Amateur movie with Big budget

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Fine acting by our future president and Viveca Lindfors adds to the drama of this 1949 film.This is one of Reagan's best performances, next to "King's Row," of 1942. As the scientist suffering with epilepsy, who meets a woman (Lindfors) who can't get over her husband's death in World War 11, Ronald Reagan gives a searing performance, as a man hesitant to fall in love with death hanging over his head. Lindfors pulls out all the stops as the grieving widow in this melodrama.In the year that he won the best actor Oscar for "All the King's Men," Broderick Crawford shows up in the film in a supporting role as an artist friendly with the Reagan character. He did not seem comfortable in the part due to his persona of playing tough, gritty individuals in films. His painter role with children married to Rosemary De Camp, just doesn't seem to fit the bill here.There is a terrific supporting performance by Osa Massey as Lindfor's brooding, drunk, and nasty sister. She will stop at nothing to hurt her sister and even say things that could lead to our scientist killing himself.The ending hurricane scene is appropriate for if we can come out of this fierce storm, we can conquer anything. A touching movie not letting a serious illness get in the way of finding true love.

"Night Unto Night" was made in 1947 and was not released until 1949. That is a very bad sign...a sign that the studio thought they had a bomb on their hands. While I would not call this one a bomb, it certainly could have been a lot better...and it's a shame because the acting is really nice in this one...particularly by Ronald Reagan in the lead.When the film begins, John (Reagan) moves to the Florida coast and finds a home to rent. A widow (Viveca Linfors) wants to leave her home...and not for the usual reasons. She thinks the place is haunted and she hears her dead husband's voice there! John thinks this is nutty but is a gentle man and treats her well despite her odd delusion. Eventually the pair fall in love...but he has a secret he broods over...he has epilepsy.The acting and production values are really nice in this one but the film acted like epilepsy is some sort of death sentence...or at least a life destroyer! It certainly isn't and handling the illness this way seemed pretty crass and silly. Overall, some nice moments but the plot just didn't make a lot of sense...and marrying a man who occasionally goes blank (which happens with many types of seizures) is NOT something that destroys your life or makes you destined to be a lonely recluse! The writing sinks this one....and it's a shame as Reagan is at his best in this one. And, I wonder how epileptics felt when they watched this film...as if they were somehow destined for hollow lives because of the disorder!

This fascinating title 'Night Unto Night' was perhaps an American film ahead of it's time. In the late 40's you might expect Europe and Britain would be more prone to produce works with the themes found in 'Night'. Maybe this explains why the film was better received outside the USA.It's a serious story written by Philip Wylie, also known for 'Island of Lost Souls', 'When Worlds Collide', etc. Here we have a story that reaches into the darkness of the human condition, uncovering the vulnerable surfaces that either hold us together or tear us apart. Obviously, after producing this film Warner Brothers did not quite know what to do with it so, shelved it for over a year. It's more along the lines of the socially conscious stories that First National Pictures were unafraid to make in the 30's IE; 'Heroes For Sale' etc. The screenplay adaptation by Kathryn Scola, who had earlier worked on 'The Glass Key', 'A Modern Hero', etc, has a sharp edge to it, bringing to life Wylies' troubled characters quite nicely. The two European female imports do very well in vastly different character turns. Swedish Viveca Lindfors is near perfect as the haunted feminine lead, while Danish Osa Massen plays her superficial, vampish sister to the hilt.American Producer Owen Crump, while not generally well known, was himself not unfamiliar with making films in Europe. He is also known to Write: "Zeppelin" 71, ~ and to Direct: "The Couch" 62. The weakest link in this production lies with his allocated Director, Don Siegel. This was only Siegel's 2nd feature and he was not up to the material. Siegel tended to be more suited to the simple 'shoot em up' Eastwood type films.Visually the film is absolutely stunning. Cinematographer John Peveral Marley who's known for all time classics such as the original 'Count of Monte Cristo' - 'Suez' - 'Night and Day' etc, crafts a treat for the artistic eye with his eerie floating camera, spiraling along dark stairways and over glistening waters. Marley is ably supported by Art Director Hugh Reticker ('Humoresque' etc) who creates a darkly Gothic look and feel to the interiors of Lindfors' rambling beach front house. Also adding a strong sense of mystic mood is Franz Waxmans' music, conjuring up the building torment of the two suffering leads.Acting honours should go to Broderick Crawford for his strong portrayal as Reagans newly found Artist friend, he's a man who shuns commercialism and offers sympathetic spiritual support to both leads. If it's action you want, you wont get it here. Thoughtful viewers should find rewards if they approach it as a soul searching character study. If this was not meant to be 'A grade', then in so many ways it certainly is. Watch for Craig Stevens, TV's Peter Gunn, who two decades latter would again work for Producer Owen Crump in the 1967 theatrical feature version of 'Gunn'. Recently, at two private film appreciation group screenings of Night Unto Night (with an audience mix of young and older viewers) when the film ended, there was a round of enthusiastic applause, and much discussion followed ~ ninety percent said the film was quality melodrama of the 'superior' kind. Most also said it's one of the best performances they'd seen from Reagan, I have to agree. This unfairly dismissed film is highly recommended for lovers of late 40's romantic noir. Ken Roche......

The best thing to come out of Night Unto Night, a rather dull melodrama that none of the cast can bring any life to is the fact that the director, Don Siegel married leading Viveca Lindfors and the two of them contributed Kristoffer Tabori for our entertainment pleasure a generation later. When a film is held up for two years before being released you know it has some problems.The story is about a reclusive and sensitive scientist who has developed epilepsy played by Ronald Reagan who rents a house on a then lonely stretch of Florida beach to be alone and do his research without people's gossip. He rents from Viveca Lindfors who is a widow and who's husband was lost at sea years ago. Being Swedish Lindfors had another Hollywood Scandinavian cast as her sister with Osa Massen. They are completely unalike, they remind me of the Sternwood sisters in The Big Sleep.Broderick Crawford is also around as an artist and neighbor and Reagan's doctors are played by Art Baker and Erskine Sanford. The film plods on and on without you developing any real interest in the story or the characters.Don Siegel had scored great success with the Warner Brothers B film, The Verdict and this was his second film. He left Warner Brothers for RKO after this where he went on to great acclaim and bigger budgets even at RKO. His wife had the good fortune to get two American films released including the Errol Flynn spectacular Adventures of Don Juan where Lindfors played Queen Margaret. If this had been released first poor Viveca might have caught the first plane back to Sweden.I don't think Reagan's biggest political and acting fans could sit through this one without falling asleep.