The Night of the Following Day

Plot synopsis:
The film starts with Dupont's daughter (Franklin) on an airplane and a stewardess, Vi (Moreno) bending over her. As she leaves, we see a chauffeur, Bud (Brando), saying something to Dupont's daughter which we do not hear. He puts her in the back of a Rolls-Royce and drives off. They stop at a junction and Leer (Boone) gets in. The girl realises she has been kidnapped.
Bud starts to have second thoughts. He tries to protect the girl when Leer gets out of control. Bud also has to deal with the lack of courage with the head of the operation and Vi, who uses drugs and cannot be trusted.
Then things start to unravel. Leer kills all his partners in crime on their return with the ransom, the car catching fire. Bud, perhaps anticipating this betrayal, gets out early. Hiding on the beach, he is able to exact revenge and shoots Leer as he signals to a ship waiting to take him from the country.
All is revealed to be a dream during the girl's flight, sparked by Vi, the air hostess. But then the girl meets Bud in the airport just as in the dream...

Tags: romantic, neo noir, murder, sadist, flashback

Review:
The Night Before The Following Day is one of Marlon Brando's most over-looked films.
Looking as fit and trim as he was in Streetcar Named Desire, Brando gives an emotionally charged performance as Bud (Brando's nickname in real life!), the leader of a gang of ruthless kidnappers.
Brando's acting is at its best in an amazing scene in which he has an intense conversation with Jess Hahn about his misgivings regarding the success of their kidnapping.The supporting cast is remarkable.
Rita Moreno as Wally's drug-addicted sister and Brando's girl-friend, is at her rawest.
And a young Pamela Franklin as the kidnap victim shines in a truly abusive role.Raw acting, graphic brutality, realistic action, a surprise ending, and out-standing acting performances makes The Night Before The Following Day a Marlon Brando classic..
Among Marlon Brando's brilliant filmography,"night of the following day" remains one of his most mysterious .I saw the movie twice (it was a continuous programme) when it was theatrically released and since,I have never talked about it with anybody afterward.Yesterday ,when I finally saw it again after all those years,I realized I totally missed the point the first time:I had not understood the ending.It was a time unexpected twists were not that much common .Of course Fritz Lang's "Woman in the window" had already been made but I hardly knew Lang's name.But if the ending eluded me ,blame it on the script too.To make sense,the whole story should have been seen through Pamela Franklin's eyes!Her part is underwritten ,she hasn't even got a name.Anyway,Brando's smile on the last picture is really spooky and makes me think of many films of today.Cornfield's main asset is the perfection of his cast:apart from the two names I mention above,Richard Boone,Jess Hahn and Rita Moreno are first-class actors.Hats off to the latter who manages quite well in French: all the scenes with the cop are suspenseful ("Je vous ai fait peur?"=Did I scare you?)Cornfield's use of France is devoid of the usual clichés:no accordion tune,no Eiffel Tower,and,on the Champ Elysées ,we can't even see the Arc of Triumph.On the other hand,his depiction of the little bistros (French pubs) is accurate and the (Normandy?) beach where most of the action takes place is a good location.The house is wrapped in silence disturbed only by the sea.There's something bizarre which almost explains the eerie ending.This story of kidnapping has been told and told and told.And however Hubert Cornfield 's movie is unlike all the other ones.Marlon Brando assumes an indifferent air,which increases the strange atmosphere .Towards the ending,everything is happening at once and we sometimes wonder whether the criminals' plans are that much good (in the bistro,they make blunder after another).French director Robert Hossein certainly appreciated Cornfield's movie since he made "Point de chute" starring singer Johnny Hallyday which bore more than a distant resemblance to "night of...".Like Franklin,the victim has no name either !Hubert Cornfield infatuation with France took the form of a ...French movie in 1976 "les Grands Moyens" from an Exbrayat's novel which sank without a trace..
The Night of the Following Day(1969) is the sordid tale of four professional criminals who kidnap an 18 year old rich girl(Pamela Franklin) and hold her for ransom at a beach home off the coast of France.Marlon Brando,(looking fit and sporting a blonde wig), Rita Moreno, Jess Hahn and Richard Boone are the kidnapers.
