Women in the Night (1948)

Everything is lousy about this production except the story. The direction is despicable, the actors can't act, the result of the editing is a mutilation, and the happy ending is a joke. However, most of the ladies are quite good and convincing enough, and it's their film. It's their story this film is here to tell, and it's a great story involving many stories. Not only are several of these girls brave freedom fighters who don't hesitate to wage their lives when there is no other choice, but there are a number of great tragedies hinted by their stories, the most important of which is the mother who finds her daughter. Forget about the Japanese and German officers, they are all caricatures, and you can see that the actors themselves don't believe in the almost ludicrous roles they are playing. This is a women's drama, and that's all that matters.Also the music is very well made and gives at least a gilded frame to something that could have been an engaging masterpiece, if the direction and the male actors had been better. The fact is, that there were rests of German officer cliques stranded in China (here Shanghai) and elsewhere after the surrender of Germany and before the Japanese final surrender who still believed in their absurd Reich, many escaped alive out of Germany and immediately started planning for the next Reich, - of course, they did not succeed, as they also fail in this film, but their plans and visions were enough alive to keep cliques like this active to the last.Pity that such a good story should be made such a bad film of, but then at least you can take care of and mind what's memorable in it, and it is never wrong to point out the women's cause.

****SPOILERS*** Off the wall and unintentionally funny post WWII movie involving a number of Nazi higher ups who escaped from their homeland after it was defeated by the allied forces to Japan to start up a new world war for the fatherland, Nazi Germany, that in fact at the time August 1945 no longer existed! The film also has a women liberation story line or point of view in how women, of all races creeds and colors, was brutally mistreated by the Nazis and their Japanese allies in and out of captivity.It seems that the escaped Nazis had developed a super cosmic ray gun 1,000 times more powerful then the atomic bomb that at the time was being dropped on Japanese cities Hiroshima & Nagasaki that they planned to use to defeat the allies in a new world war that they were planning to start. This at a time that their allies the Japanese ware days away from surrendering unconditionally to the allied forces! At the same time were shown in no uncertain terms that the treacherous Nazis were planning to double cross their allies the Japanese by keeping their super secret cosmic ray gun from them in order to win, the new world war that they plan to start, all by themselves and have no one else, like the Japanese,to share the glory and riches with them!Mindless and totally idiotic movie that has the Nazis look far more insane then any Hollywood movie made about them, like "Hitler Dead or Alive", during the height of WWII.The Nazis as well as their Japanses "allies" are so oblivious of whats going on in the world in them losing the war and their nations being completely devastated by round the clock areal bombardments that its hard to take their actions, in them thinking that their winning the war, seriously even if you wanted to. There's of course the beautiful American nurse Claie Adams, Virginia Christine, who's one of the imprisoned women by the Nazis who's being forced to put out, if you know what I mean, to their and the Japanses military in the Shanghai officers club who was actually planted there as a spy as well as saboteur and assassin. That's to knock of top German and Japanese scientists who are involved in the cosmic ray gun project in preventing it from getting off the ground.***SPOILERS*** And get ready for this in that it's Clair's husband who's working for US military intelligence who infiltrated the Nazi Japanese ring as German Major Von Archeim, William Henry,who despite his very prominent and obvious American accent the Nazis and Japanese have no idea of his true identity! There's also Chinese/American actor Richard Loo again playing a Japanese villain Col. Noyama who looks like,in knowing how ridicules the movie is, he's trying to keep a straight face in all the scenes he's in. And last but not least there's Chinese/American actor Benson Fong playing a real Chinses national delivery boy Chang who smuggles explosives into the Nazi officers club to be used to blow the place to bits by the time the the film is finally and mercifully put to an end. That's before it causes anybody still watching it ending up laughing themselves to death!

By today's standards, this film is an amazingly racist anti-Nazi and anti-Japanese film--the sort of jingoistic stuff they made during the war as propaganda. So, despite it having a release date of 1948, I strongly suspect it was actually made in 1945--just as the war ended. And, because it was no longer as timely, it was shelved and re-tooled--giving it a bizarro plot that was quite confusing.The film begins with a rather intense and preachy intro about how the Nazis and Japanese brutalized women during the war (such as the Korean 'comfort women'). While this is quite true, the film creates a silly fictionalized piece that frankly was very stupid. A bunch of women (representing, naturally, the various allied countries--though what were they doing in China?!) were kidnapped by the Nazis after the European war ended (this was never addressed in the film--but it's set in August, 1945--and the Nazis surrendered in May, 1945!!). The second atomic bomb has been dropped on Nagasaki and it's only a couple days until the war is over--yet these Nazis want to somehow pimp out these women to the Japanese in order to help them create a NEW Nazi regime(???)! And to do this, the Germans have some secret for a new 'cosmic ray'!!! As for the Germans, they are hilarious. They are way over the top in their stereotypical behaviors and some of them look and sound about as German as the Frito Bandito! One of them, it just so happens, is really an agent for the Americans (really--who would have suspected this guy with a California accent?!) and one of these women turns out to be his old wife!!! What are the odds?! Not surprisingly, the ladies' accents also come and go--showing that these 'actresses' really needed a lot more coaching--or talent! The Japanese, though seemingly more civilized (and consistent with accents), down deep are all just a bunch of mad slobbering rapists----just like their German allies. But again, you must remind yourself that there WAS no Nazi Germany at this time and none of this made any sense! The bottom line is that this is a stupid film thanks to a dreadful script--filled with about as much subtlety as a brick upside your skull! Had it come out during the war, at least it would have had some propaganda value. But, it is a terrible film--one that is so bad that you might enjoy it just for its comedy value! It reminds me of the expression "it's so bad that it's good"! If you like this sort of trash, also try "The First Yank in Tokyo"--a very lurid and silly film to say the least.

Les Adams's lengthy summary of this production and its plot would suggest he has seen the film.I beg to differ on a few minor points: The hostesses are not all Anglos though there is one from Angleterre. The U.S.,Mexico,France,China and maybe Australia are also represented. The secret wife of William Henry is not Tala Birell, but Virginia Christine. Tala Birell ,the "Shanghai Mata Hari", received top-billing performing superior to the part. The production was filmed over a thirty day period at the Playa Ensenada Hotel in Mexico utilizing some very attractive interior decor. There are a few outdoor scene but they are minor. The plot is not so sordid but the lesbian relationship between the character's played by Jeans Brooks and Bernadene Hayes is clearly indicated. My 16mm print of this film,formerly owned by William K.Everson, is retitled CAPTURED.Film Classics sold off the rights to the film within two years. WOMEN IN THE NIGHT is a great favortte of Elliot Lavine, esteemed San Francisco programmer,formerly with the Roxie Cinema. He has show the film several times at the Roxie and at the Los Angeles Film School. Surviving cast member Iris Flores (Ride the Pink Horse), who played the Mexican hostess, attended the Los Angeles screening with her extended family several years ago, and I understand it was a warmly enjoyed event.