Strangers in the Night (1944)

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

What's absorbing about this film is what's not said, not seen, and not dwelled on. The other reviewers pretty much have the movie nailed, but no one seems interested in exploring to their logical ends the situations presented here. Like the fact that the beautiful young woman the soldier guy thought he was writing to during the war and was coming home to marry was actually an old woman, and a demented one at that. When soldier guy finds this out it's like, "whatever." He apparently doesn't find disturbing the implications of his having been fooled. We however are left to go "yuck" and feel a sort of sympathy for the woman as a victim of ageism. After all, if soldier guy "loved her mind" why reject her just because she's old (and demented)?And what does smart doctor lady think of soldier guy, her soon- to- be husband, who is so confused and easily fooled?And then think about the whole bizarre existence of the old woman who not only created a fantasy daughter and had "her" "portrait" painted, but regularly has worship sessions in front of the painting in the cult of her nonexistent daughter--with her weak- willed loyal companion going along.Kinda makes you wonder how often in our own way we "regular folks" create fantasy versions of people and totally misread relationships.Paging Dr. Freud!

A strange cliff-top mansion, a handicapped widow with a mysteriously absent daughter, a nervous companion, and a handsome soldier in receipt of letters from the elusive Rosemary create a strange mystery to say the least. Mother is obviously two macadamias short of a cookie and despises the young female doctor who tends to the soldier after he collapses in the Mandalay like mansion. When the truth is revealed, mommy dearest gets desperate...and sinister! Don't expect any doo-bee-doo-bee-doo's in this oddly titled Gothic thriller. Sinatra's signature tune does not appear. In fact, other than the circumstances surrounding how soldier William Terry meets doctor Virginia Grey, the title has nothing to do with the bizarre plot line. Helene Thinig is the heavy accented matron who truly has many psychiatric problems and Edith Barrett is her petrified companion who must question the definition of loyalty as she faces the truth about her demented employer. As directed by cult director Anthony Mann, this is a very different type of mystery, a film with a plot that seems trite at first but will certainly make you think. You certainly won't forget the gallery of nuts you encounter in this spooky mansion by the sea.

This could have been a good movie. The main characters are well acted and believable in a melodramatic way.In spite of some unlikely coincidences like the unnecessary train derailment, and our hero, a marine, recognizing the painter of the portrait of his fantasy girl as an old buddy from college, the plot concept is reasonably engrossing, moves along well, and tension is built up to almost the end. This part is written like a classic thriller.Unfortunately,the last few minutes of the film seem as if the production crew had either run of of time or money and hastily contrived a hardly believable ending. That's the part that looks look it was written by a fifth grade class.I'm sure if you didn't watch the ending, the film would actually haunt you. Of course, you want to know how it's all resolved, and instead of haunting you, you come away very unsatisfied.Not a complete waste of time, but a certainly a waste of talent.

This rarely seen film directed by Anthony Mann has an over-the-top performance and some artificial 'Gothic' atmosphere to recommend it. If the viewer doesn't expect a great, lost masterpiece it can be fun and amusing.After corresponding with a mysterious girl who shares with him an interest in Houseman's "A Shropshire Lad", Sgt. Johnny Meadows (William Terry) recently home from Guadalcanal arrives at the home of Hilda Blake. Here he hopes to finally meet the poetic girl. Hilda lives in an ornate Gothic-style mansion atop a cliff on the California coast. She is odd from the very beginning, but she only gets more weird as the story progresses. Living with her is a close friend Ivy Miller (Edith Barrett). The centerpiece of the mansion is a fairly kitschy portrait of a pretty young woman, Mrs. Blake's daughter. Hilda is convinced that Johnny is the destined true love of her daughter. She and Ivy extol the virtues of the girl, and convince Johnny that he will soon meet her and that the two will be very happy. However, on the train, by preposterous coincidence, Johnny had met a young woman doctor, Leslie Ross, played by Virginia Grey. That meeting introduces complications into Hilda's plans for her daughter's happiness. There are some unanswered questions that drive the plot, and it must admitted that the writers and director do a decent job of keeping the audience guessing. It's not really a bad idea for a story, but the execution here makes it more silly than serious. The main source of the silliness is the performance of Helen Thimig. With her Austrian accent and overly emotive eyes, Thimig invests Hilda with a bizarreness that should be a dead giveaway to Johnny. Something is very odd here. The film also has the kind of fake Gothic atmosphere that only exists in Hollywood films from this period. Several scenes look so artificial that they only work to remind the viewer that he's watching a movie. Definitely worth a look for Anthony Mann fans, but not one of his greatest efforts.