Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft, Jocelyn Brando
Have I Seen it Before: Never. Just another entry at Noir Nights. With me having cut the chord to Turner Classic Movies—this is the only opportunity I have to regularly be surprised by a movie, just because it is on*.
Did I Like It: Well, I can think an issue I have with that title. Noir lives in the night, so a noir film calling itself Nightfall is kind of like a science fiction film calling itself Space Ship. That alone might pose a problem, but very little of this film takes place at night! The climax not only takes place amidst the daytime, but out among the icy campgrounds of Wyoming, shining light that makes the proceedings anything but noir-ish.
But it is that bright white snowiness that actually recommends the film, if I can find my way clear of wanting the Columbia PR department to change the title**. With it’s frozen lake climax amidst a snow plow gone mad, one can easily see where the Coen Brothers got their inspiration for the grislier parts of <Fargo (1996)>. It’s sort of a revelation to realize the wood chipper in that later film is actually the far more subtle version of the chopping up of pesky criminals, when compared with the snow plow finding the inspiration to change direction half a dozen times before the essentially good guy (Ray) triumphs over the perfect bastard (Rudy Bond). Even so, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the ending, for all of its contrivance.
Without that ending, the film would have been just another pleasantly diverting, indistinguishable from the rest of the genre, noir picture. Now, at least, we’ll always have that snow plow.
*Yeah. I’m surprised, too, by how many of my reviews naturally drift to a eulogy for TCM. Maybe I need to bring that up in therapy…
**You can change the title of a novel adaptation if it no longer fits. You do know that, right, 1950s Columbia PR department?