The opening credits fade onto a town square where a blind man, Frank (Elisha Cook Jr. – a staple in several film noirs) is tapping his way down the sidewalk. He enters a 4-story boarding house and hears a shot fired in one of the upstairs bedrooms. A door opens (from audience’s POV) and a man stumbles out of the door and falls down two flights of stairs. He is dead when he hits the bottom. This follows nearly 100 mins. of flashback (and flashbacks-within-flashbacks) about the unraveling of a WWII veteran/factory worker, Joe (Henry Fonda). Though it has some fine dialogue, the film lacks momentum and feels slow at times; it resulted in a loss for RKO Pictures ($1,000,000). This lesser-known movie (free on YouTube) is a remake of Le Jour Se Leve (1939) from France. Directed by Anatole Litvak, it is well-made and creates a noir-ish atmosphere in a seemingly normal Midwestern setting. Dmitri Tiomkin’s haunting music includes a rearrangement of a familiar piece by Beethoven.

Well, I never knew that Fonda did a noir picture! Over a few weeks, Joe falls in love w/ Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes), a young woman who works in a floral shop. They are both alone, as they are orphans raised in the same home (though several years apart).When he mentions the idea of marriage, she is not too eager. Joe says that she’s free, as everyone should be, and goes to his truck. Joe then follows Jo Ann, curious why she’s going out so late (after 9PM). He ends up at a busy bar and sees her meeting w/ the performer- a magician named Maximilian (Vincent Price). Joe quickly learns re: this man’s character, thanks to his bitter/chatty assistant, Charlene (Anne Dvorak), Joe’s image of Jo Ann is shattered, and his thoughts get darker after he talks w/ Maximilian (an arrogant liar who has a way w/ words).

The dialogue will keep your attention, esp. the heated scenes between straight-talking Fonda and Price (both charming and creepy). Dvorak’s weary cynicism is in contrast w/ Bel Geddes’ youthful optimism. Fonda gets to show his range, in the flashbacks and in the present (where he is holed up in his small room w/ police surrounding the house). I didn’t think the characters were very fleshed out. The ending was not what I expected; it was too sentimental and unrealistic. Check it out if you like these actors and/or the noir genre.

[1] …I saw working class heroism, touches of popular justice, and just a hint of bourgeois deceit. The latter showed in the fantastic performance by Vincent Price as his character continued to try to sell a fantasy to Jo Ann by means of magic and falsehood.

[2] I never see anything that Fonda’s character has been put through as far as shock or emotional torment or even disillusionment that would justifiably cause him to kill a man.

I believe the production code is the reason any hard edges that seem to be just under the surface never appear. I’m almost positive the script would have gone further if the censors would have allowed it to be so.

-Excerpts from IMDB reviews