Nabonga (1944) 75m. ½ D: Sam Newfield. Buster Crabbe, Julie London, Fifi D’Orsay, Barton MacLane, Bryant Washburn. Incredible cheapie of little girl who survives jungle plane crash and makes friends with a local gorilla; she grows up (now played by London) to become a jungle goddess. Good for laughs, anyway. London’s film debut. Retitled: GORILLA.

Naked Alibi (1954) 86m. ½ D: Jerry Hopper. Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame, Gene Barry, Marcia Henderson, Casey Adams (Max Showalter), Chuck Connors. Dismissed from force because of “police brutality,” ex-cop Hayden continues to stalk cop-killer suspect Barry.

Naked and the Dead, The (1958) C-131m. D: Raoul Walsh. Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson, Raymond Massey, William Campbell, Richard Jaeckel, James Best, Joey Bishop, L. Q. Jones, Robert Gist, Lili St. Cyr, Barbara Nichols. Norman Mailer’s intense novel about WW2 soldiers in the Pacific gets superficial but rugged filmization. Ray is the tough sergeant, Robertson the rich-kid lieutenant, Bishop the comic Jew, Jones the hick, Gist the loner, etc. RKO-Scope/WarnerScope.

Naked City, The (1948) 96m. D: Jules Dassin. Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Don Taylor, Dorothy Hart, Ted de Corsia, House Jameson, Frank Conroy, David Opatoshu, Celia Adler, Molly Picon. Time (and decades of TV cop shows) have dulled the edge of this once-trendsetting crime drama, produced by columnist Mark Hellinger on the streets of N.Y.C., following the investigation of a murder case step by step. Fitzgerald is still first-rate, cast against type as the detective in charge, and the cast is peppered with soon-to-be-familiar character actors (Arthur O’Connell, Paul Ford, James Gregory, et al.). Cinematographer William Daniels and editor Paul Weatherwax won Oscars for their work. Screenplay by Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald. Later a TV series.

Naked Dawn, The (1955) C-82m. ½ D: Edgar G. Ulmer. Arthur Kennedy, Betta St. John, Roy Engel, Eugene Iglesias, Charita. Modern Western about a snowballing series of crimes. Based on a story by Gorky, and much admired by Ulmer buffs.

Naked Earth (1958-British) 96m. ½ D: Vincent Sherman. Juliette Greco, Richard Todd, John Kitzmiller, Finlay Currie. Misguided soap opera set in 1890s Africa, trying to build up aspiring star Greco. CinemaScope.

Naked Edge, The (1961) 99m. ½ D: Michael Anderson. Gary Cooper, Deborah Kerr, Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, Hermione Gingold, Michael Wilding, Peter Cushing. Uneven suspenser of Kerr thinking husband Cooper is guilty of murder. Cooper’s last film, made in London.

Naked Heart, The (1950-British) 96m. D: Marc Allegret. Michele Morgan, Kieron Moore, Françoise Rosay, Jack Watling. Little of consequence happens in this sad story based on book Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hémon. Filmed before in 1935 (in France) and again in 1983 (in Canada).

Naked Hills, The (1956) C-73m. ½ D: Josef Shaftel. David Wayne, Keenan Wynn, James Barton, Marcia Henderson, Jim Backus. Raggedy account of Wayne who has gold fever and spends life searching for ore, ignoring wife and family.

Naked in the Night SEE: Madeleine (1958-German)

Naked Jungle, The (1954) C-95m. D: Byron Haskin. Eleanor Parker, Charlton Heston, Abraham Sofaer, William Conrad. High-class South American jungle adventure, with Heston and wife Parker surrounded on their plantation by advancing army of red ants. Produced by George Pal.

Naked Kiss, The (1964) 93m. D: Samuel Fuller. Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Patsy Kelly, Betty Bronson. In-your-face melodrama opens with a bang and never lets up, as prostitute Towers arrives in a small town hoping to start a new life. By turns lurid, sentimental, romantic, surprising; a mélange that could only have been concocted by writer-director Fuller.

Naked Maja, The (1959) C-111m. D: Henry Koster. Ava Gardner, Anthony Franciosa, Amedeo Nazzari, Gino Cervi, Massimo Serato, Lea Padovani, Carlo Rizzo. Mishmash involving 18th-century Spanish painter Goya and famed model for title painting. Filmed in Italy. Technirama.

Naked Night, The SEE: Sawdust and Tinsel

Naked Paradise (1957) C-68m. BOMB D: Roger Corman. Richard Denning, Beverly Garland, Lisa Montell, Richard (Dick) Miller, Leslie Bradley. On-location filming in Hawaii can’t salvage this balderdash about crooks using cruise boat to rob a local plantation. Retitled: THUNDER OVER HAWAII. Remade as BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE and CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA.

Naked Spur, The (1953) C-91m. ½ D: Anthony Mann. James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Millard Mitchell. One of the best Westerns ever made: a tough, hard little film about self-styled bounty hunter Stewart trying to capture Ryan, who stirs tension among Stewart’s newly acquired “partners.” Strikingly directed and photographed (by William Mellor) on location in the Rockies. Written by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom.