Dont waste your time looking at any edited versions of this film, they will make no sense at all, but if can find the un-cut version, this movie will make your skin crawl.
Richard Boone, Rita Moreno, and the actor who plays her brother are all thinly written characters.
Rita Moreno's character snorts heroin, her brother is an ineffectual non-entity who doesn't care whether he's killed as a result of committing this crime, and Richard Boone's character has sadistic tendencies.
In it, a chauffeur in Paris with a criminal record (Marlon Brando) reluctantly agrees to take part in the kidnapping for ransom of a young British heiress (Pamela Franklin), which is being masterminded by his good friend, a washed-up pickpocket (Jess Hahn).
The girl will be held hostage at the English Channel home of a heroin-addicted stewardess (Rita Moreno), who is both Hahn's sister and Brando's girlfriend.
Added to this motley group is a sadistic pimp (Richard Boone), whom Hahn brought in but Brando doesn't trust.
Although the acting is by all means above average, this movie suffers from lack of tension and suspense.The characters' actions are sometimes incomprehensible and the ending is too disappointing.
This is the factor that helps 'The Night Of The Following Day' to deliver the refreshing quality that contrasts the morbid atmosphere the movie slowly builds so perfectly.A contradictory statement?
Suspense is conflict.A girl is kidnapped by an odd group of professional criminals - a man whose tough ways curtail his vulnerability, his stewardess girlfriend who is struggling against a serious drug addiction, her slow minded brother, and a sadistic lunatic.During two days, we analyze through Hubert Cornfield's almost Bergmanesque eyes, each desperate character, and how they manage to bring up the worst in each other.
This "kidnap" film has a strong supporting cast which gives equally impressive performances.
The Night Before The Following Day is one of Marlon Brando's top 10 acting roles..
The film begins with a young lady being kidnapped by two men (Marlon Brando and Richard Boone).
Then, at first, Boone appears like a pretty nice kidnapper--though later, he seems to be a bit of a sadist.
However, his friend is able to convince him to stick it out--against his better judgment.It's amazing watching this film, as apart from a VERY emotive scene involving Brando having what appears to be a temper tantrum, the folks in the film seem as if they are all on an painkillers--LOTS of them.
And, its ending was one of the WORST I've seen in a long time, and I watch A LOT of films..
Kidnapping Goes Bad. This is one of weirdest of film projects Marlon Brando ever got himself involved in.
I'm still trying to figure out the point of it all.The Night of the Following Day was shot in France and it involves rich, young, and pretty Pamela Franklin being kidnapped and held for ransom.
As is the usual the initial snatch goes off like clockwork, but the plan after that just doesn't come off.Jess Hahn, American expatriate actor, is the leader of the group that includes his sister Rita Moreno, Marlon Brando, and Richard Boone.
An obliging POLICEMAN actually gives them a lift.In the meantime Richard Boone who's never bad even in the worst films is getting some lascivious desires about Franklin.
A young British heiress (Patricia Franklin) is kidnapped at an airport in Paris in this rather tough existentialist crime drama featuring Marlon Brando as the nominal leader of the gang of morally flexible criminals that include his drug addicted girlfriend played by Rita Moreno, her pickpocket brother (Jess Hahn) and Richard Boone at his most menacing as a pimp named Leer.
Interesting tension develops between bad Boone and not-so-bad Brando, with Jess Hahn sort of stealing the show as a kind of non- violent pickpocket desperate just to get the money.
The Night of the Following Day (1968) *** (out of 4) A girl (Pamela Franklin) finds herself kidnapped by a group of kidnappers (Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, Rita Moreno) but is sworn her life is safe as long as her father pays the ransom.
Soon it becomes clear that the kidnapper's most difficult thing is going to be dealing with each other.THE NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY didn't make much of a splash when it was originally released and throughout the decades it still hasn't gained much of a cult following.
For fans of Marlon Brando this was released during a period when the actor was struggling or just not really caring what type of movies he was doing as long as there was a paycheck attached.
