Strangers in the Night

Plot synopsis:
Sgt. Johnny Meadows is seriously wounded in battle in the South Pacific during World War Two. While recuperating, he takes comfort reading a book donated to the Red Cross by Rosemary Blake, who has written her name and address in the book. He corresponds with her, and as pen pals they fall in love. Eventually, on leave and back in the States, he heads for Rosemary’s home. While taking the train to get there, he meets a pretty woman reading the same book, and for a moment thinks he has met Rosemary. But the lovely woman is Dr. Leslie Ross, coincidentally heading for the same town where Rosemary lives, to take over a practice being left by another doctor. They start a friendly conversation, but then there is a derailment of several cars ahead of them, and the doctor treats those who are wounded, while Johnny assists where he can. More help arrives and, both exhausted, they share a cab-ride into the town they were both headed for.
The next day, as the doctor settles into running her practice, Johnny heads up the high hill to the house where Rosemary lives. He meets the homeowner, an older disabled woman, Mrs. Blake (Rosemary’s mother), and her live-in assistant, Ivy Miller. Mrs. Blake and Miller tell Johnny that Rosemary is away, but will be back soon, and Mrs. Blake invites him to stay. The next day Mrs. Blake shows Johnny a large painting done of Rosemary, so he can see how beautiful she is. Johnny is happy, and, from the style in which the painting is done, thinks he knows the artist, but can’t fully recall whom at the moment.
After a few days of Rosemary not showing up, and no satisfactory answers forthcoming from either Mrs. Blake or Miller, who seems very nervous about the situation, Johnny leaves for San Francisco. He finally remembered who the artist was, as he had worked with him for a short time in the City before the war. Meanwhile, Miller attempts to divulge to Dr. Ross just what is going on, but her nervousness and insecurities stop her. Dr. Ross and her nurse suspect something strange is going on in the Blake house, but because Mrs. Blake had been dismissive of the doctor during an initial consult on her first day in town, they take no specific action.
That evening. when Mrs. Blake discovers what Miller tried to do, she gives Miller an overdose of medicine to kill her. A few moments later, Dr. Ross shows up at the home to see how Miller is doing, and then Johnny shows up too. He has found out the painting is a ‘fantasy’ of what Mrs. Blake pictured as a perfect daughter. Johnny goes upstairs to find Miller for an explanation, but finds her body, and Dr. Ross can do nothing to revive her. Mrs. Blake accuses the doctor of committing malpractice, but the doctor tells her the medicine she had prescribed for Miller wasn’t sufficient to kill her. Finally, Mrs. Blake confesses she always wanted a daughter, and always wanted to be loved and wanted, and that she had corresponded with Johnny. Johnny tells Mrs. Blake he loves the doctor now. Then Dr. Ross suggests Miller was murdered, but Mrs. Blake says it was suicide, that Miller has left a note. Johnny and the doctor ask to see it, and Mrs. Blake leaves them to fetch it. She instead goes out to their car to set a booby-trap. She returns without the note, and sends them away. They leave, and Johnny is almost killed after stepping through the trap Mrs. Blake had set. Dr. Ross realizes what has happened, and they feign their deaths by screaming aloud. Hearing this, Mrs. Blake telephones for an ambulance, but then Johnny and the doctor walk into the room, and the game is up.

Tags: insanity, murder

Review:
Getting a Lot Out of 56-Minutes.
When you think actresses, the name Helen Thimig doesn't pop right up.
But here for a crippled old lady she's scary as heck.
And what's this with her daughter Rosemary whose portrait looks like a dolled up version of Laura (1944).
Poor Sergeant Johnnie, he's back from the war all bunged up, but can't wait to meet the portrait girl who sent him such beautiful letters but has since gone missing.
Meanwhile he has to content himself with the lovely Dr. Leslie (Grey) who's got her own problems being a woman doctor in a man's profession.
And finally there's poor Ivy (Barrett) who acts like a frightened bird, frightened even of herself let alone her employer Mrs. Blake (Thimig).
Actually, Barrett and Thimig are alumni of the great Val Lewton's horror series, so it's not surprising that their compelling turns form the movie's gripping core.
Director Mann's noirish touches are evident throughout and perfectly suited to the dark subject matter.
Something's up with Blake and daughter Rosemary, but what.
That's the crux of the plot.
Also, I like the way we get a feel of how the war is affecting the home front, while the obscure William Terry makes a good happy-go-lucky GI in contrast to the sinister mansion.
I expect the movie remains obscure because of its sub-60-minute runtime and lowly Republic pedigree.
But there's a lot of talent involved in a suspenseful story, making this a minor noirish gem..
Dark movie.
It's a dark movie - literally.
At the first look at the vileness Hilda Blake (Helen Thimig) you will probably think: this is very bad acting.
Than you realize Mrs Thiming is a great actress and that Hilda is a very scary character.
There is an interesting romance between a soldier and a woman doctor suffering with a little community prejudice.
