Strangers in the Night (1944)

Anthony Mann: Strangers in the Night (US 1944). Avec Virginia Grey (Dr. Leslie Ross), William Terry (Sgt. Johnny Meadows) and Helene Thimig (Mrs. Hilda Blake). Photo: La Cinémathèque française. 

L'Esprit pervers

    Anthony Mann

    États-Unis / 1944 / 56 min / DCP / VOSTF

    d'après une histoire de Philip MacDonald

    Avec William Terry, Virginia Grey, Helene Thimig.

    Unreleased in Finland and Sweden.

    Rétrospective Anthony Mann.

    La Cinémathèque française, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris. M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6 ; Salle Georges Franju, le 23 mars 2024.

La Cinémathèque française : " Un Marine blessé recherche la femme avec qui il a entretenu une relation épistolaire durant sa convalescence. Une production à petit budget, dont le canevas gothique multiplie les clins d'œil à Hitchcock, de Soupçons à Rebecca (pour lequel Mann avait supervisé le casting. "

AA: A piece of Female Gothic, a murder mystery, a WWII story, a tale of mental illness, a tale of a war invalid.

In an Anthony Mann retrospective, Strangers in the Night is a minor entry, but it has its rewards.

1. It is a story about the great importance of books. During wartime, the Red Cross received donations of books to send to American soldiers. Some donors understood to sign them with their names and addresses. This is the start of a romance and the genesis of this story.

2. It is a story about the great importance of letters, of correspondence. Rosemary and Johnny (William Terry) fall in love via correspondence only.

3. During wartime, many women rose to positions of greater responsibility and became authority figures. One of them is Dr. Leslie Ross (Virginia Grey), who must constantly face the surprise of patients when they realize that she is a woman. It is characteristic for Anthony Mann to highlight the drama and comedy of such situations with sympathy.

4. Strangers in the Night as a piece of Female Gothic has affinities with Suspicion and Rebecca as alerted in the La Cinémathèque française program note above. It has also affinities with Jane Eyre and I Walked with a Zombie, both of which also starred Edith Barrett.

5. The film does not belong to Anthony Mann's film noir cycle proper but is relevant to it. 1) The title resonates in film noir. 2) The film opens in the Pacific theatre of WWII. The paratrooper Johnny's back is severely injured, he experiences debilitating pain, is in medical care during the course of the film, and at times loses consciousness. 3) Hilda Blake is a seemingly harmless elderly, invalidized woman, but beneath the ordinary facade, an unscrupulous killer. 4) Like in Rebecca and Laura, a portrait of a woman dominates the house. Only the woman, Rosemary, is imaginary. 5) Hilda Blake is played by the great Helene Thimig, the widow of Max Reinhardt. The couple came to Hollywood exile after Hitler's rise to power.

6. Strangers in the Night has affinities with ghost stories and stories of love with a person who does not exist: Portrait of Jennie, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Ugetsu monogatari, Vertigo.

7. The print is in low contrast in the beginning, then in high contrast, and finally in good contrast.