While there are certainly many flaws with the picture I think it's a rather underrated kidnapping yarn.What I enjoyed most about the film was the cast.
Brando delivers a pretty good performance here as the kidnapper who quickly realizes this plan isn't working.
Boone and Gerard Buhr as a friendly cop are also quite good and Moreno is also very memorable as the kidnapper with the drug problem.
THE NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY doesn't last too long and it's mainly going to appeal to people for its cast..
The Day After Watching the Night of The Following Day. To call this movie "bad" is to pay it a compliment.
There are superlatives, however: the worst musical score everworst-ever wig for Marlon (runner-up: Rita Moreno)worst-ever ill-conceived kidnap plot and the list goes on.
It's fortunate that this was not Marlon Brando's first role because it might have short-circuited an otherwise brilliant career.This movie was not a dream, but a nightmare.
While this sounded promising, it was an insufferably dull film, easily the worst I've seen of Marlon Brando's at this point.
This film stars Marlon Brando as a leader of a gang who kidnap a girl with a rich father and hold her for ransom.
Marlon Brando should have known better than to get involved in rubbish like the above film.
The attempts in making "Night of the Following Day" something of a trendy film are excruciating!
Marlon Brando is just amazing in this intelligent film.Most people don't understand Brando's career choices during the sixties.But I think that as years go by,they will.His ideas were way ahead of his time.His talent and range were unbelievable.Every actor tries to imitate his intensity (deniro,penn,nolte,.....) with no success.Definitely the king of acting..
Released in 1968, "The Night of the Following Day" is a realistic crime drama featuring Brando as one of four professional criminals who kidnap a girl (a teenage Pamela Franklin) and hold up at a beach house in France.
Richard Boone stars as the fiendish member, while Jess Hahn plays a likable loser, the brother of the pathetically drug addicted Rita Moreno.At the time of this picture Brando was 44 years old and never looked better physically -- very trim and blond.
Most men in their mid-40's would kill to look as good as Brando did at the this age.BOTTOM LINE: Coming from the mid-60s when realism was fashionable this crime thriller is more of a crime drama, but suspense slowly builds to a compelling final act, which shows that crime doesn't pay, but people are redeemable if they qualify.
While Mr. Cornfield handled Night in a workmanlike manner (his earlier film Pressure Point is fantastic, one of my favorites), the violent scenes are weakly directed and shot.
Richard Boone, the best element about this film, would hone and refine his brutal criminal character in The Kremlin Letter not long after Night.
It was still rare in mainstream movies (if Night could truly be called mainstream; I don't think it was) to kill off a young helpless heroine at the end except in drive-in sleaze.
Marlon Brando is a sympathetic character for quite some time.
Pamela Franklin either liked the "victim" roles or they were the ones that were available to her at the time.
A "chauffeur" (Marlon Brando) isn't so sure he wants to participate, especially when unreliable drug addict Vi (Rita Moreno) and dangerous creep "the leer" (Richard Boone) cause problems for him; his old chum Wally (Jess Hahn) convinces him to stick around.
While this film does move slowly at times, Cornfield does a fine job in showing a part of Paris and the French countryside we don't always see; the exotic setting certainly doesn't hurt at all in the telling of this story.
The acting by the principals (you'll notice this isn't a particularly large cast) really is the glue that holds the whole thing together, with Brando getting a chance to emote in one scene but mostly playing it agreeably subtle.
(The actor, however, strongly disagreed on how things should end and it took some doing in order to come up with a final frame Cornfield could live with.) Not a bad bet for thriller fans, it's fairly chilling entertainment.
I haven't watched any other films directed by Cornfield, but if they are all blessed with this subtle pacing, I'm going to consider it.
Between his glory days of the early-to-mid-1950s and his reemergence as a major Hollywood player in "The Godfather", Marlon Brando seemingly dropped out of sight in the last half of the 1960s, appearing in a variety of unsuccessful and mainly forgotten films that are seldom discussed or seen today.
Then, there was the notorious feud between the director and his star, Marlon Brando, who almost appears acting in a different film.Marlon Brando, a brilliant actor, was not an easy man to direct.