Naked Street, The (1955) 84m. D: Maxwell Shane. Farley Granger, Anthony Quinn, Anne Bancroft, Peter Graves, Else Neft, Sara Berner, Jerry Paris, Jeanne Cooper, Sid Melton, Lee Van Cleef. Good cast wasted in bland crime drama of Brooklyn mobster Quinn, who is overly protective of his kid sister (Bancroft). How will he respond when she becomes pregnant and the father-to-be (Granger) is a convicted murderer in the death house at Sing Sing?

Naked Truth, The SEE: Your Past Is Showing

Naked Youth (1959) 69m. BOMB D: John F. Schreyer. Carol Ohmart, Robert Hutton, Steve Rowland, Jan Brooks, Robert Arthur, John Goddard. Awful potboiler about drug smuggling, murder and some youths who escape from the “State Boys Honor Farm.” That “Switch”—short for switchblade—is a real peach. Plenty of blasting saxophones and bongo drums on the soundtrack. Aka WILD YOUTH.

Nana (1926-French-German) 130m. ½ D: Jean Renoir. Catherine Hessling, Jean Angelo, Werner Krauss, Raymond Guérin-Catelain, Claude Moore (Claude Autant-Lara), Pierre Champagne, Valeska Gert, Pierre Philippe (Pierre Lestringuez), Marie Prevost, Jacqueline Forzane. Emile Zola’s oft-filmed novel of decadence and despair centers on the coquettish title character (Hessling), who manipulates her admirers and is “the golden fly that poisons everything she touches.” Often dramatically potent but hindered by Hessling’s overbaked performance. This was an enormous failure in its day. Coscripted by Renoir and Lestringuez. Autant-Lara (who plays Fauchery) was also the art director and costume designer.

Nana (1934) 89m. ½ D: Dorothy Arzner. Anna Sten, Phillips Holmes, Lionel Atwill, Muriel Kirkland, Richard Bennett, Mae Clarke. Initially interesting adaptation of Emile Zola story of luxury-loving woman in tragic love affair runs out of steam towards the middle. Producer Samuel Goldwyn’s first attempt to make a new Garbo out of exotic but wooden Sten.

Nancy Drew Carolyn Keene’s series of juvenile mystery novels debuted in 1930 and immediately captured the fancy of young readers. In 1938 Warner Bros. purchased the screen rights, and found the perfect actress to bring Nancy to life: Bonita Granville. Her Nancy is brainy, feisty, resourceful, and full of energy—boundless energy. Frankie Thomas plays her boyfriend and crime-solving cohort, and John Litel is (type)cast as her attorney father. Other characters and incidents were combined or compressed from Keene’s books, but only two scripts were actually adapted from novels: NANCY DREW, DETECTIVE and NANCY DREW AND THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE, the best in the series and ironically the last. All four films were directed by William Clemens with typical Warner Bros. zip and pace; they’re more densely plotted than one might expect for B pictures, and though they’re aimed at a younger audience, they seldom skirt the grim realities of crime and murder. The four films are very much of a piece, and hew to a Hollywood formula; if they’re not quite as good as the books, they’re still fun to watch.

NANCY DREW

Nancy Drew, Detective (1938)

Nancy Drew—Reporter (1939)

Nancy Drew—Troubleshooter (1939)

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939)

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939) 60m. ½ D: William Clemens. Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Frank Orth, Renie Riano, Vera Lewis, John Ridgely. Nancy comes to the aid of two aging sisters plagued by mysterious occurrences in their old mansion; best of the short-lived series, and only one of two actually based on a Carolyn Keene novel, The Hidden Staircase.

Nancy Drew . . . Detective (1938) 66m. ½ D: William Clemens. Bonita Granville, John Litel, James Stephenson, Frankie Thomas, Frank Orth, Renie Riano, Dick Purcell. Nancy investigates a wealthy woman’s disappearance in the series’ debut film, with Granville’s energetic performance scoring a bull’s-eye. Based on The Password to Larkspur Lane.

Nancy Drew . . . Reporter (1939) 68m. ½ D: William Clemens. Bonita Granville, John Litel, Frankie Thomas, Mary Lee, Dickie Jones. One of the series’ best entries has school newspaper reporter Nancy determined to prove a girl innocent of murder charges.

Nancy Drew . . . Trouble Shooter (1939) 69m. D: William Clemens. Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Aldrich Bowker, Renie Riano. More emphasis on comedy than mystery in this potboiler with Nancy helping to clear a friend of her Dad’s who’s been accused of murder.

Nancy Goes to Rio (1950) C-99m. ½ D: Robert Z. Leonard. Ann Sothern, Jane Powell, Barry Sullivan, Carmen Miranda, Louis Calhern, Fortunio Bonanova, Hans Conried. Agreeable if artificial MGM musical (remake of Deanna Durbin’s IT’S A DATE), with Sothern and Powell as mother and daughter who compete for a plum acting role and, through misunderstanding, the same man.

