THE NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY

US, 1968, 93 minutes, Colour.
Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno, Richard Boone, Pamela Franklin.
Directed by Hubert Cornfield.

The Night of the Following Day is a complicated title for a film which juggles with time, dreams, fantasy and the imagination. One must wait for the ending to try to estimate what the reality of the film is.

The film was offbeat, not commercially popular and made by Hubert Cornfield, a director who has made very few films in his career. A prominent film of the early sixties of his was Pressure Point with Sidney Poitier and Bobby Darin. This film boasts interesting performances from Marlon Brando, Richard Boone and Rita Moreno. Pamela Franklin who had been successful as a child actress in such films as The Innocents was here beginning her adult career. Offbeat and Interesting.

1. The meaning of the title?

2. What did the music add to the atmosphere of the film?

3. Comment on the flashback structure of the film, especially the fact that it was Angelique's flashback. Was this a good suspense thriller? What were the features that made it a success? Was the kidnapping plan a good one? Why? what comment did the film make on kidnappings and the suffering involved?

4. The people concerned:

• Bud - what kind of person, did his personality appear well in the film? How did he come to be involved in the kidnapping, his relationship with Vi? His relationship with Angelique? His role in the plan? His confrontation with Leer? Was he presented as a rounded personality?

• Vi Davis - as a person, the hostess, her part in the plan, her facing the crisis, eg each meeting with the local policeman, her drinking, the sequence in the bath, her relationship to Bud, to her brother Wally? Her shooting of the policemen? Your reaction to the killing of the policeman?

• Wally Davis - as a criminal, as a person, his relationship to Bud, his relationship to Vi, his relationship to Leer? His attitude towards Angelique? His role in the kidnapping? His nervousness?

• Leer - as a person, as a psychotic? What made him join the plan? How insane was he? his attitude towards and treatment of Angelique? His carrying out of his part of the plan? His confrontation with Bud? His final double crossing of the group? His death?

5. Angelique as a person, her relationship with her father and brother? The fright of being kidnapped? Her behaviour, was it credible? As a rounded personality? The final irony when the audience realised that the whole plan had taken place in her mind?

6. The importance of the local policeman? his curiosity? His meetings and suspicion? His finally being shot, but giving the information? The audience's personal reaction towards him and his death?

7. Was this film too violent? Why?

8. Was the film plausible? Was it presented as entirely plausible or were there gaps which corresponded to Angelique's imagination?

9. How ironic was the film with the final revelation? What would be your impressions on seeing this film again?

10. The film was banned from cinema release in Australia in 1969. Can you see why? (It was released on television in 1973. Do you think that it should have been banned? Why?)

11. Was this an important film? Why?