Film Snail

Somewhere in the Night
Somewhere in the Night

6.8

Somewhere in the Night

NR·1946·110m

Summary

George Taylor returns from WWII with amnesia. Back home in Los Angeles, he tries to track down his old identity, stumbling into a 3-year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.

Crew

Director, Screenplay

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Adaptation

Lee Strasberg

Screenplay

Howard Dimsdale

Story

Marvin Borowsky

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

May 22, 2023

7

"Taylor" (John Hodiak) returns from a war-torn Europe after WWII disfigured and suffering from memory loss. Gradually, as his amnesia starts to fade, he recalls the name of one man who might be able to help him get back on his feet so sets off to Los Angeles to find him. Pretty quickly he discovers that this isn't going to be an easy task - and it's only after he is beaten and dumped outside the door of "Christy" (Nancy Guild) that he regales his story and then she decides to get him introduced to police lieutenant "Kendall" (Lloyd Nolan). This is where the story starts to hot up. It seems his friend ("Cravat") was caught up in what appears to be some postwar Nazi money laundering/smuggling and it's a race against time to find the cash before it's gone along with a likely murderer. The largely B-list cast all work quite well here. Nobody is trying to outshine the other and so that allows the solid story to develop and play out properly. It's not just a routine crime drama, there are a few twists and the paucity of characters on screen allows for more of them to become a little more substantial as we progress through this intriguing investigation to quite an exciting denouement. It's maybe just ten minutes too long, it takes a while to build up steam - but still, if you like the genre, it's at the better end and worth a watch.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

amnesia
war veteran
gangster
film noir
los angeles, california
post world war ii
cold case
amnesiac
missing money
murder case
quest for identity
war veteran with amnesia