Nancy Steele Is Missing! (1937) 85m. ½ D: George Marshall. Victor McLaglen, Walter Connolly, Peter Lorre, June Lang, Jane Darwell, John Carradine. McLaglen is so opposed to war he abducts the baby daughter of a WW1 munitions king; many complications ensue. Offbeat sympathetic portrayal of a kidnapper.

Nanny, The (1965-British) 93m. D: Seth Holt. Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett, James Villiers, Pamela Franklin, William Dix, Maurice Denham. Twisting, scary plot plus fine direction reap results. Suspects of child murder narrowed to governess Davis and disturbed youngster Dix. Unusual Hammer production, written by Jimmy Sangster. From the novel by Evelyn Piper.

Nanook of the North (1922) 79m. ½ D: Robert Flaherty. Pioneer documentary of Eskimos’ daily life withstands the test of time quite well, remains as absorbing saga, well filmed. Set the standard for many documentaries to follow. Soundtrack added in 1939. The film’s production is re-created in KABLOONAK.

Napoleon (1927-French) 235m. D: Abel Gance. Albert Dieudonné, Antonin Artaud, Pierre Batcheff, Armand Bernard, Harry Krimer, Albert Bras, Abel Gance. Hard to put into words the impact of this monumental silent epic. Dieudonné mesmerizingly plays the famed emperor; notable sequences include snowball fight, the Reign of Terror, and eye-popping three-screen Polyvision finale. Recut and shortened many times over the years (often by Gance himself), finally painstakingly pieced together by historian Kevin Brownlow and reissued in 1981 with a serviceable music score by Carmine Coppola. Not the kind of film one can best appreciate on TV. Filmed in part-widescreen triptych.

Narcotic (1933) 57m. BOMB D: Dwain Esper. Harry Cording, Joan Dix, Patricia Farley, Jean Lacey, J. Stuart Blackton, Jr. Another gloriously awful Esper epic, presented as a case history of a doctor’s decline into hopeless drug addiction. Includes plenty of stock footage, astoundingly wooden acting, and laughable Asian stereotypes. A hoot if you’re in the right mood. . . .

Narrow Corner, The (1933) 71m. D: Alfred E. Green. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Patricia Ellis, Ralph Bellamy, Dudley Digges, William V. Mong, Sidney Toler, Henry Kolker, Willie Fung. Fairbanks is on the lam, and winds up on an East Indies island where he finds friendship—and illicit romance. Remarkably adult adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham novel (made in the pre–Production Code era), with only minor flaws. Remade as ISLE OF FURY.

Narrow Margin, The (1952) 70m. ½ D: Richard Fleischer. Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Queenie Leonard. Hard-boiled cop, transporting a gangster’s widow to the trial in which she’ll testify, must dodge hit men aboard their train who are trying to silence her. One of the best B’s ever made—fast paced, well acted, impressively shot in claustrophobic setting. Photographed by George E. Diskant; scripted by Earl Fenton, from a story by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard. Remade in 1990. Also shown in computer-colored version.

Nasty Rabbit, The (1964) C-85m. D: James Landis. Arch Hall, Jr., Micha Terr, Melissa Morgan, John Akana. Weak spoof with serious overtones involving Russian attempt to set loose a disease-infected rabbit in the U. S. Retitled: SPIES A GO GO. Techniscope.

National Velvet (1944) C-125m. D: Clarence Brown. Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, Angela Lansbury, Reginald Owen, Norma Varden, Jackie “Butch” Jenkins, Terry Kilburn. Outstanding family film about a girl who determines to enter her horse in the famed Grand National Steeplechase. Taylor is irresistible, Rooney was never better, and they’re surrounded by a perfect supporting cast. Revere won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Taylor’s mother. Screenplay by Theodore Reeves and Helen Deutsch, from Enid Bagnold’s novel. Followed years later by INTERNATIONAL VELVET and a TV series.

Native Son (1950) 91m. ½ D: Pierre Chenal. Richard Wright, Jean Wallace, Gloria Madison, Nicholas Joy, Charles Cane, George Rigaud. Well-meaning but superficial, ultimately disappointing filming of Richard Wright’s milestone novel and play, with the author himself starring as Bigger Thomas, frightened black chauffeur who unintentionally kills a white woman. Defeated by its low budget, but still a curio. Filmed in Argentina, Chicago’s South Side. Remade in 1986.

Nature’s Mistakes SEE: Freaks

Naughty Arlette SEE: Romantic Age, The

Naughty But Nice (1939) 90m. ½ D: Ray Enright. Dick Powell, Ann Sheridan, Gale Page, Helen Broderick, Ronald Reagan, Allen Jenkins, ZaSu Pitts, Jerry Colonna. Stuffy music professor Powell unwittingly writes popular song hit, leading to various complications and gradual personality change. Silly but fun; songs adapted from Wagner, Liszt, Mozart, Bach.

