I just discovered "So Dark the Night" in the recently released "Film Noir Classics 4" set from Turner Classic Movies. Although it is presented as a border line "noir" it is really a complex little murder mystery with a few surprises thrown in.
So Dark the Night is directed by Joseph H. Lewis and written by Dwight V.
France has no famous detective ;the Commissaire Maigret is Belgian .But it has rural thrillers ; the American thriller is par excellence urban ;in France many movies of the genre take place in villages (Chabrol's "le boucher" ) ,small towns (Clouzot's "le corbeau" )or even in the country (Becker's "goupi mains rouges" ) .
Watching this movie last Saturday night, I realize that it was a little and modest Noir, however with an extensive mystery, seems at first sight unsolved case, a clever screenplay was the key success of the whole story, the plot is about a mid-age honest cop detective from Paris Henri Cassin (Steven Geray) a single guy who was put on forced holyday on French countryside at Saint Margot's small village, there he falling in love by a young Nanette (Micheline Cheirel) who was promised to marry with a farmer Antoine (Frank Arnold), they has the same age, instead Cassin is old by her, at engagement party Antoine appears angry promising a revenge, willing makes everything to spoils the upcoming marriage, he leaves the house with Nanette behind him trying explaining, in next day Nanette and Antoine were found death, then the local police asking to Cassin solve the murders, although all your efforts he doesn't able to reach in the killer, some conclusions going fast, Nanette was a dubious character, even loving Antoine she saw on Cassin the possibility to leaves the small boring town to live on the bright Paris, even to marry an older man, fabulous mystery Noir, without forget this picture is forerunner "Sean Connery's The Offence" and "The Eyes of Laura Mars", not too bad at all, highly underrated!!
Remarkable film which it is almost impossible to rate or review, unless I guess, you hate it and think that it is irredeemable rubbish of the 1-3/10 kind. I can definitely sympathise with anyone deciding that this film is unlikable.
Okay, so who dunnit? The answer here is a deus ex machina, a plot device frequently used in Hollywood in the 1940s and still used today.
French detective, Henri Cassin(Steven Geray) finally gets a vacation after eleven years, heads out into the countryside for some much deserved rest and relaxation. His reputation known outside of Paris, even in a small village it seems Cassin can not escape murder and investigation.
STEVEN GERAY never got to play the leads in most of his films at Columbia, but he gets his chance here as a detective badly in need of a vacation in the French countryside. As in all such stories, he has no time to relax because he's soon involved in a double murder.
A French cast is featured in "So Dark the Night," a 1946 B noir directed by Joseph Lewis. Steven Geray is Henri Cassin, a burnt-out detective who goes on holiday.
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