A film noir does not have to be totally realistic to become a classic; All it needs are the elements that make film noir the gritty and riveting thrillers they are. This plot surrounds amnesia, money laundering, and mistaken identities. George Taylor (John Hodiak) is an amnesiac veteran who finds a letter from a friend he doesn't remember named Larry Kravat for a bank account in Los Angeles. When he goes to the bank, he becomes nervous over the suspicious nature of the bank teller and flees. Mysterious encounters with several others makes him wonder about his own identity and who the mysterious Kravat really is. With the help of a kindly nightclub singer (Nancy Guild),he sets out to solve the mystery. What he finds he may not like.

In a year of such classic film noir as "The Big Sleep", "Gilda", "Decoy", "The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers", "The Killers" and "The Blue Dahlia", "Somewhere in the Night" has been somewhat overlooked until recently. It has a somewhat convoluted plot line, and its structure moves all over the place like the roads in the mountains above Los Angeles. Characters come in and out of the script like bees out of a hive. Who is good and who is bad will have to be waited out until the ending revelation, but this isn't the L.A. of movie studios and sunny days at the beach. Sure, Taylor ends up at the beach, but it is to go into the bowels of an old wooden dock, not to catch rays between Santa Monica and Venice. Film noir vets like Richard Conte and Lloyd Nolan add color, while Margo Woode is an interesting supporting "femme fatale". ("Whose the character with the hair?", she squawks upon meeting Guild....) Guild does have an interesting look, sort of like a younger Kate Mulgrew. Veteran 30's leading lady Josephine Hutchinson is memorable in one key scene as a seemingly middle aged recluse who dresses and lives like Whistler's Mother. Look too for Harry Morgan as a rough character Hodiak encounters while investigating.

This was only the third film for director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and he already shows signs of being a master story teller. With truly dark photography, a moody hero, a Lauren Bacall like heroine and other archetypes that make for essential film noir, this is worthy of becoming a small classic. I would like to have seen more films of this nature with Nancy Guild; She had the ability to make you trust her in spite of her involvements of unsavory characters, but appears to have had a very limited acting career.

The film begins with John Hodiak in a military hospital. It seems he's had a horrific injury while serving in WWII. The wound is so bad that he has no recollection who he is--which is strange, as he hasn't got a single scar throughout the film! This seemed sloppy--a couple nice big scars on his head would have been appropriate and made the film seem less contrived. This is exactly the sort of injury that happens in movies--not in real life. Armed only with a few tiny bits and pieces on him, he tracks down who he might be once he's discharged.

It's obvious early on that who Hodiak is and who is old 'friends' were is pretty bad--as the trail leads him to thugs and creeps galore. And, on top of that, people start making attempts on his life and beat the crap out of him! Now you'd think that in a situation like this, he'd either give up his search OR he'd get the police involved. After all, with no memory, he's just blindly walking into one dangerous situation after another! Herein lies the problem--with him running about like a proverbial bull in a china chop, he should have been killed early on in the film. But because he ultimately is able to unravel the mystery, it all seems very contrived and totally unbelievable.

Despite a good cast and Joseph L. Mankiewicz co-writing and directing, it's only a so-so film. There were a few decent story elements (such as the film noir look and some of the acting). However, you might expect more, as in the late 40s and early 50s, Mankiewicz was perhaps THE preeminent film maker--with such wonderful credits as "A Letter to Three Wives" and "All About Eve" to his credits. This film simply doesn't show the Mankiewicz brilliance--plus this sort of idea has been done better (such as with Edmond O'Brien in "Man in the Dark").

It's odd. After looking at the reviews, I noticed that what people thought was all over the place--many hated it, many thought is was brilliant. I thought it was neither.

By the way, was it just me or was Richard Conte's move to disarm the lady with the gun near the end of the film a bit hard to believe?!

Before Joe Mankiewicz's career went into high gear with back to back Oscars for A Letter To Three Wives and All About Eve, he did this crackerjack noir film about a war veteran with amnesia and a past he might not really want to remember. Borrowing heavily from The Maltese Falcon, Somewhere In The Night instead of a legendary bird has a very real and tangible two million dollars of smuggled Nazi loot that a Los Angeles private eye was handling and got lost.

In the meantime on the strength of a letter written to him while in the service an amnesiac war veteran comes searching for his past in Los Angeles and finds himself in a lot of trouble he can't decipher. John Hodiak plays the troubled veteran and the only friend he has is nightclub singer Nancy Guild who sings in Richard Conte's nightclub.

Hodiak sad to say is a pretty forgotten actor today. He came along during the war years and when folks like Gable and Taylor returned from the service he was kind of an MGM spare tire. I'm sure Darryl Zanuck got him on the cheap for this film at 20th Century Fox. Still Hodiak had an everyman appeal that resonated well with audiences. A shame he died so young of a heart attack, I believe it was a heart murmur that kept him out of the Armed Services in World War II.

I wish we had seen a little more of Lloyd Nolan playing a laconic police detective. There's a man who never gave a bad performance even in mediocre films.

Although I had it right partially in terms of a solution, Somewhere In The Night will still yield a few surprises to some in the viewing audience. And that's the mark of a good film.