Directed by John Farrow from a screenplay written by Barré Lyndon and Jonathan Latimer, and based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich, the 1948 supernatural noir film NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES is a remarkably intriguing melding of genres.
“When heiress Jean Courtland (Gail Russell, CALCUTTA) attempts suicide, her fiancé Elliott Carson (John Lund, A FOREIGN AFFAIR) probes her relationship to stage mentalist John Triton (Edward G. Robinson). In flashback, we see how Triton starts having terrifying flashes of true precognition. His partner, Whitney Courtland (Jerome Cowan, THE MALTESE FALCON), uses Triton’s talent to make money; but Triton’s inability to prevent what he foresees causes him to break up the act and become a hermit. Years later, Triton has new visions and desperately tries to prevent tragedies in the Courtland family. Can his warnings succeed against suspicion, unbelief and inexorable fate?”
Thanks to a brand-new 2K Master, this Blu-ray release from KL Studio Classics takes a film which has been critically lauded over the years and makes it easily available to see for one of the first times since its debut over 70 years ago. With an audio commentary by film historian Imogen Sara Smith, NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES is also placed into its proper historical context.
Watching the film twice in two days seems like a crazy amount of immersion, but the appeal of it only increases with multiple viewings – at least the first half and the final moments. The second half is not without its issues, as NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES is one of those horror films like PLEDGE NIGHT or FROM DUSK ‘TIL DAWN wherein the first half is drastically different from the second, as though each were written and directed by two different groups of people, while still starring the same cast playing the same characters.
The first half of NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES has a lot in common with a film made 15 years later, 1963’s Roger Corman-directed X: THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES. Written by Robert Dillon and Ray Russel, the sci-fi horror movie shares more with Farrow’s film than just its ocular title. First and foremost, both films feature men who are cursed with abilities beyond those of regular men which they would prefer not to have. In NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, that’s Robinson’s Triton, and in X, it’s Ray Milland as Dr. James Xavier, whose eyedrops allow him to see through first clothes, then skin, and eventually to the end of the universe.
Triton’s abilities come out of nowhere, after working a stage show with his fiancée and best friend. He’s suddenly struck with the knowledge of an event happening to the child of a woman in his audience and exhorts her to go home immediately. After the show, we’re made aware that his purported on-stage abilities are crafted via pre-show foreknowledge and clues from his friend’s piano playing, with songs offering up hints as to about what these folks are asking.
From there, Triton’s abilities increase and he begin to prognosticate about terrible things which might eventually happen, and one such vision causes him to secret himself away for decades, until a vision brings him back into the life of his former fiancée and best friend’s daughter. It’s roughly at this point that NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES transforms from a moody picture to a series of scenes with police and characters rushing about, attempting to find out who’s attempting to end the life of Russell’s Courtland. It’s a trifle madcap, and definitely lacking the atmospheric elements which make the beginning work, at least up until the film’s final scenes, wherein that sense of being resigned to one’s fate returns.
It’s a fascinating watch, with Robinson’s performance being a joy to see and experience, and the rest of the cast acquitting themselves well enough. The opening and concluding scenes are perfectly-lensed noir scenarios, and the new scan makes them glorious to view. While definitely a little wobbly in terms of how well it balances the noir and supernatural elements, NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES is a rediscovery worth making.
Night Has A Thousand Eyes is out on DVD and Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics on November 16.
Tags: Barre Lyndon, Blu-ray, blu-ray review, Cornell Woolrich, Edward G. Robinson, Film Noir, Gail Russell, Imogen Sara Smith, Jerome Cowan, John Farrow, John Lund, Jonathan Latimer, kino classics, kino lorber, Neo-Noir, Noir
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