Film Review: All Through the Night
Tonight’s film was ‘All Through the Night’ (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart, William Demarest, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Jackie Gleason, and Phil Silvers.
The movie is an entertaining hybrid of gangster comedy, wartime thriller, and anti-Nazi propaganda that arrived just weeks after the Attack on Pearl Harbor had thrust the United States into World War II. Directed by Vincent Sherman, it stars Humphrey Bogart in one of his last pre-Casablanca roles, playing a wisecracking New York gambler who inadvertently uncovers a Nazi espionage ring operating in America. The dialogue is sharp, the pacing rarely slackens, and the chemistry among the ensemble keeps the story engaging even when the plot becomes implausible.
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TRIVIA:
The scene in which “Gloves” Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) and Sunshine (William Demarest) confuse a room full of Nazi sympathizers with doubletalk was not part of the original script, but was invented by Director Vincent Sherman, who filmed it despite the objections of Executive Producer Hal B. Wallis. Wallis ordered it removed from this movie, but Sherman left a small segment of it in, and when preview audiences reacted positively to it, Wallis backed down and told Sherman to put the entire scene back in.
Five actors from this movie will appear in Casablanca released a year later. They are Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine), Conrad Veidt (Major Heinrich Strasser), Peter Lorre (Ugarte), Ludwig Stössel as Mr. Miller (Mr. Leuchtag, who is traveling to America with his wife), and Wolfgang Zilzer as Frascher (man without papers)
This film has a 100% rating based on 11 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