Bud and Vi were lovers, yet he felt she was beyond help and therefore she could derail the well made plans.Richard Boone, an excellent character actor, did not receive credit for directing some of the scenes involving Mr. Brando.
Blonde-haired Marlon Brando and his blond-haired girlfriend (Rita Moreno) along with a couple of untrustworthy accomplices decide to kidnap a rich British girl and ask for ransom.
brando has moments here which just underline the fact that he is the greatest ever.the movie could have been better, but the performances are very good.
boone, moreno and of course brando.
Brando is looking good with blonde hair and is fit and fine in all black...and his greeting to richard boone in the last half hour of the film is to die for...when he says clark gable..hilarious.the movie captures the deceit and confusion of its main players and the geography of the entire movie adds to the drama.
Brando plays a participant in the scheme to capture young heiress Franklin and hold her for ransom.
These four take Franklin to a desolate beach house in France where she's kept in an upstairs room (part of her torment apparently being that she must sleep on the world's ugliest bedspread and under a window with the world's ugliest matching drapes!) With the sadistic Boone continuously threatening to do the girl harm and with Moreno feeling jealous towards her, Franklin tries to turn to Brando for some protection.
Soon, the human failings of the captors begin to take their toll on the operation with Boone becoming greedy, Moreno sinking into drug-induced stupor and Brando accusing Hahn of failing to come up with a sure enough plan.
Brando, who, according to the director, was practically impossible to deal with on this film, looks terrific in a blonde wig with a tan and a trim waistline.
Her part may have been more meaningful had the original plot line gone through which included a love scene with Brando, but he nixed it, changing the focus of the story (much to Cornfield's dismay.) None of the characters, which are given labels instead of names, have much of a chance to become fully realized, but perhaps they aren't even meant to be when the twist ending is taken into account.
I say European feel because the film was quite slow and you took a lot of time with the scenes.
Richard Boone as the psychotic gangster and Jess Hahn as the level headed gang member who keeps it all together were very respectable.
I have to assume that because judged on its own merits, The Night of the Following Day is a hideously awkward and amateurish movie.A young girl (Pamela Franklin) flies into France and is almost immediately abducted by a band of 4 seasoned criminals.
Things go wrong, there's a double cross and most of what you'd expect in this sort of story happens.I fervently hope these filmmakers and these actors were trying to do something different and unusual with The Night of the Following Day. I would like to think that there was some cultural or artistic point to the creative decisions they made.
There's one scene that goes on for a full minute where the camera is focused on the back of Marlon Brando's head.
The film ends with an epilogue that feels more like an editing mistake than anything intentional.I'm perplexed by this movie.
Did someone kidnap Cornfield's or Brando's children and force them to make this film?
Marlon Brando is among a group of no-goodniks who put the snatch on a British heiress, seventeen-year-old Pamela Franklin, in France.
The other kidnappers include Rita Moreno, Jess Hahn, and Richard Boone.You can tell right away that Boone is going to be the standout villain of this edgy piece.
Aside from the fact that it comes far too soon in the scenario -- I mean, they've only just kidnapped the girl that day and Brando is already fed up with the scheme and thinks it will fail because of Boone -- it lasts too long and gives Jess Hahn an opportunity to prove that he may be a great and bulky screen presence like some other supporting players, but he just can't act.
Rita Moreno does better but she's stuck with this tar baby too.Cornfield ends the movie as he began it, with Pamela Franklin waking up aboard an airplane about to land in Paris.
Wondering through the list of "free movies" available from my cable provider I stumbled on this rarely screened suspense film from the late 60's about an unstable group of kidnappers whose plot to snatch a rich heiress go completely wrong.
While the heavy (Richard Boone) may explain to the kidnap victim that "we are all professional criminals" they certainly don't act like it.
Night of the Following Day. Two men, a handsome hustler and a smooth-talking violent, with the help of a drug-addicted stewardess, kidnap a rich young heiress for ransom and carry her to a house on the coast.A refreshingly different and interesting little suspenser, though it suffers from a wandering middle section and the final suggestion of waking up from a dream is rather baffling.