Actors: John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Somewhere in the Night
SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT is a movie cowritten and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1946.
George W. Taylor, hit by a splinter of grenade, wakes up in an army hospital, amnesic. A few weeks later, George finds in his pocked a letter sent by a person accusing him of being a bad guy. Fearing that the doctors might discover unpleasant things about himself, George decides to pretend to be cured and to come back to his hometown, Los Angeles in order to find the truth about himself.
After having found the name of Larry Cravat in his personal papers, George Taylor decides to search for this man who seems to have been his close friend before the war. Soon, George learns that Larry Cravat and a second
man, who could be himself, are presumably the ones who killed a man and stole $2,000,000 three years before in the city.
George, helped by the singer Christy Smith, tries to locate Larry Cravat but Mark Conroy, the only person who could have helped him in his quest, is coldly murdered in the Lambeth Sanatorium, just a few minutes before
Georges's visit. George is desperate because, although he's unable to remember events that happened before he was injured, he is intimately convinced that he couldn't have killed a man in cold blood.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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Analysis of Somewhere in the Night
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie Actual chase scenes or violence - 10% Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How difficult to spot villain?
- Difficult, but some clues given
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1930's-1950's
Murder Mystery?
Yes
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
Special suspect?
- amnesiatic
Kind of mystery?
- amateur citizen investigator
Crime & Police Story?
Yes
Crime story:
- amnesia
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- aggressive
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavy
Body type
- average (woman)
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- businessman, small
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- average (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
City?
Yes
City:
- Los Angeles
Misc setting
- fort/military installation
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- non-gory references to death/punishment
Movie makes you feel...
- all mixed up
How many deaths in film?
- 2
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
Kind of violence:
- guns
Check here if B&W
Yes
If Soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Orchestra/classical
