source: Nightfall

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.

Most things been already said here by folks who love this flick. What i wanted to add is that NIGHTFALL beats the well-hyped, but also great Noir OUT OF THE PAST by same director. The B-Movie roughness is a little deeper here. Also, great acting by James Gregory. As i read, he didn't have that many major roles, was more a regular in TV-series besides. Something that could be typical for our glamour-tributary society. Mitchum was hyped and a superstar, Gregory wasn't. Mitchum ain't bad for sure, but at least in the comparison of these two Tourneur sure shots, Gregory wins by all means. So Lobbykiller's rating is mos def: 10/10.

NIGHTFALL is a modest film noir put together by masterful talents who weren't quite on their game this time. Jacques Tournier directed the seminal noir masterpiece OUT OF THE PAST and other great movies. Stirling Silliphant contributed to the screenplays for CHARLY, SHAFT IN Africa, THE NAKED CITY, and THE ENFORCER. Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft and James Gregory had distinguished and successful theatrical and television careers. So why is NIGHTFALL not a classic? One significant problem is Aldo Ray, who is earnest but never convincing, though the screenplay has problems, as well. Once Bancroft is exposed as a hired betrayer to Ray, there is never an adequate explanation for why he goes back to her. Worse, there is little chemistry between Bancroft and Ray, and their relationship never rings true in a movie where that connection is crucial to buying into the premise. It appears the producers were trying to create one of those "who can you really trust" movies, but it winds up causing characters to act against their own best interests, a big no-no in noir, where self-interest is always an issue. Once we don't buy the relationship, we don't really care about the chase for the money. That it turns out to have been sitting out in the open on a frozen lake all winter (apparently getting wet yet not desintegrating) is not ironic or amusing, it's just silly. By the time we get to that moment, we really don't care. But then, based on the poorly developed characters, we really don't care much before then, either. Not a total stinker (some cool LA locations and cinematography) but overall a film not quite up to snuff given the talent. 6 / 10

Someday, this taut little noir will be acknowledged as the blueprint --- unconscious or not --- for Alfred Hitchcock's and Ernie Lehman's "North by Northwest." NxNW, released 2 years after Nightfall, features a number of strange similarities to Nightfall, too many to be considered coincidental. For starters --- 1.) Both films have protagonists who are "kidnapped" by hoods, and it appears that there are cases of mistaken identity or misunderstood information in both situations. 2.) Both protagonists fight off the hoods and escape in a car. 3.) Both protagonists appear to have been set up at some point by a beautiful femme fatale. 4.) Both protagonists return to the femme fatale to demand an explanation. All right, perhaps one could argue that these 4 similarities are merely coincidental, or "standard thriller fodder." But wait -- there's more ! Both films also feature: 5.) An older, paternal "watchdog" or "shadow" who is aware of the problems of the hero, watches from afar, and yet eventually becomes involved in the chase process. 6.) A shaving scene in a public washroom --- played for tension and then comic effect in NxNW, but as an opportunity for the older "shadow" to chat with the hero in Nightfall. 7.) A scene in which the hero buys a ticket (bus in Nightfall, train in NxNW) in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. In both scenes, the whereabouts or destination of the hero is revealed to the pertinent authorities who are present at the stations. Also in both scenes --- we see the hero mostly head-on, to the left of the scene, while we see the ticket clerk mostly from the back, to the right part of the scene. 8.) Romance and smooching between the hero and the femme fatale during a cross-country trip --- by train in NxNW, and by bus in Nightfall. 9.) Chicago plays a major role in both movies. ....and perhaps most revealing of all...... 10.) A very public scene in which both the hero and the purported femme fatale are placed in danger with the bad guys. Tension and comedy both are played out in each scene. There is even a "voice-over" in each scene --- the voice of the auctioneer in NxNW, and the voice of the fashion show emcee in Nightfall. IMDb poster hisgrandmogulhighness has uncovered these other similarities, some present in the original book Nightfall, by David Goodis, and some present in the movie Nightfall as well --- 11.) Hero in Nightfall is named Vanning; villain in NxNW is named VanDamm. 12.) Both men, Vanning and Thornhill, through widely different circumstances, are wanted for murder . . . both, indirectly, cause the death of the victims . . . both, for whatever reason, leave the murder weapon at the scene of the crime, and, most conveniently for law enforcement, leave their fingerprints all over the murder weapon . . . 13.) (In the book Nightfall and in the movie NxNW): Both men, Vanning & Thornhill, have a liquid forced down their respective throats in the houses the thugs have taken them. 14.) (In the book Nightfall and in the movie NxNW): Both Vanning and Thornhill are in hotel rooms they're not registered for . . .While leaving the hotels, both are followed out by thugs, or a thug . . .Both are in taxicabs looking at the back of the head of the taxi driver . . 15.) In the book "Nightfall," James Vanning is already using an alias, "Rayburn." In NxNW Thornhill takes on the trappings of the non-existent "Kaplan." 16.) . . . trout shows up in both works . . . Once you've watched both movies, these numerous plot similarities will become evident. The sheer number of plot similarities indicates that it is likely that Sir Alfred and / or Ernie Lehman used Nightfall as a skeleton, onto which they fashioned their masterpiece, NxNW. The fact that Nightfall has been out of the public eye for 40 years or so may explain why no one has yet caught up with one of the main sources of NxNW. Enjoy ! (AJD)

