![The House on 92nd Street (Fox Film Noir) [DVD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516Y79XDFBL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
Shorter review. Didn't know quite what to expect with a couple of unknown-to-me leads and a director not particularly noted for noir. Now I know: expect a really good, suspenseful movie. Of course, nobody involved set out to make a "noir" (the term hadn't been coined); they were making a whodunnit with a gem of a twist near the end. But it's got the look and leanness of good noir, with (in many scenes) little or no line dividing "good" from "bad" characters. Some reviewers call the plot confusing; didn't seem that way to me. Almost everything gets tied together at the end in a way that seems pretty plausible, even if it is just a tad too neat. This kind of movie gives pulp a good name. 4 stars.
Longer review. By the time Joseph Mankiewicz put together the final version of the script for Somewhere in the Night (SITN), he had been a major writer and producer in Hollywood for 16 years. So even though this is only the second film he directed, the whole production is assured; there's nothing tentative about it. In his first film as director, Dragonwyck, Mankiewicz had an A-list cast, including Gene Tierney (recently the eponymous heroine of Laura) and Walter Huston (recently Doc Holliday in The Outlaw). In SITN, in pre-production during the last weeks of WW2, Mankiewicz gambled on two newcomers, John Hodiak and Nancy Guild ("rhymes with 'wild'") as the leads. To my mind the gamble paid off. Hodiak can deliver tough guy stoicism, but he is equally believable as a vulnerable guy looking for meaning in life and love. Nancy Guild is there for him with a nice mix of moxie and amore that seems like both a good fit and a genuine person. These two know how to make lonely look good. Lee Strasberg, later founder of the renowned Actor's Studio, served as dialog coach during production, so perhaps a bit of his "inside out" methods rubbed off on the cast.
The character actors include Richard Conte as the slick, unabashedly money-focused owner of several nightclubs; Lloyd Nolan as a kind of proto-Columbo detective (he gets the final scene); Margo Woode as an upwardly mobile femme fatale; former boxer Lou Nova as a one-note lug (lugs have to be one note; it's in their contract); and Fritz Kortner as a captivating, multi-dimensional, self-described master criminal fallen upon hard times. Oh, the stories he could tell; too bad Mankiewicz didn't write a whole movie around him.
What makes SITN a classic noir is (1) excellent moody cinematography by Nobert Brodine (who also did 13 Rue Madeline, Kiss of Death, Road House, and numerous similar films); Brodine seems in total command of the lighting even in the numerous location shots, filmed between late November 1945 and late January 1946, during the shortest days of the year. Also making this a classic noir is, especially, (2) a script and director focused on internal conflicts of character more than on narrative efficiencies of genre. In fact to me the least satisfactory aspect of the movie (an unresolved narrative dead end) is also one of the most touching -- the introduction of the spinster Elizabeth (sensitively acted by 1930s ingenue Josephine Hutchinson). This set piece and several other scenes seemingly have no purpose but to introduce us to characters who have known loss and pain, who seem true to life -- or at least more true to life than one would expect in a Hollywood whodunnit. Another key contribution to this film is (3) the musical score by David Buttolph; it sets the right moods nicely, but it works as pure music, too, like scores by Rosza and Raskin.
The Fox Noir DVD uses an excellent print and comes with the SITN trailer and a commentary by well-known film buff Eddie Muller. I found his commentary with James Ellroy for another noir film, Crime Wave, so off-putting that I haven't brought myself to listen to this one yet. In any event, it's something you won't find on a Warner Archive DVD. With or without the commentary, the quality of SITN on several levels makes this disc an excellent value. If you're like me you'll want to experience it multiple times.
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Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
Brian S. Meredith
Somewhere in the Night - but nowhere in particular.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 10, 2017
Trevor Willsmer
“She didn’t see. Her heart was in her eyes.”
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 26, 2015Nigel Moore
Reasonable little B-noir potboiler
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 18, 2013David
A great film of finding the truth
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 28, 2016Amazon Customer
somewhere in the dark
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 2, 2018
