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One Exciting Night

  • 1944
  • Approved
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
108
YOUR RATING
One Exciting Night (1944)
ComedyMusical

A young singer meets a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot, and is assumed by the gang to be his girlfriend.A young singer meets a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot, and is assumed by the gang to be his girlfriend.A young singer meets a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot, and is assumed by the gang to be his girlfriend.

  • Director
    • Walter Forde
  • Writers
    • Peter Fraser
    • Howard Irving Young
    • Margaret Kennedy
  • Stars
    • Vera Lynn
    • Donald Stewart
    • Mary Clare
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    108
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Walter Forde
    • Writers
      • Peter Fraser
      • Howard Irving Young
      • Margaret Kennedy
    • Stars
      • Vera Lynn
      • Donald Stewart
      • Mary Clare
    • 8User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos

    Top cast22

    Edit
    Vera Lynn
    Vera Lynn
    • Vera Baker
    Donald Stewart
    Donald Stewart
    • Michael Thorne
    Mary Clare
    Mary Clare
    • Mrs. Trout
    Frederick Leister
    Frederick Leister
    • Arnold Hampton
    Phyllis Stanley
    Phyllis Stanley
    • Lucille
    Cyril Smith
    Cyril Smith
    • Joe
    Richard Murdoch
    Richard Murdoch
    • Illusionist
    Mavis Villiers
    Mavis Villiers
    • Mabel
    Peggy Ann Clifford
    Peggy Ann Clifford
    • Bessie
    • (as Peggy Anne)
    Jeanette Redgrave
    • Ellen
    Irene Handl
    Irene Handl
    • Mrs. Harper
    Bert Ambrose
    • Band Leader
    • (uncredited)
    Grace Arnold
    Grace Arnold
    • Woman in 'Salvage for Victory' Van
    • (uncredited)
    Clifford Buckton
    • Detective at Waterloo Station
    • (uncredited)
    Sidney Monckton
    • Bit part
    • (uncredited)
    Patricia Owens
    Patricia Owens
    • Bit part
    • (uncredited)
    Wally Patch
    • Salvage Collector
    • (uncredited)
    Charles Paton
    Charles Paton
    • Henry - Hotel Porter
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Walter Forde
    • Writers
      • Peter Fraser
      • Howard Irving Young
      • Margaret Kennedy
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews8

    6.2108
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    Featured reviews

    5djfjflsflscv

    Light but low-key comedy-adventure

    Young singer Vera Baker (Vera Lynn) comes to London to entertain a group of RAF personnel on leave. At Waterloo Station, a pick-pocket (Cyril Smith), on the verge of getting caught, sneaks a stolen wallet into her bag. The wallet contains a cloakroom ticket to a mysterious package belonging to Michael Thorne (Donald Stewart), a former theatrical producer, which the nefarious Mr Hampton (Frederick Leister) hopes to claim as his own.

    Vera, meanwhile, has been sacked after an impromptu performance at the United Nations Welfare Service. Discovering the wallet, she tries to return it - and impress its owner with her singing abilities - yet both get set upon by Hampton's men.

    The package, she learns, is a Rembrandt painting which has been sent to Thorne for safe keeping. Hampton then hires Vera to perform at a cabaret. On the night of the show, he captures Thorne and tries to kill him with the help of a doppelgänger. Vera's efforts to rescue the imperilled producer leave her standing on a window ledge and in danger of dying herself...

    An amiable romp with six musical numbers (most of which are performed with a band in view), One Exciting Night is a comedy-adventure without enough laughs or thrills to justify its place in either genre. The last of three wartime vehicles for popular British singer Vera Lynn, known as 'the Nation's Sweetheart' for the achingly poignant 'We'll Meet Again' and patriotic 'The White Cliffs of Dover', it's light on action and focuses mainly on farce.

    The plot is mildly engaging but much too convoluted, a sub-Wodehousian blend of light romance and criminal machinations which too often takes a back-seat to the songs. Lynn, here a wholesome, toothily attractive twenty-something, is charming and personable in a role which, perhaps unfortunately, requires her to be oblivious of the surrounding danger for much of the film. A far better version could have been made with her as an enterprising amateur sleuth in accord with the mystery, yet as it is she does no detective work whatsoever.

    Even the last-reel jeopardy is half-hearted, lacking any concerted effort to excite or surprise, while the late introduction of one of those miraculous face-masks, so often seen in the Mission Impossible films, makes things all the more outrageous. The film ends, too, on a slightly anticlimactic note as the villains aren't arrested and - most distastefully - the male lead seems to settle on Vera because his true love is already married.

