All Through the Night
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by Leonard Spigelglass, Edwin Gilbert, and Leo Rosten
1941/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video
[box] Leda Hamilton: [to reporters] Well, I also feel it’s about time someone knocked the Axis back on its heels.
Alfred “Gloves” Donahue: Excuse me, Baby. What she means it’s about time someone knocked those heels back on their axis.[/box]
This entertaining gangster/propaganda piece doesn’t quite know whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama. But what a cast!
“Gloves” Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) is distracted from his regular gambling racket by a call from his mother (Jane Darwell) about the murder of his favorite cheesecake baker. Mysterious blonde Leda Hamilton shows up at the bakery during his investigation and he follows her to the nightclub where she works. There he also encounters her menacing accompanist Pepi (Peter Lorre) and witnesses another murder, this time of a waiter who holds up five fingers as he is dying.
Tailing Pepi takes Gloves to a warehouse and thence to an auction house run by the even creepier Ebbing (Conrad Veidt) and assistant “Madame” (Judith Anderson). Gradually, Gloves ferrets out a nest of Nazi fifth columnists who are preparing for their first big sabotage operation. Plenty of fisticuffs ensue. With William Demerest, Frank McHugh, Phil Silvers, and Jackie Gleason as members of Gloves’s gang.
Bogart has great comic timing and it is a pity he didn’t get to show it off more. This is packed with more action, messages, and gags than can reasonably crammed into one movie but it’s a lot of fun.
Trailer
If memory serves, ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT was shot as a “B” picture, low budget. It was an instant hit and Warner Bros. distributed it as an “A,” resulting in a big boost for Vincent Sherman who was transitioning from actor/writer to director.
The DVD of Underground, which I reviewed earlier this month, had a couple of good interviews with Sherman who was still alive and very much alert at age 98. He talked without rancor of his “grey listing” and about making that film, his first.
I’m glad to know you got to hear some of Vince’s stories. He almost made it to 100, a fine raconteur until the end.