest Night" is so short you don't have time to wonder who may be guilty.

**** The Longest Night (10/2/36) Errol Taggart ~ Robert Young, Florence Rice, Sidney Toler, Julie Haydon

Robert Young is at the department store for the first time in five years to sell it. He is distracted by some of the goods on sale and clerk Florence Rice. He is delayed when a corpse tumbles out of his private elevator and the police come to investigate.

Robert Young may have been one of the stars at MGM, but with more stars than there were in heaven, he was not of the first magnitude. In this, the shortest of any MGM feature, there are a lot of character actors to fill up its 51 minutes, and lots of gimmicks on display, but not much for the bland Young to do. Even the support wind up fairly bland, with Ted Healy as a cop, Sidney Toler as a (Caucasian) police captain, Samuel Hinds as the store's manager and Etienne Giradot as a kleptomaniac millionaire. It's undistinguished and painless.

Even though this murder mystery starts off silly, it ends up being quite a fast-paced movie with lots of action and entertaining sequences. A murder takes place in a department store, and until the murderer is discovered, everyone is locked in with a few policemen all night. There are two sisters, Florence Rice and Julie Haydon, one of whom is dating a jewelry thief, Leslie Fenton, as well as a kleptomaniac, Etienne Girardot, and both the old owner of the store and the new buyer, Paul Stanton and Robert Young. Will police chief Ted Healy be able to find out who's guilty and why?

How do you keep everyone entertained in one room of a department store? By opening up the rest of the department store, restoring a previously unused elevator, and having the lights go out! Robert Young is busy wooing Florence, but since Julie is implicated, he's got a bigger job on his hands than to score a date for Saturday night. Before long, everyone's gone from suspect to detective and have to work to prove their innocence at the expense of someone else's guilt. Check this one out if it appeals to you!