All the action happens around a very big picture of a beautiful young woman, and the sinister Hilda give orders all the time to her submissive "friend" Ivy Miller (Edith Barrett).
It's a pity that in the end the screenplay turns a little dumb in important details.
This is the sixth film from Anthony Mann, and its style reminds me the very early Alfred Hichcock..
Catfished.
Sergeant William Terry (Johnny) survives WW2 by clinging to the hope of meeting up with Rosemary, the girl he has been corresponding with despite never having met her.
On his return to the USA, he seeks her out in California.
Well, he gets to see her portrait courtesy of Helene Thimig (Hilda) who is Rosemary's mother.
But Thimig seems to be putting off a meeting between her daughter and Terry.
This film is a nice discovery.
It contains a disturbing story, a disturbing character (no need to guess who), other likable characters, an atmospheric setting and a short running time that keeps you watching from the beginning.
You'll guess what is going on – sort of – but it doesn't take away the enjoyment of the film.
A nice surprise..
That woman has some SERIOUS issues!.
"Strangers in the Night" is a very unusual B-movie.
It's a bizarre story about a seriously deranged old lady, Mrs. Blake and the weird secret she hides.When the story begins, Dr. Ross (Virginia Grey) is introducing herself to the folks in the seaside community where she'll be taking over for the old doctor.
However, when she meets Mrs. Blake (Helene Thiming), the old woman is overtly hostile towards her...inexplicably so.Soon after this, Dr. Ross is on a train and meets Sgt. Meadows (William Terry).
It seems he is headed to the same small town where Ross now works...and he's going to the Blake household to see Mrs. Blake's lovely daughter.
It seems that when he was off fighting in the war, he corresponded with the lady and he's totally smitten with her.
However, once he arrives at the Blake household, they inform Terry that she isn't there.
And, they invite him to stay until she returns.
However, days pass and it's obvious something is going on here...and the return of the girl seems to very, very vague.In the meantime, Mrs. Blake's nervous housekeeper, Ivy (Edith Barrett) knows some sort of secret and seems to always be on the verge of telling the Doctor.
What is the secret?
And how does it relate to the missing daughter?
And, what does a painting of the lady have to do with all this?I really loved this film.
While most folks think all B-movies are bad movies, they are not.
A true B is a short film (about an hour in length) and is usually cheaply made.
The purpose of the film is to be the second film in a double feature--with the A (or prestige picture) being accompanied by this B.
But just because a film is short and often hastily made doesn't mean it's bad...and "Strangers in the Night" is simply terrific.
In fact, it's one of the best Bs I have ever seen.
The writing and acting and direction all work together perfectly and the solution to the mystery is sufficiently dark and sick to satisfy.
Well worth seeing and Helene Thiming is simply terrific as this sick, disturbed and nasty old 'lady'!My score of 9 is because the film is so good and because of how it compares to other Bs....and it's head and shoulders better than about 99% of them..
Rare Anthony Mann Film: More Fun than Serious.
This rarely seen film directed by Anthony Mann has an over-the-top performance and some artificial 'Gothic' atmosphere to recommend it.
If the viewer doesn't expect a great, lost masterpiece it can be fun and amusing.After corresponding with a mysterious girl who shares with him an interest in Houseman's "A Shropshire Lad", Sgt. Johnny Meadows (William Terry) recently home from Guadalcanal arrives at the home of Hilda Blake.
Here he hopes to finally meet the poetic girl.
Hilda lives in an ornate Gothic-style mansion atop a cliff on the California coast.
She is odd from the very beginning, but she only gets more weird as the story progresses.
Living with her is a close friend Ivy Miller (Edith Barrett).
The centerpiece of the mansion is a fairly kitschy portrait of a pretty young woman, Mrs. Blake's daughter.
Hilda is convinced that Johnny is the destined true love of her daughter.
She and Ivy extol the virtues of the girl, and convince Johnny that he will soon meet her and that the two will be very happy.
However, on the train, by preposterous coincidence, Johnny had met a young woman doctor, Leslie Ross, played by Virginia Grey.
That meeting introduces complications into Hilda's plans for her daughter's happiness.
There are some unanswered questions that drive the plot, and it must admitted that the writers and director do a decent job of keeping the audience guessing.
It's not really a bad idea for a story, but the execution here makes it more silly than serious.
The main source of the silliness is the performance of Helen Thimig.
With her Austrian accent and overly emotive eyes, Thimig invests Hilda with a bizarreness that should be a dead giveaway to Johnny.
Something is very odd here.
The film also has the kind of fake Gothic atmosphere that only exists in Hollywood films from this period.
Several scenes look so artificial that they only work to remind the viewer that he's watching a movie.
Definitely worth a look for Anthony Mann fans, but not one of his greatest efforts..
The movie not the Frank Sinatra song.
****SPOILERS*** Badly banged up in the fighting in the South Pacific all that Marine Sgt. Johnny Meadows, William Terry, has to look forward to after leaving the hospital is meeting up with his pen pal sweetheart Rosemary Blake whom he's never as much as seen a photo of.
