So Dark the Night Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

So Dark the Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 30, 2019

Note: For those unacquainted with a major plot conceit in So Dark the Night, my recommendation is that it’s probably best to skip the following comments and move down to the technical portions of the review, below. There’s really no way to properly discuss the film without at least hinting at if not overtly mentioning the “twist” it offers, and getting to the surprise on a first viewing is part of the fun.

How do you portray an “interior” situation like mental illness on screen? Many films that have dealt with characters with roiling psyches tend to go to almost Grand Guignol excesses in documenting odd behavior by the afflicted, but So Dark the Night takes an opposite tack, offering a fair degree of misdirection before a late reveal is proffered that casts a new light on a major character. So Dark the Night was director Joseph H. Lewis’ follow up to his unexpectedly successful My Name Is Julia Ross, and like the earlier film, it plies a psychological territory where character thoughts and feelings are perhaps at least as important as any actual plotting. So Dark the Night kind of pretends to be a fairly straightforward police procedural, albeit one with an arguably “exotic” ambience due to its rural French setting, but the film actually has more on its mind (figuratively and literally) than might initially be apparent. Parisian detective Henri Cassin (Steven Geray) is a seemingly “everyday Joe” who is kind of a nondescript, workaday type who nonetheless is evidently respected for his investigative skills. A long overdue vacation for Cassin in an isolated village ends up being far from relaxing after a young woman named Nanette (Micheline Cheirel), with whom Cassin had been establishing a romantic relationship, is found murdered. Cassin is of course intent on discovering what has occurred, but all is not as it seems.

As with My Name is Julia Ross, Lewis manages to stuff in a surprising amount of content despite the film’s relative brevity. An establishing montage of sorts sets up Cassin’s affability while simultaneously documenting his need for “away” time. But once the detective arrives at an out of the way inn, there’s a kind of fascinating class dialectic that’s hinted at. When the relationship between Cassin and Nanette starts to get serious, Nanette’s glowering ex-boyfriend Leon (Paul Marion) is none too pleased, so when she turns up dead he becomes the focal suspect. More murders intrude, leaving Cassin struggling to find a motive with only one major clue, a footprint, at his disposal.

Some films like, say, The Sixth Sense, almost delight in leading audiences astray, only to deliver a “gotcha” moment that makes watching the film again almost a necessity. So Dark the Night doesn’t really reach for that level of sophistication, and in fact kind of just plops its big “surprise” down willy-nilly, admittedly achieving a bit of a “wow, so that was it” revelatory moment. That said, it's a moment without much lasting impact, since the twist is such an obvious gimmick.

So Dark the Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

So Dark the Night is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. The insert booklet's minimal verbiage on the transfer is pretty much identical to that found in the other Joseph H. Lewis Columbia noir Arrow is releasing, My Name Is Julia Ross, down to and including a misidentified aspect ratio:

So Dark the Night is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 [sic] with mono audio. The film was transferred in High Definition and supplied to Arrow Films by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Also as with My Name is Julia Ross, the back cover of this release touts a "2K restoration by Sony Pictures". While it may be a matter of arguable degrees, I personally found the appearance of So Dark the Night to be just a tad less pleasing overall than My Name is Julia Ross. As my My Name Is Julia Ross Blu-ray review mentioned, that film featured a surplus of optical dissolves leading from sequence to sequence, and the same tactic is employed in So Dark the Night, but to my eyes things don't look quite so organic. Some of the stylistic lighting choices occasionally looked slightly digitized to me (see the shadow running down Steven Geray's face in screenshot 6), and grain can be fairly gritty. On the plus side, I didn't notice the same sort of flicker that shows up on occasion in My Name is Julia Ross. This, also like My Name is Julia Ross, was lensed by ace cinematographer Burnett Guffey, who manages to inject at least a few chiaroscuro moments into what is an often surprisingly sunny seeming set of locations. To echo my sentiments about Arrow's My Name is Julia Ross, while I personally didn't find it quite as pleasing, I can't imagine fans of this film having too many major complaints about its appearance.

So Dark the Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

So Dark the Night features an LPCM 2.0 mono track that capably supports the film's dialogue, effects and Hugo Friedhofer score. Things aren't especially robust sounding, especially some of the slightly shallow sounding underscore, but there's no real damage in terms of dropouts or distortion.

So Dark the Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme


• A Dark Place: Joseph H. Lewis (1080p; 20:07) is an appealing appreciation by Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City. This makes for an interesting and worthwhile companion piece to the Lewis featurette included on My Name Is Julia Ross.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:36)

Additionally, Arrow has provided its usual nicely appointed insert booklet.

So Dark the Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

So Dark the Night relies on a patent misdirection gimmick which may leave some viewers raising their eyebrows in a veritable "Really??" when it's finally revealed. But the film offers some of the stylistic flourishes that would define Lewis' career, and it's fun to see frequent supporting actor Steven Geray get his chance at a lead role. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplementary package appealing, for those considering a purchase.