Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

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

RNMorton Henry is WWII vet still getting his feet on the ground after the Big One, Price is womanizing magician, Bel Geddes is naive young thing and Dvorak is jaded showgirl. Right off the bat Price comes stumbling out of Fonda's apartment with a bullet in his gut, the rest of the film covers police attempts to take out Fonda and flashbacks of how we got here. Fonda is good if a little overdone in the Everyman role, Price is great as always as the slick dirtball, but Bel Geddes steals the show as vulnerable, sincere Jo Ann. Nice bit roles also abound, including the always welcome Elisha Cook as a blind neighbor. Movie makers today wouldn't have the patience to tell this type of story this way, but it works well here. My 12 and 8 year olds were entranced by this movie, which we saw on a trip, that's a rare haul for a black and white crime drama.

Spikeopath The Long Night is directed by Anatole Litvak and written by Jacques Viot and John Wexley. It stars Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak and Howard Freeman. Music is by Dimitri Tiomkin and cinematography by Sol Polito.A man is shot and falls down the stairs, as the police surround the apartment of the apparent murderer, Joe Adams (Fonda), a siege unfolds and Joe reflects on the circumstances that led him to this situation.Think we'll just about make it.A remake of Marcel Carne's La Jour se Leve (Daybreak), The Long Night is a sweaty and sullen film that also comes cloaked with noirish atmosphere. Essentially the plot is driven by a love triangle, but there is nothing remotely corny or melodramatic about this fact. Story is told via Joe Adams in flashback, and in some cases flashbacks within flashbacks, this format gives the narrative some real edge, a complexity that sidles up nicely to the troubled emotional state of Joe as he sits holed up in his cheap hotel room, chain smoking and pondering the hand that life has dealt him since returning from service in the war. There's intelligent asides in the writing involving the act(s) of killing, a skew-whiff expectation of womanhood and a dangled carrot by way of hope for the common man in a new dawn of Americana. Litvak already had Carne's excellent template to work from, his job here is to get powerful performances from his cast and let Polito work his photographic skills. In that respect it's a triumph for the director. Some have said Fonda is miscast, he really isn't and his tortured performance underpins the grim nature of the story. Price is at his magnificent best, all smarm and charm and rightly bringing the creeping ham to the character. Bel Geddes is sweetly enigmatic, the perfect foil for Fonda's confused emotions, and Dvorak has the tart with a heart portrayal down pat; with legs so beautiful they could start a war as well! Polito is the ace card, serving up some striking images in moody black and white, be it an industrial working class back drop of cement mixers and steel works, or filtered lighting of a stairwell, his photography perfectly marries up with the psychological depth pulsing from the human characters.The PCA pleasing ending stinks and annoys in equal measure, and we of course want more for Elisha Cook Jr and Charles McGraw than the secondary supporting slots they get, but this is still a fine movie that holds its noir head up high in a year that would prove to be one of the best noir years ever. 8/10

Hitchcoc This is certainly an entertaining piece of film. It does have a bit of time getting to the point and Fonda's character is unyielding to a fault. Vincent Price has made the mistake of not only winning, but feeling the need to rub someone's face in it. He did seem a bit surprised when Fonda shot him. The movie is told in several flashbacks and works pretty well. Barbara Bel Geddes is pretty emotional. Why are movie guys so stuck in sacrificial mode. The guy had to know that the authorities had no choice but to arrest him and possibly shoot him. Unless his lower class status was so overwhelming, it seems he would have had a reasonable chance. Anyway, it's a tense little piece of entertainment. Cagney might have been better, but Fonda's big sad eyes fill the bill.

edwagreen Eerie film showcasing an excellent chain-smoking Henry Fonda as a distraught lover who kills the eerie mad-like magician,Vincent Price, who discovers his girl-friend, Barbara Bel Geddes and begins to stalk here.The acting here is good especially by Fonda, who wears the same hat and acts in a similar fashion as he did in "The Grapes of Wrath." He is essentially a beaten down character, at war with society who vacillates between pessimism and optimism.Bel Geddes is outstanding especially in the latter part of the film. Her justification for living would ever serve as an inspiration to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.Ann Dvorak, as the mysterious Charlene, is also quite good. The film is really uneven as it doesn't explain why the Fonda character becomes involved with Charlene, Price's assistant in his magic.