SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT
US, 1944, 67 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Baxter, Nina Foch, George Zucco, Edward Norris, Lester Matthews, Ben Welden,, Jeanne Bates.
Directed by Eugene J.Forde.
Shadows in the Night is the third in the B-budget supporting feature series, based on a radio program, the Crime Dr. The series continued throughout the 1940s and starred warner Baxter, Oscar-winner for In Old Arizona (1928).
The doctor is asked to investigate the nightmare experiences of a rich young woman, played by Nina Foch, with fears for her life. The doctor visits her house, changes rooms with her, experiences the same nightmares and sleepwalking, almost causing his death.
There is a variety of guests in the house, a pompous actor and his wife, a lawyer, the young woman’s scientist uncle who has his own laboratory, a young man partner in a company whose head is found dead, and the jack of all trades who works on the property.
There are suspicions on the uncle, especially with the poisons in his laboratory. There is suspicion on the lawyer. Initial suspicions on the handyman – who is able to provide help to the doctor and for the solution. There is a comic touch as the coroner is sprayed with the hallucinating powder and sleep walks – very difficult to wake up and asserting that the gas had no effect on him.
Eventually, of course, the culprit is unmasked, hostility towards the young woman, issues of custodianship and divorce.
1. The third in the Crime Doctor series? The popularity of the stories, based on a radio program, murders and mysteries? Dr Ordway and his investigations and solutions?
2. The setting, the mansion, the sea, the cliffs? The interiors, basements, laboratories? The musical score?
3. The title, dreams and nightmares, the hypnotic gas and the consequences?
4. Dr Ordway, at home, Lois Garland and her visit, fears, nightmares? The doctor reassuring her, her going home? The man at the window, listening at the door, his footprints?
5. Dr Ordway going to the house, Nick at the gate, Lois welcoming him, meeting with Mr and Mrs Carter, the actor and his performance, the other guests, Frank Swift, looking sinister, his laboratory? Lois’s uncle? Jess Hilton, the partner in the business? Relationship with Lois?
6. Dr Ordway sleeping in Lois’s room? The gas, his sleepwalking, the accident on the cliffs, Frank Swift helping him? Seeing the dead body in the corridor? Its disappearance? Later finding it on the beach? The dead manager of the firm?
7. The police, interrogations? The doctor and his search of the house, the laboratory and the gas? The basement? Nick and his role, prison, chef, suspicious?
8. Frederick Gordon, attorney, his place as a guest? Under suspicion?
9. The police, the doctor, the demonstration of the gas, his denying its power, his sleepwalking, difficult to wake up? The comic touches?
10. The back story Stanley Carter, custody issues, animosity towards Lois, the gas, the roof, the whole and the insertion of the gas and its effect on Lois? Nightmare and fears?
The re-enactment of the coroner disguised as the mysterious woman?
11. Carter, his being tied up, Nick giving a demonstration of tying himself up, the unmasking of Carter?
