Nocturne (1946 film)

Last updated
Nocturne
Nocturne (1946 film).jpg
Theatrical release poster by William Rose
Directed by Edwin L. Marin
Screenplay by Jonathan Latimer
Story by
Produced by Joan Harrison
Starring
Cinematography Harry J. Wild
Edited by Elmo Williams
Music by Leigh Harline
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • October 29, 1946 (1946-10-29)(United States) [1]
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Nocturne is a 1946 American film noir starring George Raft and Lynn Bari, with Virginia Huston, Joseph Pevney, and Myrna Dell in support. Directed by Edwin L. Marin, the film was produced by longtime Alfred Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison, scripted by Jonathan Latimer, and released by RKO Pictures. [2] It was one of several medium budget thrillers Raft made in the late 1940s. [3]

Contents

Plot

Keith Vincent is a Hollywood composer, working on a new song. As he nears completion of "Nocturne", a woman sits silently in the shadows and listens to him over his piano. The mood changes when he speaks the lyrics, "You're no longer the one," then encourages her to go away for a while. Moments later, as he alters the score, a shot rings out.

When the police arrive the lieutenant in charge thinks it is suicide, but detective Joe Warne suspects murder. He encounters Vincent's housekeeper, Susan, whom he recognizes as an ex-con. They take her in for questioning.

The score on the piano is dedicated to “Dolores”. Warne begins his search for her. The houseboy arrives after a day off. He explains that Vincent was planning to meet a woman but he does not know whom. He describes the composer as a womanizer who called all of his girlfriends Dolores. Warne notices a single portrait is missing from a line of Vincent’s former flings.

The coroner returns a verdict of suicide, but Warne continues to investigate despite being warned by his boss to stop. He recognizes that he is being followed by a large man and accosts him. The man, Torp, denies everything. Warne pushes another large man into a pool when an interloper seeks to cut an interview short with one of Vincent’s exes.

Warne's aggressive tactics lead several suspects to report him for abuse. Obsessed with the case, and ignoring his chief’s direct warnings, Warne is threatened with suspension from the force. Indignant, he turns in his badge.

As he digs deeper into the case, the clues draw him closer to ex-Vincent flame and bit actress Frances Ransom. She is difficult, evasive, uncooperative, and arranges a beating for him by Torp.

While Warne is being patched up by a doctor a severely battered Susan is brought in on a gurney. She refuses to reveal who shut her up.

Acting on a tip, the police are put on Warne’s tail. He ends up framed for the murder of a photographer who attempts to provide him an important clue to the identity of Vincent’s last girlfriend. She is Carol, Frances’ sister, the singer at a local nightclub where Torp works pushing pianist accompanist Ned “Fingers” Ford from table to table.

Suspecting Francis is somehow involved, Warne goes to her apartment and discovers it is locked with the gas turned on. He breaks in and saves her, pocketing a purported suicide note left in the typewriter.

When Warne puts the bite on Carol she professes innocence, but he sees through it. He turns his attention to Ford, a composer who had once collaborated with Vincent on several successful songs but been cut out when Vincent refused to share the recognition - and the rewards.

Ford is also Carol’s husband, the couple having been married several years earlier.

Ford knew that his wife had become Vincent’s latest conquest, and decided to murder him when he discovered the cad had no intention of marrying her. He also had been responsible, with Torp’s help, for the photographer’s murder, staged as another suicide, and the attempted murder of Frances.

Warne turns Ford and Carol over to the police, and takes Frances by the arm to introduce her to his mother, a first step towards getting her to the altar. She smilingly goes along.

Cast

Production

George Raft and Edward Marin had just made Johnny Angel together at RKO, which proved popular. Their involvement in Nocturne was announced in September 1945. [4] In between Johnny Angel and Nocturne, Raft and Marin made Mr. Ace for Benedict Bogeaus.

