Strangers in the Night

Anthony Mann serves up a crisp, hour-long, classic B-picture with his fifth directorial effort, in which he returns to the darker side of life after a few lighter comedies—and gives Helene Thimig, who had recently become a widow, her only truly major film role (and the only one that brought her joy during her time in the USA—but who could blame her). Hilda Blake is the mistress of a remote house on the cliffs and struggles with old age, love and telling the truth in particular. With the help of her faithful housekeeper, she drags herself on crutches through her oversized property and waits for the young man who is soon to arrive. His name is Johnny Meadows, a sergeant wounded in the war who is now on home leave and eager to meet Rosemary, the mysterious lover he has never met and only knows from letters. When he finally arrives at her house, he finds only a pretty portrait of her and her mother Hilda. The story on which the film is based was written by Philip MacDonald, screenwriter of Hitchcock’s REBECCA and Rudolph Maté’s THE DARK PAST—in other words, a proven expert on the dark corners of the human psyche, which Mann was able to explore like no other in his later genre films. (Florian Widegger)

Anthony Mann: DR. BROADWAY (1942), RAW DEAL (1948), BORDER INCIDENT (1949), DEVIL’S DOORWAY (1950), BEND OF THE RIVER (1952), THE NAKED SPUR (1953), THE LAST FRONTIER (1955), THE LAST FRONTIER (1955), EL CID (1961), THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964)