Night Must Fall

United States

1937

116 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

English

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
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SCR Emlyn Williams, John Van Druten

CAST Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Dame May Whitty, Alan Marshal, Merle Tottenham, Kathleen Harrison, Eily Malyon, Matthew Boulton, Beryl Mercer, Winifred Harris, E.E. Clive, Nora Cecil, P.J. Kelly

Olivia Grayne acts as a paid caregiver for her dowager aunt, Mrs. Bramson, who is stingy toward her niece. The two live in a house in the English woods with Dora and Emily, the household domestics. Into their lives and house comes Danny, Dora’s fiancé, who is a simple, common man. Despite Dora admitting that she doesn’t know that much about Danny, Mrs. Bramson, who prides herself on being a good judge of character, hires Danny to be her live-in personal attendant. Olivia is suspicious but at the same time attracted to the mysterious man. Olivia’s suspicions are aroused when she finds among his possessions a photograph of a local woman who has been missing for the past two weeks and was thought to be murdered. Olivia, who fears Danny of being a murderer, continually comes back to to face him anyway. —IMDb

Director

Richard Thorpe

Richard Thorpe (February 24, 1896 – May 1, 1991) was an American film director. Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred and eighty films. The first full length motion picture he directed for MGM was Last of the Pagans (1935) starring Ray Mala. After directing The Last Challenge in 1967, he retired from the film industry. He died in Palm Springs, California in 1991. Thorpe is also known as the original director of The Wizard of Oz. He was fired after two weeks of shooting, because it was felt that his scenes did not have the right air of fantasy about them. Thorpe notoriously gave Judy Garland a blonde wig and cutesy “baby-doll” makeup that made her look like a girl in her late teens rather than an innocent Kansas farm girl of about thirteen. Both makeup and wig were discarded… read more

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ruthafritap

29Mar12

Film-wise I'd rate it 4 out of 5, but Robert Montgomery is so great in here I'm giving it a 5. This movie proves all the more of how underrated and badly typecasted Robert Montgomery was. It's amazing how easily he slipped and transferred himself from one personality to the other in this movie. Such a pity MGM wasted his talent.