Joan Harrison was signed by RKO to produce the film in October. [5]

Joseph Pevney was brought out from Broadway to play a supporting role. Jane Greer was up for the female lead but George Raft went for the more age-appropriate and better-known Lynn Bari. [6] Bari was borrowed from 20th Century Fox. Filming started in May 1946. [7]

Raft reportedly did some rewriting of the script to make his character more sympathetic. [8]

Reception

Box office

The film was popular on release and recorded a profit of $568,000. [9]

Critical reception

When the film was released, the staff at Variety magazine wrote, "Nocturne is a detective thriller with action and suspense plentiful and hard-bitten mood of story sustained by Edwin L. Marin's direction." [10]

Wrote the New York Times, "Moments of suspense and excitement... are rare". [11]

The Los Angeles Times called it "a skillfully worked out murder melodrama." [12]

Related Research Articles

<i>Suspicion</i> (1941 film) 1941 American film by Alfred Hitchcock

Suspicion is a 1941 American romantic psychological thriller film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, and Leo G. Carroll. Suspicion is based on Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact (1932).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Raft</span> American actor (1895–1980)

George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy, Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon; and as a dancer in Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart.

<i>Shock</i> (1946 film) 1946 film by Alfred L. Werker

Shock is a 1946 American film noir directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Vincent Price, Lynn Bari and Frank Latimore. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Conway</span> British actor (1904–1967)

Tom Conway was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing detectives and psychiatrists, among other roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat O'Brien (actor)</span> American actor (1899–1983)

William Joseph Patrick O'Brien was an American film actor with more than 100 screen credits. Of Irish descent, he often played Irish and Irish-American characters and was referred to as "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence" in the press. One of the best-known screen actors of the 1930s and 1940s, he played priests, cops, military figures, pilots, and reporters. He is especially well-remembered for his roles in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and Some Like It Hot (1959). He was frequently paired onscreen with Hollywood star James Cagney. O'Brien also appeared on stage and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Bari</span> American actress (1919–1989)

Lynn Bari was an American film actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in roughly 150 films for 20th Century Fox, from the early 1930s through the 1940s.

<i>Johnny Angel</i> 1945 film by Edwin L. Marin

Johnny Angel is a 1945 American film noir directed by Edwin L. Marin and written by Steve Fisher from the 1944 novel Mr. Angel Comes Aboard by Charles Gordon Booth. The movie stars George Raft, Claire Trevor and Signe Hasso, and features Hoagy Carmichael.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitzi Green</span> American child actress (1920–1969)

Mitzi Green was an American child actress and singer for Paramount and RKO, in the early "talkies" era. She then acted on Broadway and in other stage works, as well as in films and on television.

Charles Schnee was an American screenwriter and film producer. He wrote the scripts for the Westerns Red River (1948) and The Furies (1950), the social melodrama They Live by Night (1949), and the cynical Hollywood saga The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), for which he won an Academy Award.

<i>Mr. Ace</i> 1946 film by Edwin L. Marin

Mr. Ace is a 1946 American film noir starring George Raft and Sylvia Sidney involving a society woman who taps a gangster for his political support as she runs for Congress. The movie was written by Fred F. Finkelhoffe, directed by Edwin L. Marin, and photographed by legendary cinematographer Karl Struss.

<i>Nob Hill</i> (film) 1945 film by Henry Hathaway

Nob Hill is a 1945 Technicolor film about a Barbary Coast, San Francisco, United States saloon keeper, starring George Raft and Joan Bennett. Part musical and part drama, the movie was directed by Henry Hathaway. It remains one of Raft's lesser known movies even though it was a big success, in part because it was a musical.

<i>Female on the Beach</i> 1955 film by Joseph Pevney

Female on the Beach is a 1955 American crime-drama film directed by Joseph Pevney starring Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler in a story about a wealthy widow and her beach bum lover. The screenplay by Robert Hill and Richard Alan Simmons was based on the play The Besieged Heart by Robert Hill. The film was produced by Albert Zugsmith.

