Women in the Night

1948 "Unspeakable atrocities!"
4.6| 1h38m| en
Details

During WW2 six allied nations women at Shanghai University are arrested by the Germans accused of killing a German officer and forced to entertain the Japanese.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Alicia I love this movie so much
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Uriah43 Although Germany surrendered a few months earlier a group of Nazis have ensconced themselves in Shanghai and are working on a "cosmic ray gun" which is supposedly a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb which was just dropped Nagasaki. At first they had planned to give the Japanese their documents but realizing that Japan could not hold out much longer they have decided to stall for time in order to eventually return to Germany with it and start World War III. However, they need to make sure their stall tactics work and so they seize several Caucasian women who attend Shanghai University and force them to work as "hostesses" for German and Japanese officers. Essentially then, this is a film that bears some resemblance to a "Women-in-Prison" (WIP) picture but being produced in 1948 it skillfully avoids some of the risqué scenes generally found in movies of this type preferring a more subtle approach. Unfortunately, it pretends to be based on historical events and then completely turns history on its head. Likewise, having certain women representing a specific country was a bit too corny in my opinion. But then again, this movie was produced in 1948 and playing up to patriotism was typical for this time. In any case, other than "Li Leng" (Frances Chung) there weren't really any characters who seemed to stand out. In short, while as a WIP film it may have been ahead of its time, it still wasn't that solid and I rate it as slightly below average.
Leslie Howard Adams "Women in the Night" begins by saying it is "based on case histories from the files of the United Nations Information Offices." It also promised to depict the heroism's and courage of the women of the countries occupied by the Nazis and Japanese during WW II. It takes place over a period of 36 hours, or 90 minutes that seems like 36 hours, in a German Officers' Club in Shanghai. It seems that these Nazis have developed a cosmic death ray that is 100 times more deadly than the Atomic bomb. But they evidently overlooked telling Hitler and the boys in Berlin about it, and Adolph and his henchmen are now history. But the Japanese want the secret to ensure they won't face the same fate as the Germans. The war in Europe is over but this group of Germans are not only hanging on in Shanghai, they have the funds to manage the upkeep of a club that would rival a Vegas night spot, or will in the future when Vegas begins to flower. Anyway, the Japanese guys want this secret real bad, and the Germans tell them to come on over to the Club and they will give it to them. But the German commandant of the Club has no intentions of demonstrating the "weapon" and has some distracting-diversion tactic planned for the Japanese honchos, and he has the club Maitre'd-slash-torture chamber guy bring in a group of captive women, and his instructions to them is to get out there and "entertain" the Japanese guys, and the way he says "entertain" it is real clear that he means total "entertainment". What his plans are when the Japanese recover from being "entertained" aren't real clear and aren't cleared up later either because one of his officers, (William Henry, the only male in the cast that isn't Asian or speaks with a German accent) is actually an American O.S.S. officer-slash-spy. And one of the "entertainers" is his wife (Tala Birell),a Shanghai version of Mata Hari. Then the plot gets kind of outlandish.
MartinHafer By today's standards, this film is an amazingly racist anti-Nazi and anti-Japanese film--the sort of jingoistic stuff they made during the war as propaganda. So, despite it having a release date of 1948, I strongly suspect it was actually made in 1945--just as the war ended. And, because it was no longer as timely, it was shelved and re-tooled--giving it a bizarro plot that was quite confusing.The film begins with a rather intense and preachy intro about how the Nazis and Japanese brutalized women during the war (such as the Korean 'comfort women'). While this is quite true, the film creates a silly fictionalized piece that frankly was very stupid. A bunch of women (representing, naturally, the various allied countries--though what were they doing in China?!) were kidnapped by the Nazis after the European war ended (this was never addressed in the film--but it's set in August, 1945--and the Nazis surrendered in May, 1945!!). The second atomic bomb has been dropped on Nagasaki and it's only a couple days until the war is over--yet these Nazis want to somehow pimp out these women to the Japanese in order to help them create a NEW Nazi regime(???)! And to do this, the Germans have some secret for a new 'cosmic ray'!!! As for the Germans, they are hilarious. They are way over the top in their stereotypical behaviors and some of them look and sound about as German as the Frito Bandito! One of them, it just so happens, is really an agent for the Americans (really--who would have suspected this guy with a California accent?!) and one of these women turns out to be his old wife!!! What are the odds?! Not surprisingly, the ladies' accents also come and go--showing that these 'actresses' really needed a lot more coaching--or talent! The Japanese, though seemingly more civilized (and consistent with accents), down deep are all just a bunch of mad slobbering rapists----just like their German allies. But again, you must remind yourself that there WAS no Nazi Germany at this time and none of this made any sense! The bottom line is that this is a stupid film thanks to a dreadful script--filled with about as much subtlety as a brick upside your skull! Had it come out during the war, at least it would have had some propaganda value. But, it is a terrible film--one that is so bad that you might enjoy it just for its comedy value! It reminds me of the expression "it's so bad that it's good"! If you like this sort of trash, also try "The First Yank in Tokyo"--a very lurid and silly film to say the least.
dbborroughs Pure exploitation film about Nazi's in China nominally to help the Japanese try to win the war and to abuse women. Actually the Nazi's in Asia have come up with a secret weapon that could have helped the Fatherland had they gotten it home before defeat, however Germany has fallen and the Japanese want it only the Germans don't want to give it up. Lurid exploitation film that is supposedly based on actual case files. Other than some note cards about nasty experiments I doubt very highly that any of what we see happened. More unbelievable spy drama mixed with and excuse to abuse women this is the precursor of the Nazi prison camp films of the early 1970's, though with out the nudity and truly graphic violence. I'm not sure what I think of the film. Taken for what it is its not a bad film, but I can't say its the sort of thing that I would willingly watch again since there is a rather mean spiritedness to it all. If you watch it you probably will walk away liking it, but you may hate yourself in the morning