Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

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

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

blanche-2 "After Tonight" was gorgeous Constance Bennett's last film under her RKO contract. She didn't exactly leave on a high note; the film lost money. But the film has its compensations.It's the old spy falling in love with the enemy story. This one has Karen Schontag (translation: Pretty Day) (Bennett) at the railroad trying to get to Vienna from Paris during World War I. It's there she meets Captain Rudolph Ritter, the new Captain of Austrian Intelligence. No surprise that each finds the other mighty attractive, and, since the train is overbooked, he helps Karen get to Vienna. And who is she really? A Russian, Carla Vanirska, and she's a spy.Once in Vienna, we see Karen singing in a club and then working as a nurse. Rudolph and his associates are trying to find a dangerous enemy spy, R-14, who is delivering coded messages to the Russians as they try to overthrow the government in Austria.Well, we all know who R-14 is, with her coded messages in invisible ink that she carries in her books and leaves in a staircase panel. The question is, will Rudolph find out? And if he does, will he have her shot? I love the atmosphere of the European sets and whether or not we think we know what will happen, the film is still suspenseful. Bennett and Roland, who married some years later, are a beautiful couple. So he's an Austrian with a Mexican accent. You can't have everything. What a career - 60 years that began in the silents.A definite must-see for fans of the lovely Bennett.

MartinHafer "After Tonight" is a rather heavy-handed and sappy love story--the type that, thankfully, died off a long time ago. Constance Bennett plays a Mata Hari-type woman. She's spying for the Russians during WWI and is posing as an Austrian nurse. Gilbert Roland plays an Austrian spy smasher--a guy whose job is to locate and liquidate spies like her. However, two VERY mismatched pair ends up falling in love. Now this is all a bit hard to believe and melodramatic, but it COULD have worked. However, at the end, when she is discovered, the film degenerates into a juvenile mess--where a silly tacked on happy ending occurs even though it defies logic and ruins the film with sickening sentimentality. Even if Bennett and Roland gave it their best, this poorly written film was destined to be a silly mess...which it is. If it sounds like I really, really hated the film, you are right--mostly because the ending left me feeling like I'd wasted my time.Incidentally, about a decade after this film, Bennett and Roland married. They didn't stay married, but they married.

lshelhamer The idea of a spy falling in love with one of the enemy is a literary cliché and has been used in the movies since the silent era. It is full of dramatic possibilities, but always faces the difficulty of resolving in the end the contest between loyalty and love. In this film, the problems are compounded by having Mexican-American Gilbert Roland portraying the Austrian counterintelligence agent with his Spanish accent intact, up against the all-American Constance Bennett as a Russian spy during what appears to be WW1. The two gradually fall in love without knowing each other's true identity. Despite the obvious drawbacks, all involved carry it off very well.There are really two ending. The first, when they finally confront each other and reveal their true identities is dramatic, exciting and with a final surprising twist. The second is far-fetched and less satisfying. If you eliminate the final 5 minutes, the film is well-worth watching.

WeatherViolet This tale of espionage and high risk romance begins at a Paris railroad depot as Karen Schöntag, the Austrian alias of the Russian Carla Vanirska (Constance Bennett) attempts to board an overbooked train for Vienna.Well, as good fortune, perhaps, would have it, Captain Rudolph "Rudy" Ritter (Gilbert Roland), en route to Vienna himself, to his newly-promoted position as Captain of an Austrian intelligence agency, enables Karen/Carla to accompany him because he instantly succumbs to her charms and graces.Now, the balance of the film transpires in Vienna, as Rudy and Major Lieber (Edward Ellis) lead the search for the capture of the dangerous enemy agent "K-14," who cleverly delivers coded messages to comrades of a Russian insurgency movement to attempt to overthrow the government in Austria. (Well, keep in mind that this is a 1933 release, and before the period of WWII German occupation.) So, you may pretty well guess the identity of K-14 from the list of IMDb cast credits, but what a clever operator K-14 turns out to be, writing those secret coded messages in invisible ink, folding them into the pages of books, entering the secret rendezvous locations, tapping the steps of a staircase by the shoe, and delivering the set of books to a fellow agent, who hides beneath the staircase to slide a secret panel to receive them.Fans of the Classics may find many elements of manners, glamor and suspense, with the lovely leading lady carrying the film, all reasons to tune into vintage films. "After Tonight," well staged with excellent cinematography, does, however, seem to have a screen-story of conflicting allegiance for fans to wonder whom or what we're supposed to be rooting for here.According to IMDb, "The film lost $100,000 at the box office, which made the studio (RKO Radio Pictures) consider firing Miss Bennett," making her the scapegoat in an awkwardly scripted outing, which seems to loose its direction and climax in a rather somewhat implausible finale.But Constance Bennett does carry the film well, as its prime attraction, and she handles the material to cause even the more irate critics to care about her character--especially after bodies begin to fall victim to conflicts between the caucuses.So, in addition to Miss Bennett, Mr. Roland and Mr. Ellis, you may also recognize Sam Godfrey as Franz, Lucien Prival as Lieutenant Erlich, Mischa Auer as Agent Lehan, and Virginia Weidler in the role of Olga, Carla's Niece.And it would also be nice to score with half-points here and there.Edit 03/24/16 -- "...first sentence saying it begins in a Paris railroad station. It actually begins in Luxembourg, which is a different country and 250 miles away." -- (Thanks for correction, IMDb Member blakedw.)