Naughty Flirt, The (1931) 56m. ½ D: Edward Cline. Alice White, Paul Page, Myrna Loy, Robert Agnew, Douglas Gilmore, George Irving. A wild young socialite (White) is tamed by a hardworking lawyer, but a fortune hunter and his sister scheme to break up the happy couple. Dated jazz-baby flapper stuff notable only for Loy’s early appearance as a seductress and the scene where Page puts the annoyingly perky White over his knee for a good spanking. You may wish to do the same.

Naughty Girl SEE: Mam’zelle Pigalle

Naughty Marietta (1935) 106m. D:W. S. Van Dyke II. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Elsa Lanchester, Douglass Dumbrille, Walter Kingsford, Cecilia Parker, Akim Tamiroff, Harold Huber, Edward Brophy. Charming update of Victor Herbert’s 1910 operetta about a French princess fleeing to New Orleans to escape an arranged marriage, falling in love with an Indian scout. First teaming of MacDonald and Eddy is bright and tuneful, with such Herbert classics as “The Italian Street Song,” “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” and “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life.”

Naughty Nineties, The (1945) 76m. D: Jean Yarbrough. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Curtis, Rita Johnson, Henry Travers, Lois Collier, Joe Sawyer, Joe Kirk. Ordinary A&C comedy of riverboat gamblers, sparked by duo’s verbal exchanges (including “Who’s on First?”) and slapstick finale.

Navigator, The (1924) 69m. ½ D: Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp. Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom. Buster plays (yet again) a pampered millionaire who—by sheer circumstance, with a dash of stupidity—winds up on a huge, deserted ship with the woman he wants to marry. Many great gags and amusing sequences, but this silent doesn’t have the momentum of Buster’s best comedies.

Navy Blue and Gold (1937) 94m. ½ D: Sam Wood. Robert Young, James Stewart, Florence Rice, Billie Burke, Lionel Barrymore, Tom Brown, Samuel S. Hinds, Paul Kelly. Hackneyed but entertaining saga of three pals (one rich and innocent [Brown], one a cynic [Young], and one mysterious “with a past” [Stewart]) going to Annapolis. Predictable football game climax is fun. That’s Dennis Morgan (billed under his real name, Stanley Morner) dancing with Billie Burke.

Navy Blues (1929) 75m. D: Clarence Brown. William Haines, Anita Page, Karl Dane, J. C. Nugent, Edythe Chapman, Wade Boteler, Mary Brian. Standard gobs-on-shore-leave antics centering on the whirlwind affair of wisecracking sailor Haines and good-girl Page. Moderately amusing until treacle takes over. Haines takes his go-getter character to an overbearing extreme in his first talkie.

Navy Blues (1941) 108m. D: Lloyd Bacon. Ann Sheridan, Jack Oakie, Martha Raye, Jack Haley, Herbert Anderson, Jack Carson. Brassy musical with fine cast (including young Jackie Gleason), with Raye stealing most of the film.

Navy Comes Through, The (1942) 82m. ½ D: A. Edward Sutherland. Pat O’Brien, George Murphy, Jane Wyatt, Jackie Cooper, Carl Esmond, Max Baer, Desi Arnaz, Ray Collins. Ultrapatriotic time capsule with U.S. Navy (led by O’Brien), stationed aboard a Merchant Marine ship, heroically battling the Nazis.

Navy Wife (1956) 83m. ½ D: Edward Bernds. Joan Bennett, Gary Merrill, Shirley Yamaguchi, Maurice Manson, Judy Nugent, Martin Milner, Dennis Weaver. Trivial tale of Japanese women revolting to obtain equal treatment from their men as they observe American military and their wives.

Nazarin (1958-Mexican) 92m. D: Luis Buñuel. Francisco Rabal, Rita Macedo, Marga Lopez, Ignacio Lopez Tarso, Ofelia Guilmain. Powerful and pointed (if relentlessly grim) drama about saintly priest Rabal, and how hypocritical peasants deal with him as he tries to interpret the lessons of Christ.

Nazi Agent (1942) 83m. D: Jules Dassin. Conrad Veidt, Anne Ayars, Dorothy Tree, Frank Reicher, Sidney Blackmer, Martin Kosleck, Marc Lawrence, William Tannen. Veidt plays twin brothers: one a peaceful American; the other a Nazi official. When the latter blackmails the former into spying, the good Veidt kills the bad Veidt and impersonates him. Slow-moving, rather arid tale. Dassin’s first feature; good photography by Harry Stradling.

Neanderthal Man, The (1953) 78m. ½ D: E. A. Dupont. Robert Shayne, Richard Crane, Doris Merrick, Joy Terry. Shayne turns a tiger into a sabertooth and himself into a murderous caveman in this below-par ’50s entry. Colorless and cheap; director Dupont was a long way from his German classic VARIETY.

Nearly a Nasty Accident (1962-British) 86m. D: Don Chaffey. Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton, Richard Wattis, Ronnie Stevens, Jon Pertwee, Eric Barker. Minor comedy of mechanic who innocently puts the touch of disaster on everyone.

