Customer Reviews

Night Must Fall [VHS]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie is far superior to many others in the same genre, striving for the same effect but missing by a country mile. Night Must Fall delivers all and more. Robert Montgomery is fantastic and gives one of the best performances I have ever seen on film OR stage. I have watched this film over and over, many times and each time I see some new nuance, some other subtle moment he gives to the character, and he is so on the money you wonder...how can someone be so gifted and play against type so convincingly? Rosalind Russell is marvellous, as always, and it is interesting to see her in one of her early movies. Dame May Whitty is the star of stars here, and it is astonishing that someone of her age could turn in such an agile and convincing performance, especially toward the end, when you are afraid the suspense alone will finish her off, on screen and off. The supporting cast are perfect; the maid, the cook, etc., and the suspicious policeman who turns up now and then. It is truly one of the most hair-raising climaxes ever put on film and is quite capable of holding its own agaisnt the efforts of today. I am amazed that this is a relatively unknown movie today, and it really should be publicized and put on DVD and find its niche with today's movie audience, who would, if they only were aware, appreciate the mastery so evident on every frame. Truly a masterpiece.

If your local theatre group isn't doing NIGHT MUST FALL this efficient little movie will more than do. Emlyn Williams' original script is so canny that even reading it can give you goosebumps. John van Druten's screen treatment leaves it alone as much as possible. Dame May Whitty plays a hypochandriacal old lady; the kind who after a good night's sleep spends the next day telling everyone how she tossed & turned all night. Living with her in her house by a wood is her neice/companion Olivia (Rosalind Russell) and various servants. Enter a young page from a local hotel who may or may not be a psychopath (a chillingly effective Robert Montgomery). Williams' psychology really works on you. As unpleasant as the old lady is you don't want to see her 'get it' because Montgomery is so charming & persuasive you know in her place you'd be seduced too. It's like haveing a blind date with Ted Bundy. Whitty repeats her stage performace & she's honed it razor sharp. Rosalind Russell is awfully likeable & gives what is perhaps her most attractive performance. Montgomery, playing against type, keeps the shudders coming. For a sort of WHAT IF? version see THE NIGHT DIGGER (aka THE ROADBUILDER) with Patricia Neil & Nicholas Clay.

"Night Must Fall" is the type of movie that's great to own because you'll watch it a hundred times--it is a "chicken soup" type movie which has that intangible something which holds up under repeated viewings without getting tiresome. Perhaps because--as in other "cult" movies like "The Bad Seed", "Streetcar Named Desire", "Suddenly Last Summer" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"--it is a wee bit perverse. Ostensibly a rather conventional "whodunnit", "Night" surprises the viewer by introducing what must have been in 1937 a radical element--the fascination and attraction that Olivia (Rosalind Russel) feels for a cold blooded murderer (Robert Montgomery). Why is she fascinated and attacted to him? Because she's bored with her repressed existence in an isolated house with her bossy aunt, that's why! Danny's very dangerousness, although lethal, is apparently just the jolt Olivia needs to feel alive again, and she's not ready to give it up right away! So she elects to shield him so that he won't be found out. Because this plot twist was unprecedented then (and scarce in films even today), you'll have a great time watching to see how it all works out. As some reviewers have noted, "Night Must Fall" is a bit stagey but as with "The Bad Seed", I don't think this hurts it one bit. Like "Seed", it WAS a stageplay (in 1935) and featured many of the same players before being filmed by MGM (interestingly, the play's author Emlyn Williams himself played the role of Danny). It could be said that Russell seems rather wooden in her role as the repressed niece, but this appears to be the way the character is written, as a woman who is emotionally stunted. It's hard to believe, watching her, that this is only two years before "The Women" and three years before "His Girl Friday". As good as she is however, she finishes third to Dame May Whitty as crochety old Mrs Bramson and Robert Montgomery as Danny, the charming murderer! Dame Whitty devours the scenery with such finesse, and Montgomery is so subtley full of lurking menace (one thinks of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector watching him), that poor Rosalind doesn't stand a chance against them! She got her chance in only a few years however. "Night Must Fall" has it all--humor and suspense in equal parts.

Robert Montgomery stars as the superficially charming page boy who insinuates his way into the life and home of wealthy invalid May Whitty. Whitty isn't particularly sick, but she seems to enjoy making everyone around her miserable, especially her niece played by Rosalind Russell. She takes a liking to Montgomery, unaware what the viewer and Russell have figured out - he's the murderer of a local woman. I'm not giving away the ending, since it's made clear as the story progresses. It's not the point of the film. What this movie does want to do is take you into the mind of a murderer, and given the fact that this was made in the 1930's, it's a pretty surprising approach. And oddly enough, it's quite suspenseful, since we wait to see what he will do next. Montgomery is very effective as the psychopath, charm and humour masking something quite dark inside himself. May Whitty also delivers a terrific performance as the cantankerous woman longing for the attention of a son she doesn't really have. Russell is OK in her characterization. Unfortunately, her character is poorly defined and her motives are often unclear, so there's something about her that doesn't add up. The film has a number of suspenseful moments, and although it's not a completely successful portrait of a killer, I did enjoy it and think it is certainly worth watching.

