Tuesday, December 28, 2010

All Through the Night (1941)



All Through the Night - Authentic Region 1 DVD from Warner Brothers starring Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, Frank Mc Hugh, Jackie Gleason, Peter Lorre, Barton Maclane, William Demarest & Directed by Vincent Sherman All Through the Night (1941) is a cheesecake murder-mystery with some Nazis thrown in for flavor. Bogie stars as Gloves Donahue (::snickers::) has been eating Miller's cheesecake for nearly a decade. When Mr. Miller is murdered by Pepi (Peter Lorre), Gloves runs into a swell looking but mysterious dame by the name of Leda (Kaaren Verne) who may be able to reveal who and why Miller was killed. Gloves rounds up a tag team of compadres including Sunshine (William Demarest), Starchy (Jackie Gleason) and Barney (Frank McHugh) to help solve the mystery. But they find a lot more than they bargained for. A whole underground cell of Nazis who are plotting a major attack on the city. What's a cheesecake-loving thug to do?! The plot is convoluted, as most early films about Nazis were, but the film is still enjoyable to watch.

Humphrey Bogart carries this film really well even though he threatens to be overshadowed by an amazing cast of character actors.


A very very young Jackie Gleason. Look at those baby cheeks! Don't you just want to squeeze them? Gleason doesn't have many scenes in this film but the ones he does stands out because of his wise-cracking lines as well as the novelty of him being a young Jackie Gleason!


Phil Silvers plays the waiter who dares to bring Gloves (Bogie) a slice of cheesecake that isn't from Millers. He's got some great lines at the beginning of the film and his facial expressions are hilarious!



William Demarest plays Sunshine, Gloves' right-hand man. Most of the time in mysteries like these the hero is by himself most of the time he's doing his investigation. Not in this film! Sunshine is by Gloves' side ready to take punches and fall off of balconies whenever Gloves needs him.


Barton MacLane plays the disgruntled club owner Marty Callahan who has the noive of dissing Gloves' ma! He doesn't realize that his club is being taken over by a bunch of stinkin' Nazis until Gloves smacks some sense into him!


Frank McHugh plays Barney, Gloves' sidekick and driver. Barney is sexually frustrated and during the whole story he meets a dame, gets engaged, gets married but never consummates the marriage because he's too busy helping Gloves and Sunshine in investigating the moider. McHugh is probably the funniest character in the film and the most enjoyable to watch. He's given a lot of great scenes and lines.


Judith Anderson, of Rebecca (1940) fame, plays the evil Madame. A Nazi suspicious of Leda (Bogie's gal) and her motives. I don't know about you, but it's always a delight when Judith Anderson appears in a film. Even if she plays evil most of the time.


Peter Lorre plays the evil Pepi who murders Mr. Miller or Miller's Bakery. He's creepy and childlike. Whenever he pops up on screen, we know something bad is going to happen. Fun fact, Lorre and Kaaren Verne (who plays Leda) married in real life a few years after this film was made.

There are several other great character actors in the film but these were just my favorites! Please give this lesser-known Bogie film a try!

3 comments:

  1. I saw All Through the Night in October and loved it. It's one of the "hidden gems" and I'm really happy that it's getting more recognition.

    Great post:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would watch this just to see the young Jackie Gleason.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meredith - We need to get more people to watch it so it gets even more recognition! Thanks for your compliment and for stopping by.

    Rich - It's worth it for that alone!

    ReplyDelete

Leave me a comment! If it is a long one, make sure you save a draft of it elsewhere just in case Google gobbles it up and spits it out.

Popular Posts

 Twitter   Instagram   Facebook