’Neath Brooklyn Bridge (1942) 61m. D: Wallace Fox. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Sunshine Sammy Morrison, Stanley Clements, Bobby Stone, Anne Gillis, Noah Beery, Jr., Marc Lawrence, Gabriel Dell, Dave O’Brien. The East Side Kids band together when Jordan is framed for murder in this terse entry.

’Neath the Arizona Skies (1934) 53m. ½ D: Harry Fraser. John Wayne, Sheila Terry, Shirley Jean Rickert, Jack Rockwell, Yakima Canutt, Jay Wilsey, George Hayes. Wayne serves as guardian for young Indian girl who, as heiress to an oil fortune, becomes a kidnap target for outlaws. Tattered, uninspired direction of story filmed the year before as CIRCLE CANYON. Worthwhile only for Hayes’ dry run of subsequent “Windy” and “Gabby” characterizations. Also shown in computer-colored version.

Nebraskan, The (1953) C-68m. D: Fred F. Sears. Philip Carey, Roberta Haynes, Wallace Ford, Richard Webb, Lee Van Cleef, Maurice Jara, Pat Hogan, Regis Toomey, Dennis Weaver. Six characters trapped at a desolate outpost try to hold off surrounding Sioux. OK little oater features strong early performance by Van Cleef as a psychotic cavalryman . . . not to mention Jay Silverheels as an evil Indian chief! 3-D.

Nefertite, Queen of the Nile SEE: Queen of the Nile

Nell Gwyn (1934-British) 85m. D: Herbert Wilcox. Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke, Jeanne De Casalis, Muriel George, Miles Malleson, Esme Percy, Moore Marriott. Neagle has one of her best roles as the sassy title character, who is cold-shouldered by Britain’s aristocracy while attracting the attention of King Charles II, thereby incurring the wrath of the monarch’s mistress. Hardwicke’s sly wit matches Neagle’s feistiness in this entertaining historical yarn written by actor Malleson. Ten minutes of bawdy humor and sexual innuendo were deleted from U.S. version. Wilcox directed Dorothy Gish in NELL GWYNNE (1926).

Neptune’s Daughter (1949) C-93m. D: Edward Buzzell. Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Keenan Wynn, Betty Garrett, Ricardo Montalban, Mel Blanc. Musical romance with Esther a bathing-suit designer, Skelton a no-account mistaken for polo star by Garrett. Bubbly fun, with Academy Award–winning song: “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”

Nevada (1944) 62m. D: Edward Killy. Robert Mitchum, Anne Jeffreys, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Nancy Gates, Harry Woods. Standard Zane Grey Western of good-guy Mitchum mopping up gang of outlaws. Filmed before in 1935.

Nevada City (1941) 56m. D: Joseph Kane. Roy Rogers, George “Gabby” Hayes, Sally Payne, George Cleveland, Billy Lee, Joseph Crehan, Fred Kohler, Jr., Pierre Watkin, Jack Ingram. Lively B Western has Roy as a stagecoach driver who tries to intervene in a dispute between railroad owner Crehan and stage line boss Cleveland, while the man behind a riverboat company (Watkin) and his sidekick Black Bart (Kohler) stay busy sabotaging both sides! Written by James R. Webb, who went on to do such Westerns as THE BIG COUNTRY and HOW THE WEST WAS WON.

Nevadan, The (1950) C-81m. D: Gordon Douglas. Randolph Scott, Dorothy Malone, Forrest Tucker, Frank Faylen, George Macready, Charles Kemper, Jeff Corey, Jock O’Mahoney (Mahoney). So-so Western with mystery man Scott befriending crook Tucker, who has hidden away a stash of stolen gold, and courting spunky Malone, the daughter of greedy Macready.

Never a Dull Moment (1950) 89m. D: George Marshall. Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, William Demarest, Andy Devine, Gigi Perreau, Natalie Wood, Philip Ober, Ann Doran. Chic Park Avenue songwriter Dunne weds rancher MacMurray, and adjusts to life in rural Wyoming. Silly, predictable comedy is only of interest for its cast; you’ll find this especially annoying if you’re a feminist or an Indian.

Never Fear (1950) 82m. ½ D: Ida Lupino. Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, Hugh O’Brian, Eve Miller, Lawrence Dobkin. Young dancer Forrest’s life comes apart when she develops polio. Sincere drama scripted by Lupino and her then-husband, Collier Young. Aka THE YOUNG LOVERS.

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) 71m. ½ D: Edward Cline. W. C. Fields, Gloria Jean, Leon Errol, Susan Miller, Franklin Pangborn, Margaret Dumont. Completely insane comedy with Fields (in his last starring film) playing himself; no coherent plot, but a lot of funny scenes. Dumont plays “Mrs. Hemoglobin.” Climactic chase is a classic, reused by Abbott and Costello in IN SOCIETY. Story by “Otis Criblecoblis.”

