Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3) "Night Must Fall" was a very offbeat murder thriller for MGM in 1937. It was produced for the main reason that the Emlyn Williams play was a great popular success on both sides of the Atlantic. It may have flopped at the box office for several reasons but certainly not for lack of quality: the acting is superb (the US actors actually making an effort to sound British alongside national British treasures like Dame May Witty, Kathleen Harrison and E.E. Clive), the pacing is vivid and the dynamic music score (by the almost forgotten Edward Ward) was nothing if not prophetic of things to come. In spite of its occasional staginess and theatricality (yes, there is a difference between the two), it was very audacious in bringing adult themes and deep motivational analysis to film narrative, a lesson that wouldn't be lost on the later Hitchcock and a host of film noir and horror directors and writers on both sides of the pond. Hitchcock had used Williams' talents as a journeyman providing additional dialogue to his "Man Who Knew Too Much" but certainly could not afford such a hit as this play with the British film budgets of the time and would certainly have cut deep into its Shakespearian speeches. The film got past the censors in the first place because, to Americans, anything British was considered "quaint" and therefore acceptable - even when the plot almost gets away with murder. Still, its preoccupation with questions of social class, sociopathy, sexual attraction and the slightest hint of a happy end must have been quite a shock to the system for the British movie-going public. It is worth mentioning that this film (and its remake) was banned outright in Finland - where nights are very long indeed - as both outrageous to community standards and too horrific for Scandinavian nerves. Nowadays, there is a heavy metal band fom Finland called "Night Must Fall". In conclusion, this is a film that set up several precedents which have been emulated all through the rest of the XXth century, which makes it an unrecognized cinema masterpiece. Another way of sizing up its brilliance is comparing it to its 1963 remake, which fails in almost every respect.P.S.: The entire film is available on YouTube.

wes-connors In an English village, roguishly Irish Robert Montgomery (as Danny) worms his way into the household of wealthy hypochondriac May Witty (as Mrs. Bramson). Charmed by Mr. Montgomery's fawning attention, Ms. Witty hires him as her wheelchair-pushing companion. Meanwhile, police search the countryside for a man who has decapitated another woman. Witty's beautiful straight-laced niece, Rosalind Russell (as Olivia Grayne), suspects Montgomery is the killer, and wonders if Witty is next. Yet, Ms. Russell is strangely attracted to Montgomery, even more than handsome lawyer Alan Marshal (as Justin Laurie)."Night Must Fall" entertains greatly due to the Oscar-nominated "Best Actor" performance from Montgomery; he didn't get many roles like this one, but sure knew what to do with it when he had one. At the time, Montgomery served as a romantic attachment to MGM's female leads; here, he shows he can carry a film with the best of them. Russell plays a second fiddle just as well, and Witty thankfully preserves her presence on film; nominated for a "Best Supporting Actress" award, Witty is simply marvelous. The film made several year-end honor rolls, topping the "National Board of Review" as "Best Picture" of 1937.******** Night Must Fall (4/30/37) Richard Thorpe ~ Robert Montgomery, May Witty, Rosalind Russell, Alan Marshal

theowinthrop Robert Montgomery had a distinguished acting career for two decades, which initially was one as weaklings and society cads, but subsequently had meatier roles in store for him. This is not to dismiss his initial performances. He honed a first rate comic timing in these films, so that by the end of the 1930s he was a leading man in many comedies. But except for an occasional film like THE BIG HOUSE (where he is a prisoner who turns stool pigeon) most of his films were set in upper crust society, such as in THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY. But in 1937 he actually got the chance to show he was an actor of the first rank. Due to some problem with the heads of MGM, Montgomery was given the role of "Danny" in NIGHT MUST FALL as punishment. It