It's Rosemary whom he's kept in contact with and who kept his hopes high since he started writing to her after finding her name in a used book he picked up back in a San Francisco book store.
Now recovered from his wounds Johnny takes a train ride to Monteflores California to finally meet Rosemary in the flesh and start up a romance with her.
With a detour on the train when it derailed off the tracks Johnny meets young woman doctor Leslie Ross, Virginia Grey, who in fact is looking after Rosemary's crippled mom Hilda, Helene Thimig,who as we and Johhny soon find out is a bit wacko in the head as well as crippled in her legs!
At the Blake house Johnny is disappointed not to find his love Rosemary but a painting of her and is told by Moma Blake that she's out of town temporarily entertaining returning US servicemen, like himself, coming back from the war!
Told that Rosemary will be back in a few days Johnny for the time being starts up a romance with Dr. Ross that causes Moma Blake a lot of hard feelings; Both towards the doctor as well as Johnny.***SPOILERS*** It's Moma Blake's good friend and live in nurse Ivy Miller, Edith Barrett, who knows the whole truth about her and her obsession with her missing from the scene daughter Rosemary and tries to warn Johnny to get out of his obsession of meeting and romancing Rosemary before it's too late.
Johnny himself notices that the painting of Rosemary was done, by the unique breast strokes he uses, by someone he knew and checked out to San Francisco to see him and tell him what he knows about the elusive, from everyone in the movie cast, Rosemary Blake!
Somewhat ridicules final ending with Moma Blake going completely off the wall and doing in, by spiking her milk, Ivy as well as trying to off both Johnny & Dr. Ross for finding out what a total nut case she, as if we didn't know by then, really is.
Totally crazed after failing to finish off, by causing them to fall off a cliff, both Johnny & Dr. Ross the end for Moma finally comes when Rosemary herself, through what can only be called supernatural powers, puts a final end to Moma Blakes insanity!.
Introducing Rosemary's Mother..
A strange cliff-top mansion, a handicapped widow with a mysteriously absent daughter, a nervous companion, and a handsome soldier in receipt of letters from the elusive Rosemary create a strange mystery to say the least.
Mother is obviously two macadamias short of a cookie and despises the young female doctor who tends to the soldier after he collapses in the Mandalay like mansion.
When the truth is revealed, mommy dearest gets desperate...and sinister!
Don't expect any doo-bee-doo-bee-doo's in this oddly titled Gothic thriller.
Sinatra's signature tune does not appear.
In fact, other than the circumstances surrounding how soldier William Terry meets doctor Virginia Grey, the title has nothing to do with the bizarre plot line.
Helene Thinig is the heavy accented matron who truly has many psychiatric problems and Edith Barrett is her petrified companion who must question the definition of loyalty as she faces the truth about her demented employer.
As directed by cult director Anthony Mann, this is a very different type of mystery, a film with a plot that seems trite at first but will certainly make you think.
You certainly won't forget the gallery of nuts you encounter in this spooky mansion by the sea..
Decent plot a la Hitchcock, with an Ed Wood Jr ending..
This could have been a good movie.
The main characters are well acted and believable in a melodramatic way.In spite of some unlikely coincidences like the unnecessary train derailment, and our hero, a marine, recognizing the painter of the portrait of his fantasy girl as an old buddy from college, the plot concept is reasonably engrossing, moves along well, and tension is built up to almost the end.
This part is written like a classic thriller.Unfortunately,the last few minutes of the film seem as if the production crew had either run of of time or money and hastily contrived a hardly believable ending.
That's the part that looks look it was written by a fifth grade class.I'm sure if you didn't watch the ending, the film would actually haunt you.
Of course, you want to know how it's all resolved, and instead of haunting you, you come away very unsatisfied.Not a complete waste of time, but a certainly a waste of talent..
Creepy Freudian Gothic.
What's absorbing about this film is what's not said, not seen, and not dwelled on.
The other reviewers pretty much have the movie nailed, but no one seems interested in exploring to their logical ends the situations presented here.
Like the fact that the beautiful young woman the soldier guy thought he was writing to during the war and was coming home to marry was actually an old woman, and a demented one at that.
When soldier guy finds this out it's like, "whatever." He apparently doesn't find disturbing the implications of his having been fooled.
We however are left to go "yuck" and feel a sort of sympathy for the woman as a victim of ageism.
After all, if soldier guy "loved her mind" why reject her just because she's old (and demented)?And what does smart doctor lady think of soldier guy, her soon- to- be husband, who is so confused and easily fooled?And then think about the whole bizarre existence of the old woman who not only created a fantasy daughter and had "her" "portrait" painted, but regularly has worship sessions in front of the painting in the cult of her nonexistent daughter--with her weak- willed loyal companion going along.Kinda makes you wonder how often in our own way we "regular folks" create fantasy versions of people and totally misread relationships.Paging Dr. Freud!