Night Unto Night (1949)

A bleak mansion sits ominously on a cliff above the sea somewhere on Florida’s east coast. In its shadows, two people meet: a scientist haunted by incurable illness and a beautiful woman haunted by the voice of her dead husband.

Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp, Osa Massen, Art Baker, Craig Stevens, Erskine Sanford, Ann Burr, Johnny McGovern, Lillian Yarbo, Ross Ford, Almira Sessions, Dick Elliott, Lois Austin, Irving Bacon, Billy Bletcher, Jack Mower, Paul Panzer, Larry Rio, Ramon Ros, Leo White, Jack Wise, Bing Conley, Joe Devlin, Dennis Donnelly, William Haade, Creighton Hale, Dick Johnstone, Philo McCullough



IMDb

NIGHT UNTO NIGHT ('49) struggles to be a message film with something important to say about life and love–and does carry an unusual theme. However, despite the dramatic intensity in the performance of Swedish actress VIVECA LINDFORS (who looks radiant in all of her close-ups), no one else in the cast seems to be in the same picture. RONALD REAGAN seems to be sleepwalking through a role he clearly doesn't comprehend, displaying none of the emotional fireworks that Lindfors is capable of. He makes any notion of chemistry with Lindfors seem absurd. A stronger actor might have brought some credibility to his role of a botanist who keeps a dark secret from the woman he loves.

And unfortunately, the supporting roles are too colorless to add much to the proceedings. BRODERICK CRAWFORD is cast inexplicably as an artist in touch with "the truth" and OSSA MASSEN is a bit over the top in her drunken stupor as the jealous sister who reveals Reagan's dark secret to Lindfors at the height of a thunderstorm.

Could have been so much better with a tighter script and more emotional response from Reagan, but this is clearly not one of his better films at WB. Technically, the storm is a stunning sequence–too bad it isn't supporting a better script. Reagan redeemed himself later with some better roles at his home studio but this is clearly a dud.
~ Neil Doyle

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