was history repeating itself. In 1934 to punish Clark Gable MGM hired him out to Columbia Pictures, and he ended up with the male lead in Frank Capra's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, and his Oscar performance. In 1937 Montgomery's "Danny" would earn him the Oscar nomination for best actor, but he lost to Spencer Tracy (who MGM pushed for the Oscar). However, after 1937 Montgomery had a better selection of different roles in his career.NIGHT MUST FALL was a play about a small household in an English village, made up of Mrs. Bramson (Dame May Witty), her niece/secretary/punching bag Olivia (Roselind Russell), Emily the Cook (Kathleen Harrison), and Dora the Maid (Merle Tottingham). Dora has been romancing a hotel busboy/waiter named Danny (Montgomery), and he is brought to the cottage to meet Mrs. Bramson to ask for her approval of the marriage of Dora and Danny. But Danny is a charmer who knows how to manipulate Mrs. Bramson. The sharp tongued and harsh old lady finds herself liking the young man, and he is hired to work in the cottage.It's just as well for Danny. One of the female guests at the hotel has disappeared. The viewers are aware (at the start) of some figure burying the body in the woods, but we are not fully certain who. Danny continues charming Mrs. Bramson, Dora, and (to a lesser degree)Emily. But Olivia is not quite so unquestioning. She finds him too conceited, and not very trustworthy regarding whatever he says. Dora and Emily are also aware of this (Dora wondering what happened to the marriage plans she and Danny had been discussing). Instead Danny concentrates his charm and line of blarney (although he is Welsh, not Irish) on the difficult Mrs. Branson. He may have ulterior reasons - he sees where Branson keeps her household expense money in a desk, while peeking through a window. The audience is aware that Olivia is right in not trusting the young man.Olivia can't make her aunt see what she sees - Branson is all toughness with Olivia, but not with Danny. Olivia does discuss the matter with her boyfriend Justin Laurie (Alan Marshall) but even he (being a solicitor) is not fully convinced that Danny is anything but harmless. There is no real evidence. Then Olivia (with Dora and Emily) does a little spying. They go through Danny's belongings, and find his wallet shows he's had other romances, and he has a photo of himself and the missing woman. But before they can check a mysterious large hat-box Danny brought with him, he silently enters the room and confronts them.The film has an excellent atmosphere due to it's concentration (except in a handful of scenes) on the rooms of the cottage. Also on the three leads. Witty is wonderful as an apparently wheelchair bound old woman who has little warmth in her toward her niece (we later learn she hated Olivia's mother), and is only interested in her own comfort. Russell plays Olivia as nearly neurotic - used to being her aunt's servant and punching bag, yet civil and trying to be of use and of warning the old lady. And Montgomery's Danny, cigarette dangling insolently from his lip (or behind his ear when not lit), ready to give a line of blarney to amuse the elderly Bramson. Yet he also, gradually, opens up bit by bit to the fascinated Olivia - until the pressures of what he reveals frightens the hell out of her.Finally the body of the missing woman turns up in the forest. But it is mutilated (no head is found, and the killer tried to remove the fingerprints). Olivia is now wondering about that hat-box. She is sure she knows who is the murderer. But can she make her aunt see it?I'll leave it there. To me it remains a flawless study of criminal evil, with Montgomery (in the last half hour) revealing what such a criminal's mind is like. Emlyn Williams (who wrote the play) was fascinated by true crime - he would write a memoir about the Ian Brady-Myra Hindley "Moor Murders" Case of the 1960s, BEYOND BELIEF. The American Criminal Historian Albert Borowitz wrote an essay on the play suggesting that Danny is based on the Crumbles Bungalow Murderer Patrick Mahon (who had a bad experience with the head of his victim), and also Harry Jacoby, the hotel busboy who was hanged for killing an elderly woman in the hotel in a robbery. Whether Williams used them or not, he created a great acting part in "Danny", and a wonderful melodrama in NIGHT MUST FALL.

