Nightfall (1957)

Aldo Ray, in case you didn't know, had 'it'. Big athletic tough guy with sensitive eyes and heart on both sleeves, and a sharp intelligence. In this noir he plays an artist pursued both by the cops and the crooks -- and Anne Bancroft leaps at the chance to hitch her wagon to the big lug with a nice face and trouble from all sides.Jaques Tourneur (Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie) directs with exceptional taste and restraint. All the actors are nicely human as they go through some pretty grisly stuff at a brisk pace.Brian Keith as the big bad guy plays him low-key and reasonable but not averse to torture if it works. Rudy Bond as his partner makes the wise-cracking sociopath genuinely funny thus ridiculously menacing.Ray is such a unique presence -- intuitive, always connected, soft raspy voice. He is in very good shape at this point in his career -- as is Bancroft -- a very interesting chemistry between them. Bancroft's take on the woman is grand -- he has her at hello, thus she's game for any number of perilous adventure to save him. Ray handles Sterling Siliphant's dialog with not one false move. 'Nice place. I'll try not to bleed over everything.' in lesser hands would be much lesser indeed. People who liked Ray (John Wayne et al.) liked him for his direct honesty -- which is probably why Hollywood knocked him around for a while without making him a huge star. And yeah the booze . . .

The wonderful Jacques Tourneur directed this 1957 noir, "Nightfall," starring Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft, Brian Keith, James Gregory, and Frank Albertson.James Vanning (Aldo Ray) is on the run from some vicious criminals who have stolen a fortune from a bank. He and his doctor friend (Frank Albertson) had the misfortune to meet these men, who took the doctor bag instead of the $350 grand they stole! They believe that Ray, an innocent party, knows where in the Wyoming mountains the money is.Back in the city, Vanning meets a model (Bancroft) and this is picked up by two of the crooks. He manages to get away and goes to Bancroft's place; since the thugs know who she is, the two of them have to go on the run.Tourneur's themes here are similar to his other films, such as "Cat People," "Out of the Past," "Experiment Perilous" as three examples: Chance meetings and coincidence dominate a story where Tourneur uses flashbacks expertly. Here, two innocent people are drawn into a situation and being pursued.Very absorbing story -- in her early films, beautiful Anne Bancroft, a powerful actress, was cast in these young leading lady or ingenue roles, like Bette Davis when she first came to Warners. Bancroft brings an interesting, smoky quality to the role of a woman who has an unhappy past with men. Aldo Ray has never been a favorite of mine, but he is effective here. He looks like a character actor, though he played leads, and though he has a husky voice and appearance, there's a gentle quality in his manner. James Gregory has always been good, and he's good here as a detective who wants to get down to the truth.The black and white photography is very striking and really adds to the film. Jacques Tourneur made some excellent films; though he obviously didn't have a huge budget for this one and his star had descended somewhat, he still had what it took to make a strong film.

With the much publicised visit of French existentialists (Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty etc) to New York City after World War 2, a specific form of existentialism was popularised in the United States. Some of these philosophers also brought with them a series of books (Nausea, The Stanger, Journey to the End of Night, No Exit, The Irrational Man), most of which now read like film noir tales, complete with stark noir titles.The noir genre is itself deeply existential. Pessimistic, fatalistic, nihilistic, morbid and with themes of alienation, anxiety, indeterminism and the absurd, your typical noir plot sees an ordinary, working class guy pushed around by seemingly conspiratorial forces. Some noir heroes try to carve their way out of this web, but most succumb.By now many know all the great noir classics. One that tends to slip through the cracks is Jacques Tourneur's "Nightfall", an excellent film released in 1957, toward the end of the noir cycle. Today some of Tourneur's films are still well regarded - "Cat People", "Wichita", "I Walked With a Zombie", "Night of the Demon", the latter oft praised by Martin Scorsese – but "Nightfall" is typically overlooked in favour of Tourneur's other noir, "Out of the Past"."Nightfall" opens with a strong first act. Here Tourneur treats us to some wonderfully atmospheric locations (sidewalks, bus stops, bars – the transitory spaces of noir), in which world weary strangers meet, rub shoulders and trade witty ripostes.Our noir hero? James Vanning, a commercial artist played by Aldo Ray. Vanning's one of noir's strangest saps. He's a bear of a man, broad shouldered and tough looking. But Ray's voice and mannerisms don't quite fit Vanning's body; he's gentle, his acting is far more naturalistic than was customary for the era, and his voice is quiet and raspy. A gentle guy with the body of an ox, Vanning's ungainliness is epitomised by the awkward strands of hair which keep popping up on the crown of his head. He just can't quite keep things together. The rest of the film sees Vanning trapped in another of noir's overly elaborate plots, the poor guy hunted by both the cops and a series of crooks.Unusual for a noir, "Nightfall" slowly trades concrete and cityscapes for vast, snow-capped Wyoming landscapes. In this way it resembles Nicholas Ray's "On Dangerous Group". Its plot, meanwhile, anticipates "Charley Varrick" and the Coen Brothers' "No Country For Old Men". Anne Bancroft plays a femme fatale turned sympathetic accomplice.8/10 – Underrated, but can't live up to its strong first act. See "Out of the Past" and Joseph Losey's "The Prowler".

The teaser I read for this movie called it "exceptional film noir". I take exception to that description. While beautifully filmed, this movie features a less than stellar performance by the lead Aldo Ray, who I found to be a bit wooden. I don't think he can carry a movie as leading man - unless maybe it was about a football player or wrestler. The rest of the cast does a nice job, and Ann Bancroft is young, lovely and talented. The biggest problem is the plot which gets worse the further along you go and climaxes in an unbelievable (not in a good way) and contrived ending, which if re-written, could have made this a pretty decent film.