So Ends Our Night
by John Cromwell
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anna Sten, Frances Dee, Fredric March, Glenn Ford, Margaret SullavanDirector: John Cromwell
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Vci Video
Movie Reviews of So Ends Our Night
Movie Review: A major work, ahead of its time
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an unjustly neglected work: complex, subtle, and harrowing in its treatment of one of the major tragedies of the 20th Century: the rise of Nazi Germany and the persecution of that murderous regime of jews and of course, any opponents.
One of the more striking features of the film is that it was released in 1941, well before the full horror of the Nazi concentration camps was made known to the world, and yet "So Ends our Night" eerily captures the totalitarian abomination taking over Europe at the time.
The film, directed by John Cromwell, is based on the novel "Floatsam" by Erich Maria Remarque, the author of "All Quiet on the Western Front" and whose books were burned and banned by the Nazi regime. Having to flee Germany himself to escape certain death, Remarque was more than well suited to document the plight of "people without a passport", Jewish refugees, and in a minor level, German dissidents, then flooding Europe and trying to escape the Nazi extermination campaign.
The film takes place in 1937 and follows the plight of a couple of young German Jewish refugees (hauntingly played by Margaret Sullavan and Glenn Ford) and a hunted dissident German officer chased by the Nazis (a portrait in courage by Fredric March), but whose wife (an unforgettable Frances Dee) has remained in Germany.
As they go from one country to another, suffering persecution, humiliation, betratyal, "So Ends Our Night" pulls no punches in portraying the despair of these exiles, wanted or welcomed by no one, facing cold and indifferent bureaucracies, but helped along by small acts of kindness.
One of the reasons that this film might not be better known today is that it avoids all the conventional trappings of Hollywood melodrama of the time, there is no uplift here, every apparent turn in the luck of the characters is followed by an equally adverse turn. There are scenes here which would not be shown again for decades in mainstream entertainment, Sullavan (a young chemist) being rejected violently by her German lover for compromising his career because of her being Jewish; Ford, receiving from a clerk the shocking news of his father's suicide; the ferocity of a Nazi customs official interrogating Fredric March when reentering Germany.
This kind of situations, and the complex treatment of them, was just not the norm in Hollywood at the time, nor for decades to come. The film is really closer in tone to films like Jan Kadar's masterpiece "The Shop on Main Street" or Istvan Szabo's "Confidence", which also dealt with the inhuman strain on relationships provoked by this monstrous regime.
That neither Cromwell nor any of the film stars, although well known and respected, are part of the "official canon", is also probably a cause of the film not being better known. Cromwell's career was sidetracked by the blacklist, and Sullavan's by personal tragedy.
March and Ford were quite well known, but never achieved maximum stardom, and this movie contains some of their finest moments on screen. Sullavan is usually described as luminous, and this movie will show you why. And Frances Dee, as March's wife, is a revelation.
Obviously there are some issues rights too, as this DVD is not released by any of the major studios, but by VCI Entertainment, which brings us to an important point. Although, according to a statement at the beginning, the film has been restored, it is far from perfect: there are a couple of rough patches, and the extras are anemic. Some scenes in the DVD box are not actually shown in the film, so we can only hope for a better, more thorough restoration.
That should not prevent anyone from seeing this magnificent film.
In this day and age, of open borders, immigration polemics, "So Ends Our Night" is still sadly, powerfully relevant.
Watch it by all means. I dare you to forget the market scene (justly admired by critic Pauline Kael) in which Fredric March and Frances Dee, after two years of not seeing each other, try to connect in a public market, with him walking behind her, and she not being able to turn back and see his face. Some say it's one of the greatest scenes in cinema, and it might well be.
Summary of So Ends Our Night
Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Flotsam - the film zeroes in on three German refugees during World War II who are at the beck and call of the Nazis, always hiding, always in fear of deportation. The settings for this adventure include WWII Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Margaret Sullavan, a Jewish chemist, is fleeing for her life; and Glenn Ford, born of a Jewish mother and Aryan father, is racked with confusion and torn loyalties. The three main characters separate as they move across Europe, just a step or so ahead of the advancing Nazis. As Sullavan and Ford fall in love, Fredric March's character puts his life on the line by trying to arrange a reunion with his ailing wife, Frances Dee, who has remained in Germany. Critics have stated that even though the score was nominated for an Oscar, it may have done even better at the box office, had it been released a few months after the US's entry into the war. Bonus Features: Scene Selection| Bios| Promo Trailer. Specs: DVD5; Dolby Digital; 117 minutes; B&W; 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA - NR; Year - 1942; SRP - $14.99.Action & Adventure DVD Video
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