Coeurs enchaînés

Ray Milland stars with John Hodiak and Nancy Davis in "Night Into Morning," from 1951.

Milland, six years past his "Lost Weekend" performance hits the drink route again in this story of a professor who loses his wife and child in a fire. He starts drinking, and becomes bitter and angry as his two friends (Hodiak and Davis) attempt to hold him together.

This was a predictable movie, but there is an impressive performance by Milland, and a chance to see Nancy Davis, our former first lady, and she does a good job as a woman who knows about loss. John Hodiak is the less understanding and somewhat jealous friend. I liked his role because he acted like a typical male - when his wife or girlfriend's attention is off of him, he becomes upset. I remember when my friend's grandmother was dying, and his uncle by marriage asked his wife how long it was going to last.

What I really loved were the last fifteen minutes or so, which really elevated this film, particularly Milland's speech to his students.

Lovely, and I admit to shedding a tear or two.

Ray Milland reprises his drunken "Lost Weekend" routine in this typical drama about a professor who mourns the accidental death of his wife and 10-year-old boy, and then instead of adequately grieving over the loss, takes to drowning his sorrows in the bottle and becomes an alcoholic. His two best friends who care about him constantly try to set him on the straight and narrow path. I found this to be pretty standard with predictable results, with a stagnant plot that really doesn't go anywhere. What set this above average and worth one look is the good performance from Milland as well as a young Nancy Davis (Reagan) as one of the thoughtful friends who's devoted to him and can relate, having lost a spouse herself. **1/2 out of ****

The fifties were pretty alcohol-soaked. World War II had both scarred the collective psyche and ended the Great Depression. The Korea had turned the Cold War hot. Alcohol was the self-medication of choice. It was also just fun, and fun was what filled the leisure that American prosperity had brought the masses.

Yet, this was no longer the era of Nick and Nora Charles or Robert Benchley, when being drunk was cute or comic. So, when imbibing America needed a cautionary tale, Ray Milland was the right protagonist, as he proved in The Lost Weekend. Night into Morning isn't about alcoholism per se but about the response to a horrible tragedy. Lost Weekend was about alcoholism as a lifestyle. Night into Morning is about a binge that is carrying Milland over a precipice.

The casting is flawless. Milland, like Holden, has this seemingly easy way of acting. By being himself, he is the part. I like Nancy Davis better with every new viewing. What I used to regard as wooden, I now see as measured, kind of like the great Anne Revere. Here she's quite believable as a voice of reason, a voice on our behalf, responding to Milland's woes as we should.

And then there's John Hodiak. What can I say? He died so young that everything he was in becomes precious. And this may be one of his best performances, as Milland's best friend and colleague. Hodiak may have been pushed aside when the big stars returned from WWII, but for me he still chews up the scenery. The looks, the voice. It just occurred to me that had Hodiak survived he might well have settled into a Lloyd Nolan career. Dawn Adams gets good screen time as the girlfriend of the lug whom Professor Milland is going to flunk. The bit parts are not neglected. Whit Bissel has a great little turn as a headstone salesman. The cocktail waitress/student appealed to me a lot, and it turns out that Mary Lawrence playing her was 32 at the time!

Aside for the casting, the production is first-rate. There was a trend in the era for location shooting. In this case, Berkeley gets to play the college town, with a long sequence with Davis and Hodiak on campus, and a scene from the Tower. There's also a bang-up crash scene, though by necessity back at the studio.

There are a couple of problems that preclude perfection. There's a a connection with elderly neighbors that doesn't go anywhere. It was great to see Jean Hagan, but her part should have been developed more, in place of the useless footage of the elderly neighbors.

Night into Morning ends with what, to today's ears, seems a corny send-off, "Go with God". As a product of its time, it's not so corny. War hangover, the Holocaust, The Bomb, atheist Communism ginned up by McCarthyism, and the rat race. Plus ordinary misfortune that's always hitting someone, somewhere -- sooner or later you or me. Or just plain ennui. It seems that movies like Lost Weekend, Night into Morning, The Man in the Grey flannel Suit, are appealing to contemporary audiences to use faith and friendship instead of fixes. It's no coincidence that at the same time AA was getting noticed for sending this message.

Nancy Davis (later Reagan) gives a surprisingly good, sympathetic performance playing platonic friend to well-respected but troubled teacher Ray Milland. Life's woes have caused Ray to hit the bottle hard, but his loved ones quickly rally and offer their support. Heartfelt drama, written by Karl Tunberg and Leonard Spigelgass, is set partially (and quite amiably) at the professor's work-place, an idyllic college campus. Perhaps unintentionally, the filmmakers show that an innocent locale such as this doesn't always guarantee happiness or security, and Milland's personal tragedy leads him to depression and booze. The finale is a bit melodramatic, but the characters are vividly drawn. Not up to "The Lost Weekend" standards, but workmanlike, efficient and quite good. **1/2 from ****

Material which all-too-readily lends itself to melodramatic and/or hackneyed treatment is handled in a deliberate and truly intelligent manner in this surprising sleeper of a film.

The acting of the leads is beyond reproach but to my mind it is the script which wins you over. There are a couple of typical Hollywood clichés (young, wide-eyed midwesterners and earnest, virtuous eastern-European immigrants) but for the most part, the writing is unaffected, original and convincing.

Several subplots weave neatly into the story and are just as convincing themselves. I had never heard of this film before (as opposed to the legendary "Lost Weekend") but I won't forget it soon. Highly recommended