THE SUN SETS AT DAWN

US, 1950, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Sally Parr, Patrick Waltz, Walter Reed, Lee Frederick, Housley Stevenson, Howard St John, Raymond Bramley, King Donovan, Percy Helton, Charles Arnt.
Directed by Paul H.Sloane.

This is a very earnest film from 1950, highly critical of capital punishment in itself and the fact that innocent prisoners can be executed. The film also has religious overtones.

The film was written and directed by Paul H.Sloane, who had written quite a number of films and directed them between 1925 in 1939. This film was made 11 years later and he made one more film two years after this in Japan.

The action takes place over a few hours, the hours before the dawn execution, one of the journalists attended the execution, suggesting that a headline could be The Sun Sets at Dawn. The film begins with her boss arriving in the small town, the young woman getting off, the old man in charge of the post and station welcoming her. She is taken then to the home of the prison warden and his wife, upset that the young man she loves is about to be sent to the new electric chair according to new legislation in the state.

The film uses a technique of long takes focusing on the characters without their saying anything, letting the audience look and be aware. (This may have been edited because some information on the film gives its running time is 71 minutes, though these comments are based on an 86 minutes version.)

The man to be executed is seen talking with the prison chaplain, referred to as Padre, wearing a very large Roman collar, the presumption of Catholicism. He is a sympathetic listener, quotes The Lord is my Shepherd as well as many other quotations from Psalms. The young man is able to look back on his life, his wanting to be someone, overlooked even for sports teams at school, in the Army for two years, not supported by his father, becoming a cadet journalist, wanting to get big stories. While looking at a criminal, he is present when the criminal is gunned down by six shots. He is knocked out, the gun put in his hand and, despite his proclamation of innocence, is found guilty and to be executed.

His concern is for his girlfriend who wants to see him. She is brought to the prison by the warden, is comforted also by the chaplain.

Given equal attention in the screenplay is the group of journalists who are to be bussed to the prison for the execution. There is a lot of talk about the case, the giving of information, the young journalist on his first assignment getting on detail, on time, unemotional reporting. Several popular character actors take on the roles of the reporters.

In the meantime, there is focused the prison on the officer in charge of the execution, the electricians working, assuring the authorities that all will be successful – but, in fact, it is not on the young man is taken back to his cell with the chaplain.

In the meantime, there is another subplot, the store being a stopover for truck drivers and one of them, silent, has been identified by the manager as being connected with the criminal organisations. In fact, one of the men sitting in the diner area is identified by him and is a noted hitman, using six bullets, his body was allegedly fished out of the water tied to concrete. The man sits and watches – and elicit some sympathy for the young woman and what will happen to after the execution.

This leads to the exposing of the hitman, his shooting the truck driver, the police coming, his being taken to the prison, fingerprints taken, his being identified despite his plastic surgery as the killer. There are several scenes of him sitting at the table, Long close-ups, pondering the situation, listening to the girl weeping.

When the warden gets the information about the criminal, realising what is happening, he shuts off the power in the prison thus preventing the next attempt at the execution.

There is a happy reconciliation but, after some dialogue throughout the film on the role of God, got listening to prayer, why God doesn’t act…, The final image is a close-up of the chaplain and the camera then gearing up torch the clouds in the sky and the sun appearing.

An interesting example of anti-capital punishment stances as well as the religious perspective.