Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

OVERLOOKED FILM: NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES (1948)

Elliott Carson (John  Lund) saves beautiful Jean Courtland (Gail Russell) from suicide.  They go a restaurant where they come across night club fortune teller John Triton (Edgar G. Robinson), who has already ordered for them.  It turns out that he knows Jean Courtland's parent well; they had managed Triton's clairvoyant act years ago, back around the time Triton began to realize that he really had psychic powers.  Triton's predictions became more dire, eventually culminating in a disaster that mad him leave the stage.  Now, years later, another terrible prediction has come to Triton, one involving Jean Courtland.  Triton has come out of his anonymity to aid the daughter of the woman he once loved, but will they believe him/

Night Has a Thousand Eyes is an effective suspense thriller with a stellar performance by Robinson.  Based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich (originally published under his "William Hopley" pseudonym), screenwriters Barre Lyndon (The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse, The Lodger, War of the Worlds) and mystery/pulp writer Jonathan Latimer (Topper Returns, The Glass Key, The Big Clock), the film was directed by John Farrow (husband of Maureen O'Hara, father of Mia, and grandfather of Ronan; director of Copper Canyon, Plunder of the Sun, Hondo, among others; and supposedly the only director in Hollywood who could outdrink Robert Mitchum).

Enjoy this classic, albeit overlooked, bit of noir.


https://archive.org/details/1948nighthasathousandeyesmilojostienelanochejohnfarrow

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