Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

philosopherjack The title of Fritz Lang's Clash by Night and its placement in his filmography might lead you to expect a film noir, and a couple of its characters (played by Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan) express themselves almost entirely through noir-soaked barbs and aphorisms, reflecting the tortured worldviews beneath. But they're heavily displaced from noir territory (Ryan's character works as a projectionist, a neat evocation of such displacement), set down in a fishing village, both reeling from recent bumpy emotional rides. The film starts by immersing us in the ships, the unloading of the catch, the processing, the surrounding culture, and never loses its sense of that setting; at other times, in its growing sense of domesticity as prison and in the expressiveness of its interiors, it feels like Douglas Sirk as much as Lang. Despite her better judgment, Stanwyck's May gives in to the pursuit of fishing captain Jerry (Paul Douglas), a man too decently straightforward to arouse her interest, and tries to make it as a wife and mother; it's inevitable that his self-loathing friend Earl (Ryan) will eventually constitute a more interesting proposition. The movie teems with portrayals of flawed masculinity - old drunks, younger men with overly fixed ideas about what they expect of their women; it also has Marilyn Monroe as Stanwyck's main female confidant, astute enough to see her point of view, but not to avoid similar traps. Whether one categorizes it as noir or domestic melodrama or an amalgam of both, it's a compellingly articulated study, with a "happy" ending (at least in the sense that it tends to the imperatives of domesticity and continuity over those of uncertain desire) so compromised and understated that it allows no clear winners. In this sense, as in Lang's greatest films, the implications run wide and deep, to a clash and a night that may never end.

dimplet The strength of this film is in the clearly drawn characters and character development as the film progresses. The acting is excellent. There is also a good sense of atmosphere and place, especially in the beginning. The unfolding of the plot is consistent with these characters, and seems almost inevitable. And that is part of the problem. You can sense where the movie is going, and it seems to take forever to get there. Meanwhile, you are wondering, why should I care?The secondary couple, Marilyn Monroe and her boyfriend, don't get a lot of screen time and are not closely integrated into the plot. They are there, presumably, for some moral message about relationships, though what that is is not entirely clear. Apparently, it is that women like strong, protective, domineering men, even, or especially, women who are strong, themselves.It is, of course, interesting to see Marilyn in an early role, before she had become somewhat typecast as a ditsy blonde. Here she is only slightly ditsy, but otherwise gives good depth and naturalness to her character. The wonderful luminous vulnerability that was her strength is already there. The movie opens with great promise, the atmosphere of the sea and the cannery, and then you see Fritz Lang and Clifford Odets in the credits, and you think perhaps you have come across a forgotten masterpiece. Not quite. In the perspective of the times, there was some really wretched acting coming out of Hollywood in the early 1950s, especially in the historical epics. But there were also some great serious dramas, like From Here to Eternity, Streetcar Named Desire, and Marty. Clash by Night seems to mix elements of all three. Audiences probably would have been drawn in by the juicy theme of adultery, and I guess it would have been pretty spicy for the times. Overall, it is an interesting, erudite movie, if somewhat boring. The big mystery, though, is what does the title mean: "Clash by Night"?

christopher-underwood Great film. A big film full of brooding with simmering passions and crashing waves. Barbara Stanwyck is startlingly good in the central role as she takes us with her on her domestic roller coaster ride. Will she, won't she? What is it all about? Robert Ryan does well in an equally difficult role, somewhere between rock bottom loser and confident romantic lover. Paul Douglas seems to struggle at first as the humble good guy as he verges on the buffoon, but recovers and get stronger with the changing of his role. The fishing and factory scenes are tremendous and add much to the backbone of the story, illustrating the precarious security it provides those struggling to survive each other. Monroe shines in a minor role and is as irresistible as ever despite some unflattering clothes. This is not a noir and nor is it an early Lang classic but it is what it is, a very powerful and well told (and shot) melodrama of the highest order.

Michael Neumann Tough cookie Barbara Stanwyck finds little piece of mind after returning home from the big city to the Monterrey seashore and marrying a mild-mannered fisherman. Before long, restlessness leads her into a tawdry affair with kindred spirit Robert Ryan, a hard drinking loner and one of her trusting husband's best friends. The entire cast of characters may be troubled and/or confused, but thankfully the same shortcomings don't extend behind the camera. From a stage drama that could easily have been played as shabby melodrama, Fritz Lang directed a memorable tragedy of human misconduct, crowded with unspoken passions and permeated by a climate of impending menace.