<i>The Glass Key</i> (1942 film) 1942 film by Stuart Heisler

The Glass Key is a 1942 American film noir based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The picture was directed by Stuart Heisler starring Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. A successful earlier film version starring George Raft in Ladd's role had been released in 1935. The 1942 version's supporting cast features William Bendix, Bonita Granville, Richard Denning and Joseph Calleia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin L. Marin</span> American film director

Edwin L. Marin was an American film director who directed 58 films between 1932 and 1951, working with Randolph Scott, Anna May Wong, John Wayne, Peter Lorre, George Raft, Bela Lugosi, Judy Garland, Eddie Cantor, and Hoagy Carmichael, among many others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Greatest Gift</span> 1943 short story by Philip Van Doren Stern

"The Greatest Gift" is a 1943 short story written by Philip Van Doren Stern, loosely based on the Charles Dickens 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, which became the basis for the film It's a Wonderful Life (1946). It was self-published as a booklet in 1943 and published as a book in 1944.

<i>A Dangerous Profession</i> 1949 film by Ted Tetzlaff

A Dangerous Profession is a 1949 American film noir directed by Ted Tetzlaff, written by Warren Duff and Martin Rackin, and starring George Raft, Ella Raines and Pat O'Brien. The film was one of a series of thrillers in which Raft appeared in the late 1940s, with decreasing commercial results.

<i>The Falcon Takes Over</i> 1942 film by Irving Reis

The Falcon Takes Over, is a 1942 black-and-white mystery film directed by Irving Reis. Although the film features the Falcon and other characters created by Michael Arlen, its plot is taken from the Raymond Chandler novel Farewell, My Lovely, with the Falcon substituting for Chandler's archetypal private eye Philip Marlowe and the setting of New York City replacing Marlowe's Los Angeles beat. The B film was the third, following The Gay Falcon and A Date with the Falcon (1941), to star George Sanders as the character Gay Lawrence, a gentleman detective known by the sobriquet the Falcon.

<i>Race Street</i> 1948 film by Edwin L. Marin

Race Street is a 1948 American crime film noir directed by Edwin L. Marin. The drama features George Raft, William Bendix and Marilyn Maxwell. It was one of several collaborations between Raft and Marin.

<i>Intrigue</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Edwin L. Marin

Intrigue is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring George Raft, June Havoc and Helena Carter. Intrigue was intended to be the first of a number of films Raft made, with producer Sam Bischoff, for his own production company, Star Films. It was one of several movies Raft made with Marin.

Free, Blonde and 21 is a 1940 American drama film directed by Ricardo Cortez and written by Frances Hyland. The film stars Lynn Bari, Mary Beth Hughes, Joan Davis, Henry Wilcoxon, Robert Lowery, Alan Baxter and Kay Aldridge. The film was released on March 29, 1940, by 20th Century Fox.

References

  1. "Nocturne: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  2. Nocturne at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films .
  3. Vagg, Stephen (February 9, 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: George Raft". Filmink.
  4. "FOX TO BASE FILM ON OSS ACTIVITIES: 'Diplomatic Courier' Will Deal With Its Counter-Espionage-- 'Mildred Pierce' at Strand Of LocaL Origin Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.". New York Times. Sep 28, 1945. p. 16.
  5. "NEWS OF THE SCREEN: Joan Harrison Signed by RKO to Produce 'Nocturne, Starring George Raft--U.S. to See 'Marie-Louise' Of Local Origin". New York Times. Oct 16, 1945. p. 31.
  6. Everett Aaker, The Films of George Raft, McFarland & Company, 2013 p 124.
  7. "LYNN BARI NAMED FOR RKO FILM LEAD: Will Star Opposite George Raft in 'Nocturne,' Mystery Story --'Open City' Held Over Of Local Origin". New York Times. Apr 30, 1946. p. 17.
  8. Miller, Frank. "Nocturne". Turner Classic Movies.
  9. Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p216.
  10. Variety. Sattf film review, 1946. Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  11. "THE SCREEN". New York Times. Nov 11, 1946. ProQuest   107594735.
  12. Scott, J. L. (Dec 19, 1946). "Murder tale clever fare". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   165733588.