Nightfall (1956, dir. Jacques Tourneur, US) by Patrick McElroy

One of the gifts of film director Jacques Tourneur was how he was able to take something that would seem minor and turn it into something profound. In his Val Lewton-produced horror films such as The Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, and The Leopard Man he takes what might be laughable premises, but creates haunting and psychological films through mood and atmosphere. Then he would make one of the greatest film noirs ever with Out of the Past. What would be conceived by some at first as a cheap crime quickie, he creates great emotion, and again uses mood and atmosphere.

But there’s another film noir of his that gets overlooked, and that’s his 1956 film Nightfall, with Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, and Anne Bancroft. The film’s plot would be typical noir: Ray plays a man who has a past incident with Keith, a gangster, who he now owes money to, and Bancroft is a woman Ray falls for who works as a model to support herself.

What saves the film, then, is Tourneur’s directness, and his interest in the characters. Ray has a post-war mentality of men who have seen horrors and don’t want to face any more, and Bancroft is a woman who wants to be seen for more than just her looks.

When watching the movie again recently I was delighted to see how compact, tightly structured, and direct the movie was, where today movies think spending more time equals quality. The film also makes interesting use of Los Angeles, creating an ideal America during the day, but a shadowy underground during night.

When watching a movie like this that was taken for granted during its release, you actually see what care went into films made by major studios at the time. They created sets, would light up sets, and created fully fleshed narratives. Peter Bogdanovich once said, “There are no "old" movies really - only movies you have already seen and ones you haven't.”, so if you haven’t seen Nightfall, or any films by Tourneur, please don’t let the age fool you, there might be something in them you’ve never seen.

Patrick McElroy is a movie writer and movie lover based in Los Angeles. Check out his other writing at: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.mcelroy.3726 or his IG: @mcelroy.patrick