Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

marym52 One of the many things I love about TCM is that it shows the big studio programmers that gave their character actors and up and coming stars a chance to shine.You can always depend on Edward Arnold giving a good performance-- including all the crooked politicians and irascible millionaires that were his bread and butter. But here he sinks his teeth into the role of a blind detective who is aided by a wonder of a seeing eye dog. Arnold is funny, clever, and charming throughout.The mystery, as many viewers note, is solved in Act Two. The film is mainly concerned with putting detective Duncan Maclain in a jam and seeing how he gets out of it and captures a Nazi spy ring.The cast is excellent and includes Anne Harding, Reginald Denny, Mantan Mooreland, and Friday the German Shepherd. Oops-- I almost forgot Donna Reed playing against type as a poisonous debutante! Arnold only made two of the Duncan Maclain films. Too bad-- I could happily sit through several more.

JLRMovieReviews Edward Arnold is blind, but that doesn't handicap him too much in his profession as detective in "Eyes in the Night." A female friend, played by Ann Harding, goes to him for help on how to handle a sticky situation. An ex of hers has latched himself on to her stepdaughter, played by Donna Reed. She knows he's no good, but of course Donna doesn't listen to her. What is the stepmother to do? Edward tells her to confront the man and ask him to leave Donna alone. But coincidentally, the guy, an actor in a repertory group, has been murdered just minutes before she gets there to talk to him. Such sets up the stage of intrigue. And then, we some of Ann's household staff attempting to crack the family safe, because the father/husband is a scientist, who's secret solution is invaluable to them. Hey, they're not really the staff, are they?! The husband has gone to Washington, DC for a meeting about all this, so that's why he's not there throughout all the action of the movie until…. Edward is aided by his dog, Friday and Allen Jenkins, his right hand man. The movie is just as much as the dog's as it is Edward Arnold's, with all the action given to the dog. Both Stanley Ridges and Katherine Emery (you really hate her) give memorable performances as part of the gang, each trying to exert power over each other and Rosemary de Camp, Stephen McNally, and Barry Nelson are also part of the gang. This was a lot of fun, with Edward Arnold chewing up a lot of the scenery and the dog doing his part. This was followed by a sequel, "The Hidden Eye," but, while passable entertainment, that's not nearly as much fun and not as well made. Director Fred Zinnemann's "Eyes in the Night" is shown on TCM from time to time, so when you're surfing the channels and find it, sit a spell and enjoy yourself.

SHAWFAN That dog Friday! In between Rin-Tin-Tin in the 1920s (also a German shepherd) and Lassie just a season or two later I discovered by seeing this film for the first time that there was also Friday, actor-dog extraordinaire! Not only was Edward Arnold deprived of a series and confined to but one more sequel to this very clever and entertaining movie in which his character as a blind detective might have gone on for quite a while, but Friday never got off the ground as a dog star either. And judging from his astonishing tricks and acting accomplishments in this film he would have continued as a canine sensation if they'd only have let him! As to handicapped detectives, Edward Arnold's role seemed to be a clear predecessor to Raymond Burr's Ironside some decades later as a wheelchair-bound but equally efficacious lawyer.As I watched this plot unfold, with the manipulative and steely step-daughter played so brilliantly and uncharacteristically (considering her later popular and more sympathetic roles) by Donna Reed as she constantly confronted her long-suffering stepmother Ann Harding, I could not help but be struck by the parallel to Mildred Pierce, filmed just a few years later. In that film the corresponding parts were taken by a likewise debuting and equally bitchy Ann Blyth and the much put-upon mother, veteran Joan Crawford. I wonder if the makers of MP had Eyes in the Night in the back of their mind as they wove their own plot.

robert-temple-1 Fred Zinnemann's early directorial career yielded many interesting films and this is one of them. Here Zinnemann directs the young Donna Reed (who plays a character who is appallingly arrogant, spoilt and pig-headed, very convincingly), and eleven years later in 'From Here to Eternity' (1953), he would turn to her again for a part where she would win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The main character in the film is a blind detective, Duncan Maclain, played to perfection by Edward Arnold. He has a seeing-eye dog, Friday, who responds to the most complex commands, opens doors by turning the door handles with his teeth, leaps out of basements through high windows, and does many impossible things. Dog lovers will be fascinated by this film. There are some hilarious scenes between the dog and Arnold's butler, played by Mantan Moreland, where the butler is constantly having his job taken away from him by the dog (Friday fetches his master's slippers before the butler can reach the closet, etc.) The haunted looks of Ann Harding are good for her part, her eyes dreamy and distant, her complexion pale, all good mystery stuff. There is an eerie chill cast by the excellent performance of Katherine Emery, with strong lesbian implications as she looks at Donna Reed in 'a certain way'. The scenes where Edward Arnold searches for clues in the dark, because being blind he does not need light, are highly effective. As an early wartime thriller with a certain relevance to the dangers of 'the enemy', this film avoids being hackneyed and is fresh and stands on its own, transcending any propaganda aspects. What less would be expect from Fred Zinnemann?