Never Let Go (1960-British) 90m. D: John Guillermin. Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, Elizabeth Sellars, Carol White, Mervyn Johns. Sellers gives heavy-handed performance as ruthless and sadistic racketeer in weak story about car thievery. Billed as his first dramatic role, it was a poor choice.

Never Let Me Go (1953) 94m. ½ D: Delmer Daves. Clark Gable, Gene Tierney, Bernard Miles, Richard Haydn, Kenneth More, Belita, Theodore Bikel. Unconvincing yet smooth account of Gable trying to smuggle ballerina-wife Tierney out of Russia.

Never Love a Stranger (1958) 91m. ½ D: Robert Stevens. John Drew Barrymore, Lita Milan, Robert Bray, Steve McQueen, Salem Ludwig, R. G. Armstrong. Cliché-ridden tale of the rise and fall of orphan-turned-hoodlum Barrymore features intense performances. Of interest for its portrayal of urban anti-Semitism and its casting of McQueen as a Jew who is bullied. Harold Robbins adapted his own novel.

Never on Sunday (1960-Greek) 91m. ½ D: Jules Dassin. Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, Georges Foundas, Titos Vandis, Mitsos Liguisos, Despo Diamantidou. Charming idyll of intellectual boob coming to Greece, trying to make earthy prostitute Mercouri cultured. Grand entertainment, with Oscar-winning title song by Manos Hadjidakis. Later a Broadway musical, Illya Darling.

Never Put It in Writing (1964) 93m. ½ D: Andrew Stone. Pat Boone, Milo O’Shea, Fidelma Murphy, Reginald Beckwith, Harry Brogan. Grade-B comedy, set in London, with Pat trying to retrieve a letter that will get him fired from his job if the boss sees it. Not much.

Never Say Die (1939) 80m. D: Elliott Nugent. Martha Raye, Bob Hope, Andy Devine, Gale Sondergaard, Sig Ruman, Alan Mowbray, Monty Woolley. Bob marries Martha at Swiss spa of Bad Gaswasser, thinking he has only two weeks to live. Good cast in lively, trivial romp. Cowritten by Preston Sturges.

Never Say Goodbye (1946) 97m. ½ D: James V. Kern. Errol Flynn, Eleanor Parker, Lucile Watson, S. Z. Sakall, Forrest Tucker, Donald Woods, Peggy Knudsen, Hattie McDaniel, Patti Brady. Light, predictable comedy with Flynn, the doting father of seven-year-old Brady, attempting to win back her mother (Parker) on the first anniversary of their divorce.

Never Say Goodbye (1956) C-96m. ½ D: Jerry Hopper. Rock Hudson, Cornell Borchers, George Sanders, Ray Collins, David Janssen, Shelley Fabares. Spotty tearjerker of Hudson and Borchers, long separated, discovering one another again and creating fit home for their child. Remake of THIS LOVE OF OURS. Clint Eastwood is cast as Rock’s lab assistant.

Never So Few (1959) C-124m. ½ D: John Sturges. Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen, Richard Johnson, Paul Henreid, Brian Donlevy, Dean Jones, Charles Bronson. WW2 action/romance tale; salty performances which make one forget the clichés and improbabilities. CinemaScope.

Never Steal Anything Small (1959) C-94m. ½ D: Charles Lederer. James Cagney, Shirley Jones, Roger Smith, Cara Williams, Nehemiah Persoff, Royal Dano, Horace McMahon. Odd musical comedy-drama, with Cagney a waterfront union racketeer who’ll do anything to win union election. From Maxwell Anderson–Rouben Mamoulian play The Devil’s Hornpipe. CinemaScope.

Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931) 79m. ½ D: W. S. Van Dyke. Leslie Howard, Conchita Montenegro, C. Aubrey Smith, Karen Morley, Mitchell Lewis, Clyde Cook. Rich, proper Howard loves rich, proper Morley . . . and then he becomes the guardian of beautiful, uninhibited Montenegro. Wooden soaper of clashing cultures.

Never to Love (1937) SEE: Bill of Divorcement, A (1940)

Never Too Late (1932) SEE: It’s Never Too Late to Mend

Never Too Late (1965) C-105m. ½ D: Bud Yorkin. Paul Ford, Connie Stevens, Maureen O’Sullivan, Jim Hutton, Jane Wyatt, Henry Jones, Lloyd Nolan. Occasionally amusing film version of hit Broadway play about impending parenthood of middle-agers Ford and O’Sullivan. Older performers are funny; Hutton, Stevens, script, and direction are not. Panavision.

Never Trust a Gambler (1951) 79m. ½ D: Ralph Murphy. Dane Clark, Cathy O’Donnell, Tom Drake, Jeff Corey, Myrna Dell. Hackneyed account of man on the run, seeking shelter from ex-wife who has fallen in love with detective seeking him.

Never Wave at a WAC (1952) 87m. ½ D: Norman Z. McLeod. Rosalind Russell, Marie Wilson, Paul Douglas, Arleen Whelan, Hillary Brooke, Louise Beavers, Frieda Inescort. Expanded from a TV play, this farce involves socialite Russell joining the WACs, forced to buckle down to hard work; Wilson as dumb comrade-at-arms is most diverting.