I was not a big Robert Montgomery fan in spite of my love for old movies - UNTIL I saw this film on Turner Classic Movies about 3 years ago. After seeing him in tux and tails being an idle rich socialite in a dozen movies, Mr. Montgomery really showed his range of talent here. He was rewarded with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for this role. With his charisma and bad-boy good looks, he makes Ted Bundy look like Winnie The Pooh! His hip-hop swagger and confidence made it irresistible for Rosalind Russell to want a bit of "thug love" in her previously uneventful existence. Montgomery's "Danny" showed up that you can never let your guard down because even the nicest next door neighbor can be a homicidal maniac. Dame May Whitty got caught up because she was a despicable old lady who thought she was pimping everyone with her invalid act. But, in this case, game recognized game and she got taken in worse than Russell and the two housekeepers. With no blood and gore (although it is hinted at it with the hat case that Danny carried around as a "trophy" like most such killers), this was one of the most psychologically scary flicks that I've ever seen. And I have never missed one showing on TCM since 2005. It's always on the bill when the show honors Montgomery, Russell, or Whitty. I put this film at the top of my all-time favorites but I refuse to buy it on VHS. It deserves a DVD digitally restored "Special Edition" and I would buy it at any price to add to my DVD collection of old classics. I could just get it on VHS and convert it to DVD but you lose so much definition like that. I just hope, when it does make it to DVD, the film company doesn't screw it up by "colorizing" it. It is simple the best just as it is. Kudos to all of the great actors in it!

I just saw this little gem for the first time a few nights ago on
TCM. It had been recommended to me by a fellow "old movies" maven.
Initially,I thought perhaps Mr. Montgomery wasn't exactly "up" to the task of playing the creepy,fawning lead,but I was wrong. His creepiness built up slowly until the sound of his smarminess made me cringe.So he did his part. Rosiland Russell played against type in this role. We are used to seeing her as a strong,witty,take-no-prisoners woman.Here,however,she does an excellent turn as a plain-Jane,timid and unsure of herself around Montgomery's character.Or anyone else's,for that matter. I think she handled her role very well.Perhaps we,who are huge fans of hers,will forever see her as "Auntie Mame," a role she was born to play.Forget Auntie Mame for a moment, and enjoy one of Russell's early works. The servants are played very well by British actresses whom we have seen in many,many movies.They are wonderful. Now,after all of this praise,I have to tell you that I think Dame May Whitty is the one who not only stole the movie,but she is the one who certainly must have knocked everyone's socks off when this first came out. She plays a really unlikeable old bat,but as another reviewer said here,we really don't want to see her knocked off. My favorite part of the movie is when she gets panicky,screaming and ranting and carrying on.She let herself go off the deep-end,in a very enjoyable,albeit somewhat cringe-inducing manner that was delicious!
It must have been fun for her to let her hair down for this role.
So..check it out if you are partial to this type of old movie. No blood.No guts.At least not on screen! Just a solid,somewhat creepy movie,inhabited by some very fine actors.

Robert Montgomery, best known for his work in romantic comedies, manages to be both creepy and sexy in Emlyn Williams' classic work (adapted for the screen by John Van Druten) about a charming serial killer who keeps something not-very-nice in a hat box. When he charms his way into obtaining a servant position in the secluded house of an elderly invalid, the old lady's niece, beautifully played by Rosalind Russell, refuses to succumb to his charms but not without a great deal of effort. The problem is that she suspects he's a killer and is still irresistibly drawn to him. In short, Mr. Montgomery becomes the ultimate "bad boy" and with a Welsh accent, no less. The DVD is a serviceable copy, although the movie could benefit from a restoration.

A cranky old lady invalid allows herself to be charmed by a psychopath. As the North Sea gales were "stirring aboot", my cousins and I watched this little flick a few nights back. I must say that Montgomery played his role sincerely and his Irish accent wasn't bad---- yet the film is a just a mite stodgy and a tad too theatrical. As Danny the psychopath, Samantha Stephen's (BEWITCHED) dad was cast very against type (he practically begged Mayer for the part) but amazingly, he pulls it off magnificently (In the thirties, Robert Montgomery was primarily cast as a leading man in light, sophisticated romantic comedies opposite the likes of Crawford and Shearer). Rosalind Russell does okay as Dame May's neice but in her role of the drab repressed spinster, she was hardly in her element! Dame May obviously earned her title. As the invalid (who, in one hilarious scene, gets up out of her wheelchair a la Lucy Ricardo to fetch her box of chocolates!) her playing is quite amazing. Charmed and captivated by Danny, she is glorious when she senses impending doom when she's left all alone - one is emotionally drained just watching! In later years, the actor Richard Ney (Greer Garson married him) acted with Whitty in a picture. At one point Ney said "alright, Dame May, but I still feel that MY way was the best way". Whitty replied "Young man, you haven't GOT a way!!" This little MGM offering is a neat little thriller which I would think would definitely work better on the stage - it's too housebound, the dialogue being better suited for the stage - but it will give viewers the shivers nevertheless.

This movie is excellent!!! Like many of the other reviewers, I want to see this on DVD and while they're at it, go ahead and release "Kind Lady"(1951) and "The Picture of Dorian Gray"(1945) on DVD as well. Why do these films continue to be overlooked by the studios as obvious candidates for immediate DVD release??? Given the quality of the majority of DVD releases over the last few years, one might think that the major studios were at a loss as to where to find quality material to release. Well, these films - and others like them - have been long overdue for DVD!!! A word of advice to the studios; Stop twiddling your thumbs and release these films!!! -Thank you

For Christ's sake ! When we'll have a DVD version of this classic film? Enough of blood , bad taste & illiterate screenplays! "NIGHT MUST FALL" deserves a Special Edition DVD ,with commentaries by one of our distinguished film historians ( like Rudy Behlmer,for instance).