Nightfall finds Aldo Ray as a man on the run. On the run from a couple of bank-robbers who think he's got their loot, on the run from the police who think he killed a good friend. So he's doing the Richard Kimble thing and staying low. I'm sure he couldn't believe his luck when beautiful model Anne Bancroft gives him the come hither look in that bar just to get him out in the alley so Brian Keith and Rudy Bond can get to him. Of course she being the good citizen she is, does this because she believes they're cops and they just want to apprehend Ray. In flashback we learn that out in the Wyoming woods Keith and Ray get some help from Ray and his friend Frank Albertson who happens to be a doctor. They shoot Albertson and rather unbelievably Ray survives. But the two geniuses take Albertson's medical bag instead of the one with their loot. After that Ray's on the run. Jacques Tourneur directed this rather unbelievable noir film and the thing I most can't believe is this is the same guy who directed Out of the Past. The plot is too much for me to swallow. Rudy Bond and Brian Keith play a nice pair of contrasting hoods. Bond the happy go lucky homicidal maniac and Keith the brains of the outfit. There's also a nice final confrontation with the parties back in Wyoming where the loot got stashed by Ray. Still this is not the greatest of noir pictures.

As a longtime fan of Out of the Past I was disappointed when I finally saw Tourneur's "other" noir film. Despite excellent cinematography and several good scenes, the movie is sunk by a poor leading man and a hopelessly flawed story. For the latter you can't blame Stirling Silliphant. His script is unusually faithful to the source novel, and therein lies the problem. Noir novelist David Goodis wrote a handful of bleak, pulpy novels published mostly during the 1950s. "Dark Passage" and "Shoot the Piano Player" are two other Goodis movie adaptations. Goodis' novels are tough, fatalistic, and violent with interesting premises and oddball characters, especially the bad guys. His problems, which worsened over time, were a reliance on outrageous coincidence and a tendency to have characters suddenly act in bizarre ways to make the story work out. These flaws lay at the heart of Nightfall's problems. Ordinary guy Jim Vanning (Aldo Ray) and his doctor friend (Frank Albertson) are out hunting when they witness an auto crash. They run to help only to discover two robbers fleeing a bank job. The crooks let the doctor patch them up, then kill him. But instead of shooting Vanning too, they concoct the preposterous notion of handing him a loaded rifle and ordering him to kill himself to set up an apparent murder-suicide. Naturally this gives Vanning a fighting chance. Unfortunately it doesn't pan out. Vanning is shot anyway. As the robbers escape in his car they pull the hoariest stunt in the book: they pick up the doctor's bag instead of the bag containing the loot. Vanning recovers (not dead, just stunned) and flees with the money. But somewhere in his flight he loses the bag. The crooks return to find Vanning and the money gone. The chase is on. The premise is appealing: the crooks hound Vanning to tell them where the money is but he really doesn't know. However the episodic narrative is strung together by coincidences and lapses of logic, beginning with the woman Vanning picks up in a bar (Anne Bancroft), who throws in with him for no discernible reason other than to provide someone for the crooks to menace. The crooks themselves (Brian Keith and Rudy Bond) have interesting conflicting personalities, but their disagreements always seem to arise just in time to save Vanning's neck. An interesting subplot involves an insurance investigator (James Gregory) who has been secretly shadowing Vanning. We learn more about his character than that of anyone else in the cast, but he ends up having little to do with the story's outcome. The final strike against Nightfall is delivered by Aldo Ray. As written Jim Vanning is basically an ordinary guy in way over his head, so scared that he jumps when a newsie suddenly turns on the lights of his newsstand. Vanning tells us he's frightened and weary. Unfortunately Aldo Ray is beefy and tough-looking. His raspy voice, which seems to get even more gravelly in flashbacks, combines with his features to give the impression he could tie the robbers into pretzels without breaking a sweat. Alas, appearance is all in movies, and Ray lacks the acting chops to make us believe this bruiser is an underdog. In conclusion I would recommend Nightfall as a technical exercise--it sure looks good--but there isn't enough substance to make a satisfying movie.

Aside from some of the black-and-white photography and a sexy turn by Jocelyn Brando, there is nothing interesting about this movie. The "plot" is one stupid contrivance after another, all adding up to pretty much nothing. The sappy, dippy happy ending ("and they all went to the seashore") denies it any standing as a "noir" film, never mind a "noir masterwork" like the clunks at Film Forum in New York call it. It is kind of fun to see a really good print of one of these old clunkers, but I can't help wondering why anybody bothered. Now I am wondering why I bothered to write this review; maybe to keep just one person from wasting a trip down to Houston St.

Although it is far from a masterpiece, "Nightfall", a low-budget film noir (stunningly photographed by Burnett Guffey), is one of Jacques Tourneur's finest films. What amazed me about "Nightfall" was the way it resembles Tourneur's previous films in its depiction of chance and coincidence. The similarity to "Out of the Past" (the duality between past and present, city and country, the use of flashbacks) is somewhat obvious. But consider the opening chance encounter between Vanning (Aldo Ray) and Marie (Anne Bancroft). It recalls the similar (though different) chance meetings between Irena and Oliver at the zoo in Tourneur's "Cat People"(1942), and Dr. Bailey and Cissie on the train at the beginning of "Experiment Perilous"(1944). If you watch it closely at the opening scenes, Marie's seat beside Vanning at the bar is empty BEFORE she appears. So, we expect the seat to be filled. I didn't notice it when I first saw the film, but critic Chris Fujiwara's observations in his splendid book, JACQUES TOURNEUR:THE CINEMA OF NIGHTFALL, were immensely helpful. Fujiwara adroitly notes, "Throughout Nightfall, chance and unconscious processes determine key events. Tourneur's standard procedure of showing the effect before the cause underlies the inexplicability of these events, their fantastic nature".