New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford (1931) 94m. D: Sam Wood. William Haines, Jimmy Durante, Ernest Torrence, Leila Hyams, Guy Kibbee, Hale Hamilton, Robert McWade, Clara Blandick. Breezy crime comedy centering on capers of bon vivant con man J. Rufus Wallingford (Haines) and his crew, Blackie (Torrence) and Schnozzle (Durante). Moves at a brisk clip; singing and wisecracking Durante is a riot. Witty script by Charles MacArthur based on magazine stories by George Randolph Chester, which inspired a George M. Cohan play as well as some silent films.

New Adventures of Tarzan, The (1935) 75m. ½ D: Edward Kull, W. F. McGaugh. Herman Brix (Bruce Bennett), Ula Holt, Don Castello, Frank Baker, Lewis Sargent, Dale Walsh. Feature version of the serial about the search for priceless Mayan idol in Guatemala. Strictly for the kiddies. Shot on location by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ own company, but no threat to Johnny Weissmuller and MGM. TV print of this feature is completely redubbed by voices other than the actors on-screen!

New Faces (1954) C-99m. ½ D: Harry Horner. Ronny Graham, Robert Clary, Eartha Kitt, Alice Ghostley, Paul Lynde, Carol Lawrence. Vaudeville hodgepodge of variety numbers, based on Leonard Sillman’s popular Broadway revue, which was springboard for much new talent. One of the writers was Melvin (Mel) Brooks. CinemaScope.

New Faces of 1937 (1937) 100m. D: Leigh Jason. Joe Penner, Milton Berle, Parkyakarkus, Harriet Hilliard (Nelson), Jerome Cowan. Silly movie with same initial premise as THE PRODUCERS, as Berle is patsy left as owner of unwatchable Broadway show. Comic highlight is Berle’s stockbroker skit with Richard Lane; Ann Miller featured in finale as one of the New Faces.

New Frontier, The (1935) 54m. ½ D: Carl L. Pierson. John Wayne, Muriel Evans, Warner Richmond, Alan Bridge, Sam Flint, Glenn Strange. After trail herder Wayne’s father is murdered, he agrees to serve as sheriff of the town of Frontier, Oklahoma, vanquishing all vice and lawlessness. Wayne’s second Republic Western falls flat; only the finale is good. Features footage from Ken Maynard’s silent THE RED RAIDERS. No relation to 1939 Wayne movie of the same name.

New Frontier (1939) 57m. D: George Sherman. John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Raymond Hatton, Phylis Isley (Jennifer Jones), Eddy Waller, Sammy McKim, LeRoy Mason. When crooked land grabbers threaten to flood the condemned valley homes of ranchers in order to construct an unwanted dam, the Three Mesquiteers ride to the rescue. Wayne’s post-STAGECOACH swan song as Stony Brooke marked his final B picture and Jones’ feature debut. No relation to 1935 Wayne movie of the same name. Reissue title: FRONTIER HORIZON.

New Gentlemen, The (1929-French) 124m. D: Jacques Feyder. Gaby Morlay, Henri Roussell, Albert Préjean, Guy Ferrant, Henry Valbel, Léon Arvel, Gustave Hamilton. During a transport workers strike, a beautiful ballerina (Morlay) is pursued by two suitors: an energetic electrician/union leader (Préjean) and an older aristocrat (Roussell) who holds high political office. Pointed, engrossing tale puts forth the view that the rich and powerful control all aspects of daily life. Original title: LES NOUVEAUX MESSIEURS.

New Interns, The (1964) 123m. ½ D: John Rich. Michael Callan, Dean Jones, Telly Savalas, Inger Stevens, George Segal, Greg Morris, Stefanie Powers, Lee Patrick, Barbara Eden. Follow-up to THE INTERNS contains unusual hospital soap opera with better than average cast and a nifty party sequence.

New Invisible Man, The (1957-Mexican) 89m. D: Alfredo B. Crevenna. Arturo de Córdova, Ana Luisa Peluffo, Augusto Benedico, Rául Meraz. OK updating of the classic story, with de Córdova falsely convicted of murder; he’s rendered invisible so he can prove his innocence. A remake of THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS. Aka H. G. WELLS’ NEW INVISIBLE MAN.

New Kind of Love, A (1963) C-110m. ½ D: Melville Shavelson. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Thelma Ritter, Eva Gabor, Maurice Chevalier, George Tobias, Marvin Kaplan, Robert Clary. Silly but enjoyable fluff with sportswriter Newman and fashion buyer Woodward tangling, and then falling in love, in Paris. The stars really put this one over; Chevalier appears as himself, title song sung by Frank Sinatra.