    Nonetheless, if one doesn't ask too much of it, One Exciting Night makes for a warm, whimsical, occasionally even fleet-footed film, with at least a couple of enjoyable songs: 'It's Like Old Times' is a wistful, pop-ballad sing-along while 'You Can't Do Without Love', a call for household recycling in aid of the war effort, is a fun little ditty despite playing more like a public information announcement. Of course, it's all somewhat unlikely, and only in the 1940s could the plot of a feature film depend on somebody returning a lost wallet. If that happened to any of us today, it really would be one exciting night.
    5boblipton

    Vera Lynn Sings

    Vera Lynn is an aspiring singer who gets mixed up with producer Donald Stewart. He's nursing a former lover who left with a Hollywood contract. Temporarily he's out of show business working for "the Ministry". The plot involves a painting Stewart has been holding for a Dutch man for several years, a missing ticket for a rail road cloak room, and occasional breaks for Miss Lynn to sing a song with a warm vibrato, or to have Richard Murdoch before a comic magic act.

    Clearly director Walter Forde isn't interesting in any of this plot nonsense, but prefers to give this movie a variety air. It was considered strong enough for production company Columbia to import to the US and change its name, although media coverage was scarce. Miss Lynn went back to her day job of being Britain's patriotic singer, became a Dame, and lived to be 103 before dying in 2020. With Mary Clare, Frederick Leister, and Irene Handl.
    8TheLittleSongbird

    The best film of Vera Lynn

    Vera Lynn was a wonderful singer with a beautiful voice, with some great songs under her belt, her most famous being "We'll Meet Again". Stand corrected on having said about the number of films she did, only three of them had her in the lead role.

    'One Exciting Night', out of her films where she played the lead, is the best of them and a big step up from her previous film 'Rhythm Serenade'. Richard Murdoch is rather dull and the film drags in the middle. Otherwise 'One Exciting Night' is well above average as a film that showcases Lynn as quite a capable and charming actress as well as a singer.

    She sings wonderfully here, and the musical numbers while not among her best do nothing to squander her talents.

    It is also the best looking of her films, the photography is pretty beautiful. The script is quite good too and balances well. The story is the least thin and contrived of her films, apart from a draggy mid-section, and also the least heavy-handed.

    Lynn has a good supporting cast on the whole. Donald Stewart is a likable leading man who complements Lynn well. Frederick Leister is fun, while Cyril Smith very nearly steals the show.

    All in all, Lynn's best film and quite pleasing. 8/10 Bethany Cox
    6JoeytheBrit

    One Exciting Night review

    Not so exciting, really, but an entertaining enough diversion. Vera Lynn, the Forces Sweetheart, was a sweet girl with a good voice, but she was no movie star and would have struggled as an actress were it not for her voice. As it was, this was the last of three films she made during the war to boost public and military morale; her importance in that respect can't be overlooked, and despite her so-so acting skills, it's not difficult to see why the nation took her to its heart.
    9JohnHowardReid

    One for the Permanent Collection!

    If Rhythm Serenade disappointed, Miss Lynn's third and final on-screen movie offering, One Exciting Night (1944) should have given her flagging film career a much needed boost. Abandoning the all-hands-to-the-wheel flavoring of her first two films, One Exciting Night (as the title implies) is a crime comedy/drama produced on a grand scale and niftily directed by Walter Forde who keeps the moving skidding along (except for a slightly draggy sequence with boring Richard Murdoch's m.c.). True, the twists and turns of the saboteurs-at-large plot are interrupted by six songs, but two or three of them are really great. I particularly enjoyed "It's Like Old Times", a really catchy number by Dave Franklin which director Forde stages in a very attractive manner. "You Can't Do Without Love" (which was used as the movie's USA release title) and "It's Easy To Say Good Morning" were also most agreeable. Thanks to Otto Heller's radiant photography, Miss Lynn looks gorgeous. She's given top-notch support by Donald Stewart (in a very clever dual role) whose movie career, alas, never amounted to much, despite his charismatic performance in this one. Frederick Leister comes over strongly as the villain, while Cyril Smith almost walks away with the movie as his pickpocket accomplice. All in all, a most entertaining film – and one for the permanent collection, thanks to an excellent Sony DVD. (This review is an extract from my book, "British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD").

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      There was already an American film in release for 1945 called One Exciting Night, thus the name change to You Can't Do Without Love for tentative USA distribution. However, neither of Lynn's previous two vehicles had gotten a USA opening, and this one proved to be no exception. The three Vera Lynn Columbia features filmed and distributed for wartime audiences in the UK saw no USA exposure until their 2025 arrival on YouTube.
    • Crazy credits
      Although 'One Exciting Night (1944)' and 'You Can't Do Without Love' are listed as one and the same film, some of the crew credits in the film titled 'You Can't Do Without Love' differ considerably from those listed under 'One Exciting Night' by IMDb.
    • Soundtracks
      It's Like Old Times
      (uncredited)

      Written by Dave Franklin

      Sung by Vera Lynn

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • December 4, 1944 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • You Can't Do Without Love
    • Filming locations
      • Zig Zag Road, Box Hill, Dorking, Surrey, England, UK
    • Production company
      • Columbia British Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 29 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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