Eyes in the
Night (1942) - 7.5
This is a nifty little suspense film that is wonderfully paced for its 80-minute running time. A mystery with a blind detective. An intriguing idea. The film and its sequel (The Hidden Eye) are based on the books of Baynard Kendrick who wrote fourteen detective novels with his blind detective. The director is the great Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here to Eternity, The Day of the Jackal) who after making shorts for five years finally got one of his first shots at doing a feature film and he pulls it off. He gets a fine MGM cast to work with - Edward Arnold, Donna Reed, Ann Harding, Reginald Denny, Mantan Moreland, Barry Nelson, Stephen Geray, Milburn Stone, Marie Windsor (in a tiny role) and Allen Jenkins who I would say is His Man Friday except his Man Friday is a dog named Friday. Friday basically is the smartest dog ever and saves the day. So Arnold who had played Nero Wolfe in Meet Nero Wolfe is once again a detective. He made a living playing wealthy men whose bark was usually worse than his bite but not always. I love it when he gets the starring role. He can dominate a film when he wants to.
An old friend (Ann Harding) comes to Maclain when she along with her step-daughter played by Reed find a dead man in his apartment. Reed was having a fling with him and Harding had one years before. It doesn't look good and Reed thinks step-mom did it. Donna Reed is a nasty bit of spoiled goods that you want locked up in a closet. Zinnemann of course remembered her for From Here to Eternity. She has a reputation as Miss Perfect for The Donna Reed Show and It's a Wonderful Life but in some of her early roles she was quite the vixen. Harding's husband (Denny) is an inventor and is working on something that will win the war for the allies. In his basement. With no security. This turns out to be more than a mystery as there are Nazis everywhere and they want the formula. Only a blind man can stop them. And his dog Friday. It's great. Arnold is terrific as the blind man who outsmarts and out hits all the bad guys. And at the end even Donna socks a Nazi. That made me forgive her. But Mantan gets in the last word when Friday outmaneuvers him for date night with a poodle.
The Hidden Eye (1945) - 5.5
For some reason it took three years for MGM to follow-up on Eyes in the Night that had starred Edward Arnold as a blind detective. The films are based on the books of Baynard Kendrick who wrote fourteen of them between 1937 and 1961. I checked Kindle out and a bunch of his books on Amazon were for $1.99. Started reading one and it seems ok. MGM also seems to have decided to turn this one into a strict B film coming in at 69 minutes and it feels like it. Gone too is Fred Zinnemann as director to be replaced by Richard Whorf who basically became a TV director later on. Still Arnold is back and he is good but I get the feeling he knew he was stuck in a B film. Looking at his filmography it seems clear that the many great films that he was in were all in the past. Not much of a supporting cast either like the last one had. He still has a black manservant but they trade Mantan Moreland for Leigh Whipper. If you check the IMDB credits, a bunch of actors have "scenes deleted" next to it so at some point they decided to cut it down to B size.
This is fairly standard murder mystery that unconvincingly plods along. No Nazis this time. If you don't have much of a film, I say throw in a few Nazis and then kill them off. Three members of the same family have been murdered leaving a puzzling note and a strange smell. With his other senses sharpened Maclain figures out what it is and where it comes from and that leads him to the killer. The killers try to get him first but he still has his German Shepard Friday with him. This is of course where the saying "Thank God it's Friday" came from. The only other recognizable name is Ray Collins from Perry Mason fame. The cop who arrested the wrong man well over 100 times but kept his job. Talk about the Blue Line. Of course as soon as we see him and learn he is a lawyer, he becomes suspect number one.
This is a nifty little suspense film that is wonderfully paced for its 80-minute running time. A mystery with a blind detective. An intriguing idea. The film and its sequel (The Hidden Eye) are based on the books of Baynard Kendrick who wrote fourteen detective novels with his blind detective. The director is the great Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here to Eternity, The Day of the Jackal) who after making shorts for five years finally got one of his first shots at doing a feature film and he pulls it off. He gets a fine MGM cast to work with - Edward Arnold, Donna Reed, Ann Harding, Reginald Denny, Mantan Moreland, Barry Nelson, Stephen Geray, Milburn Stone, Marie Windsor (in a tiny role) and Allen Jenkins who I would say is His Man Friday except his Man Friday is a dog named Friday. Friday basically is the smartest dog ever and saves the day. So Arnold who had played Nero Wolfe in Meet Nero Wolfe is once again a detective. He made a living playing wealthy men whose bark was usually worse than his bite but not always. I love it when he gets the starring role. He can dominate a film when he wants to.
An old friend (Ann Harding) comes to Maclain when she along with her step-daughter played by Reed find a dead man in his apartment. Reed was having a fling with him and Harding had one years before. It doesn't look good and Reed thinks step-mom did it. Donna Reed is a nasty bit of spoiled goods that you want locked up in a closet. Zinnemann of course remembered her for From Here to Eternity. She has a reputation as Miss Perfect for The Donna Reed Show and It's a Wonderful Life but in some of her early roles she was quite the vixen. Harding's husband (Denny) is an inventor and is working on something that will win the war for the allies. In his basement. With no security. This turns out to be more than a mystery as there are Nazis everywhere and they want the formula. Only a blind man can stop them. And his dog Friday. It's great. Arnold is terrific as the blind man who outsmarts and out hits all the bad guys. And at the end even Donna socks a Nazi. That made me forgive her. But Mantan gets in the last word when Friday outmaneuvers him for date night with a poodle.
The Hidden Eye (1945) - 5.5
For some reason it took three years for MGM to follow-up on Eyes in the Night that had starred Edward Arnold as a blind detective. The films are based on the books of Baynard Kendrick who wrote fourteen of them between 1937 and 1961. I checked Kindle out and a bunch of his books on Amazon were for $1.99. Started reading one and it seems ok. MGM also seems to have decided to turn this one into a strict B film coming in at 69 minutes and it feels like it. Gone too is Fred Zinnemann as director to be replaced by Richard Whorf who basically became a TV director later on. Still Arnold is back and he is good but I get the feeling he knew he was stuck in a B film. Looking at his filmography it seems clear that the many great films that he was in were all in the past. Not much of a supporting cast either like the last one had. He still has a black manservant but they trade Mantan Moreland for Leigh Whipper. If you check the IMDB credits, a bunch of actors have "scenes deleted" next to it so at some point they decided to cut it down to B size.
This is fairly standard murder mystery that unconvincingly plods along. No Nazis this time. If you don't have much of a film, I say throw in a few Nazis and then kill them off. Three members of the same family have been murdered leaving a puzzling note and a strange smell. With his other senses sharpened Maclain figures out what it is and where it comes from and that leads him to the killer. The killers try to get him first but he still has his German Shepard Friday with him. This is of course where the saying "Thank God it's Friday" came from. The only other recognizable name is Ray Collins from Perry Mason fame. The cop who arrested the wrong man well over 100 times but kept his job. Talk about the Blue Line. Of course as soon as we see him and learn he is a lawyer, he becomes suspect number one.
