Jacques Tourneur - Nightfall (1957)

This well-acted, suspenseful B-noir by director Jacques Tourneur features inspired casting, with Aldo Ray an unlikely yet sympathetic leading man, and Anne Bancroft suitably adventurous as his new love interest. Screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (working from a story by David Goodis) makes good use of flashbacks to unveil Ray’s story, gradually revealing why he chooses to stay on the lam rather than go to the police. The snowy climax in Wyoming brings this enjoyable yarn to a tense and dramatic end.







Jacques Tourneur's Nightfall follows the classic Film-Noir pattern: a man hunted by someone for something he did in the past, a beautiful woman, expressionist black and white photography etc..

The action of the film takes place in Chicago where James Vanning (Aldo Ray), meets in a bar a beautiful young fashion model Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft). There is instant liking between them. Everything seems fine till James is picked up by two strange individuals whom as we understand he knew before and who begin to interrogate him, threatening his life, about a big amount of money that he supposedly possess and that actually belongs to them. James manages to escape and takes refuge at Marie's home. He's obliged to tell her the story about his past that led those to men to hunt him. The story which is shown to us in flash back sequences. Nightfall is quite an interesting film, well acted with some very good dialogs in it and the most remarkable end sequence that probably served as an inspiration for the ending of brothers' Coen Fargo. (IMDB comment)









Al caer la noche
Cuando James Vanning y un amigo pasan unos tranquilos días en el campo, tropiezan accidentalmente con una banda que acaba de asaltar un banco. Los ladrones matan al amigo de James y huyen pensando que él también ha muerto. Pero en la huida, confunden el maletín del dinero y se llevan uno equivocado.

Al caer la noche está basada en una novela del gran David Goodis y retoma la historia del hombre inocente perseguido a la que el estilo visual elusivo y onírico del director y la formidable iluminación de Burnett Guffey convierten en una auténtica pesadilla urbana.







2Z