LadyJaneGrey Olivia Grayne (Rosalind Russell), a prim-looking, bespectacled young woman in tweed skirts, twinsets, and sensible shoes, lives in a country house with her crabby aunt Mrs. Bramson (Dame May Witty) and suffers the indignity of being treated like a servant while employed as her aunt's companion. She is ardently pursued by her aunt's lawyer Justin Laurie (Alan Marshal, a ringer for Laurence Olivier), who is handsome and good. Frankly, I would have left with him long ago. He asks her to marry him and says, "Even if you don't love me, aren't I better than the old lady?" Indeed!! Olivia longs for some adventure or excitement in her life of drab monotony, but doesn't think it's ever going to happen.That changes when Dora, one of the maids, confesses tearfully to being "in trouble" by a messenger from another house. Mrs. Bramson agrees to see him to make him do right by the girl. Into their lives comes Danny (Robert Montgomery), a strutting Irish charmer whose silver tongue so enchants the old lady, she offers him a job. He nonchalantly agrees to marry the maid, like many sociopaths who toss off the answer they know needs to be said without any intention of actually doing so. Indeed, soon enough Danny is taking dinner with the ladies of the house and being served by the maid presumably carrying his baby.Olivia sees right through Danny from the start. She becomes interested in him, though, because he's good-looking, different, and has that dangerous bad-boy vibe going on. But she's also repulsed my his servile attitude to the old cantankerous battle-axe and his facile way with the truth. Nonetheless, after he tells her she would be prettier "without them glasses on," we don't see her wearing them much.When the lady of the house from his previous employment turns up dead, nude, and decapitated in the woods, Danny seems to know her far too intimately to have been just her servant. Olivia twigs onto this immediately, and has her suspicions. Olivia wonders what is in the hatbox under the bed that is much too heavy for a hat and why he's never unpacked his things. Nonetheless, Olivia saves his bacon when the police inspector wants to look through his things and she claims his hatbox as her own. She feels a little sorry for him and we guess that even she doesn't know quite why she did this.There's a lot of sexual tension between Danny and Olivia. This is played out in quite a charged fashion in the kitchen scene. Olivia goes to make tea because she can't sleep. Danny is also awake, troubled by something. He hears someone in the kitchen, goes to investigate, and scares the bejesus out of Olivia. He pegs her spot on, telling her, "You want adventure, don't you? It's right here in this house, right here in this kitchen, with the two of us, alone here, at this time of night. It's exciting, isn't it?" He tells her, as she is breathing hard and blushing, that she's never been alone with a chap like him but she likes it, and it's a secret part of her she never knew existed. He comes closer to her, close enough to kiss…It's true, she is excited. But it's dangerous too, and she knows it. I won't spoil the scene for you; you'll have to see it for yourself.This was the first performance I had seen Montgomery give. I went back and saw his romantic comedies and then saw this again. He is wonderful in it, and indeed was nominated for an Academy Award. His Irish accent is very good. His demeanor as the insouciant servant who starts out mouthing platitudes to all and sundry and by the end of the story is displaying his contempt of them is very well-played. His good looks worked for him in this role, as who would believe someone so handsome would be a killer? Indeed, would many women have cuddled up with Ted Bundy had he looked creepy and frightening? That's just how sociopaths work; and Montgomery pretty much nails it. Russell is good as well in the kind of role that would be left in the dust as she moved on the screwball comedies in just a few years. Dame May Witty, as the malingering old biddy, is too perfect with her complaints of palpitations, bosom-clutching, and rattling around in a wheelchair she clearly doesn't need. Her hysterics late in the film, when everyone has left her alone and she has the "jitters," is classically comical.The story holds up but some of the film's flaws include staginess and talkiness (over two hours long). You can tell it started life as a play because most of the action takes place in one room from which all others open off. I also found heavy-handed the device of using threatening music when Danny enters the room. Also, mention is made that the body has not been found yet and promptly there is a scream from offstage and a policeman rushes in to use the phone to report that the body has indeed been found. Stagy! It doesn't quite hold up to thriller standards by today's viewpoint but still atmospheric, and the set design is beautiful and the performances, especially Montgomery's, are well worth seeing. In fact, this role was not given to Montgomery as some sort of punishment by MGM, as suggested by another post. Louis B. Mayer was astounded Montgomery wanted to play this type of role at all, and Bob had to fight for it. If all you know of him is the fluffy romantic movies where he waltzed around pretty women and said things like, "I love you, and you love me too, admit it," do see him acting quite differently in this film.