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| Anatole Litvak: The Long Night (US 1947). Henry Fonda (Joe Adams) and Ann Dvorak (Charlene). |
La disperata notte / Pitkä yö / Lång natt.
US 1947. Prod.: Anatole Litvak, Robert Hakim, Raymond Hakim per Select Productions, Inc.
Director: Anatole Litvak. Sog.: dal soggetto di Alba tragica (1939) di Jacques Viot. Scen.: John Wexley. F.: Sol Polito. M.: Robert Swink. Scgf.: Eugene Lourie. Mus.: Dimitri Tiomkin. Int.: Henry Fonda (Joe Adams), Barbara Bel Geddes (Jo Ann), Vincent Price (Maximilian the Great), Ann Dvorak (Charlene), Howard Freeman (sceriffo Ned Meade), Moroni Olsen (capo della polizia), Elisha Cook Jr. (Frank Dunlap), Queenie Smith (Mrs. Tully).
35 mm. 101’. Bn.
Soundtrack: main theme: Ludwig van Beethoven: II Satz: Allegretto from: 7. Sinfonie in A-Dur op. 92 (Entst. 1811/12, Urauff. 1813).
The theme of Maximilian the Great: "Der Deitcher's Dog", or, "Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" ("Zu Lauterbach hab' ich mein' Strumpf verlor'n"), German folk song with English lyrics by Septimus Winner (1864).
The Cleveland Symphony Orchestra concert where Max invites Jo Ann: Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.
In production from 26 Aug to 9 Dec, 1946. US premiere: 28 May 1947.
Helsinki premiere: 20 Aug 1948 Adlon, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures Incorporation Finland - telepremiere 12 May 1960 Yle TV1.
[35 mm print from: British Film Institute announced.] Instead a 4K DCP of a 2022 transfer was on display.
Concession by Park Circus
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2024: Journeys Into Night: The World of Anatole Litvak.
Viewed at Cinema Jolly, e-subtitles in Italian, 27 June 2024
Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna Catalogue 2024): " After a five-year interruption in his career due to the war during which he served as the director of a dozen documentaries in the Why We Fight series, Anatole Litvak not only returned to Hollywood but also to his French poetic realist roots. "
" The producers Robert and Raymond Hakim who had the American rights to Le Jour se lève, the 1939 classic by Marcel Carné, suggested a remake. Crazy as it sounded, Litvak took it on. Very close to the original in structure and content, it’s about an ex-soldier who now works in a foundry. Originally played by Jean Gabin, the remake stars Henry Fonda who had a rich back catalogue of doomed and fallen heroes, starting with Fritz Lang’s You Only Live Once. "
" Fonda’s Joe Adams falls in love with Jo Ann, a wide-eyed girl manipulated by an unscrupulous nightclub magician. For the part of the girl, Litvak unearthed another talent, this time Barbara Bel Geddes in her screen debut. "
" Vincent Price as the seedy magician plays one of his classic villains. As the film opens, Price is shot dead in Fonda’s dilapidated apartment; flashbacks reveal the thread of events leading up to the murder. Regular collaborators were called in, including scriptwriter John Wexley and cinematographer Sol Polito who delivers moody and melancholic visuals that became defining images of film noir. "
" As a remake, the film suffered from the puritanical critical approach that gives preference to the original over a strictly commercial undertaking. The danger in this practice lies in missing the nuances of Litvak’s fine work, not fully grasping the cumulative effect the war had on his cinema. "
" The optimism and naivety of the couple in the remake is dramatically different from the fatalistic angst of the original, therefore the sense of a withered environment leading to tragedy is more heightened in Litvak’s version. Here, existentialist disgust has been transmuted into the unfulfilled promises of industrial small town America. " Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna Catalogue 2024)
AA: Anatole Litvak's The Long Night belongs to the trend of masterpieces of 1930s French cinema remade in Hollywood during the film noir period - fascinating films including Scarlet Street, Personal Column, The Long Night and The Human Desire.
The toughest subject for a remake was Le Jour se lève, the culmination of Jean Gabin's prewar achievements (but not the last of them: he managed Remorques, or most of it, before Hollywood exile). In their context, Le Jour se lève is unique in its absolute power, clarity and audacity. It is a matter of something more than aesthetics. It is a piece of poetry, and it also transcends all that to exist in a different ontological category.
André Bazin praised the psychology of the characters and the veracity of the milieux but argued that Le Jour se lève rises beyond psychological or social drama. For him, this tale from a "suburban Thebes" was literally a tragedy in the sense of classical antiquity. While physical reality is meaningful in every detail, the momentum is metaphysical.
This essence of Le Jour se lève the producers of the Hollywood remake refused to meet. The original radiated a darkness that even film noir hardly ever matched. From the mythical grandeur of ancient tragedy the postwar artists returned to the face of the Earth and created a violent melodrama with a happy end.
The cast is great. Henry Fonda excels in his second postwar role, following My Darling Clementine. Barbara Bel Geddes debuts impressively as the young orphan. Ann Dvorak, while appealing, is no match for Arletty. But Vincent Price is as great as Jules Berry as the Devil incarnate.
The Long Night is a PTSD tale. Joe Adams is a war veteran, and also the blind man - a figure essential in both tragedy and melodrama - is a war invalid. He is played by nobody else than Elisha Cook, Jr., the acteur fétiche of film noir.
After Napoléon vu par Abel Gance on Sunday, I am again hearing Beethoven in Bologna, a piece that I consider one of his funeral marches: the slow(-ish) second movement of the seventh symphony. I love it, but the impact diminishes if you play it again... and again... and again.
The visual quality of the DCP is generally great, and the luminous quality of Sol Polito's close-ups lingers in mind. In the beginning there are passages possibly retrieved from sources of low contrast, perhaps television prints.
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