Newly Rich (1931) 77m. ½ D: Norman Taurog. Mitzi Green, Edna May Oliver, Jackie Searl, Louise Fazenda, Bruce Line, Virginia Hammond, Dell Henderson, Lawrence Grant. Amusing semisatirical look at child stars and early ’30s Hollywood, with Oliver and Fazenda funny as rival stage mothers competing through their kids. Somehow, they all end up in London and have adventures with a runaway boy king. Cowritten by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, from a story by Sinclair Lewis. Aka FORBIDDEN ADVENTURE.

New Mexico (1951) C-76m. ½ D: Irving Reis. Lew Ayres, Marilyn Maxwell, Robert Hutton, Andy Devine, Raymond Burr. Moderately exciting Western of cavalry vs. Indians.

New Moon (1930) 78m. ½ D: Jack Conway. Grace Moore, Lawrence Tibbett, Adolphe Menjou, Roland Young, Gus Shy, Emily Fitzroy. While sailing the Caspian Sea on board the good ship New Moon, a previously engaged princess meets a dashing Army officer whom she can’t resist. MGM’s first version of Oscar Hammerstein–Sigmund Romberg operetta jettisons the libretto and shifts the setting to Russia, but at least it retains the score. Powerfully vocalized by the two Metropolitan Opera leads, and packed full of sexual innuendo with no pretense of propriety.

New Moon (1940) 105m. ½ D: Robert Z. Leonard. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland, George Zucco, H. B. Warner, Grant Mitchell, Stanley Fields. Nelson and Jeanette in old Louisiana, falling in love, singing “One Kiss,” “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” “Lover Come Back to Me,” “Stout-Hearted Men.” Oscar Hammerstein–Sigmund Romberg score sung before in 1930 filming with Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore.

New Morals for Old (1932) 75m. ½ D: Charles Brabin. Robert Young, Margaret Perry, Lewis Stone, Laura Hope Crews, Myrna Loy, David Newell, Jean Hersholt. Amiable generation gap soaper spotlights independent-minded Young and Perry and their issues with their overprotective parents. Loy is alluring in her brief scenes as a sexpot. Coscripted by John Van Druten.

New Orleans (1947) 89m. ½ D: Arthur Lubin. Arturo de Córdova, Dorothy Patrick, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Woody Herman & Band, Meade Lux Lewis, other jazz stars. Hackneyed fictionalization of the birth of jazz, spanning 40 years, but there’s plenty of good music. Holiday (cast as a maid!) does “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” with Armstrong and all-star band, and it’s sublime. Shelley Winters appears briefly as de Córdova’s secretary.

New Orleans After Dark (1958) 69m. ½ D: John Sledge. Stacy Harris, Louis Sirgo, Ellen Moore, Tommy Pelle. Location filming in the Crescent City adds some value to this drab programmer about the hunt for a band of dope smugglers.

New Orleans Uncensored (1955) 76m. ½ D: William Castle. Arthur Franz, Beverly Garland, Helene Stanton, Michael Ansara. Weak exposé account of racketeer-busting in Louisiana, with competent cast trying to overcome script.

News Hounds (1947) 68m. D: William Beaudine. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Billy Benedict, David Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Gorcey, Tim Ryan, Bill Kennedy, Robert Emmett Keane, Christine McIntyre, Anthony Caruso. Scoop Mahoney and Shutterbug Sach vs. sports-fixing mobsters. The usual Bowery Boys hokum.

New York Confidential (1955) 87m. ½ D: Russell Rouse. Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Marilyn Maxwell, Anne Bancroft, J. Carrol Naish, Onslow Stevens, Barry Kelley, Mike Mazurki, Celia Lovsky. Supposed “inside” story of an N.Y.C. mob family, told in semi-documentary style, doesn’t wear well, but Bancroft is terrific as mob boss Crawford’s daughter.

New York Town (1941) 76m. ½ D: Charles Vidor. Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, Robert Preston, Akim Tamiroff, Lynne Overman, Eric Blore, Fuzzy Knight. Bright little comedy of wide-eyed Martin manhunting in N.Y.C., assisted by photographer MacMurray. Songs include “Love in Bloom.” Preston Sturges worked uncredited on the script.

Next Time I Marry (1938) 65m. ½ D: Garson Kanin. Lucille Ball, James Ellison, Lee Bowman, Granville Bates, Mantan Moreland, Elliott Sullivan. Silly, likable nonsense about a spoiled heiress who must dump her fortune-hunting foreign beau and marry a regular American guy in order to gain her inheritance. Unjustly maligned screwball comedy is one of Lucy’s better programmers of the ’30s.

Next Time We Love (1936) 87m. D: Edward H. Griffith. Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Ray Milland, Grant Mitchell, Robert McWade, Hattie McDaniel. Trim romantic soaper with Milland in love with actress Sullavan, who is married to struggling reporter Stewart. Preston Sturges worked uncredited on the script.

Next to No Time (1958-British) C-93m. D. Henry Cornelius. Kenneth More, Betsy Drake, Bessie Love, Harry Green, Patrick Barr, Roland Culver. Whimsical comedy from Paul Gallico story, about mild-mannered engineer (More) who loses inhibitions on ocean voyage where he’s trying to put over important business deal.

Next Voice You Hear . . . , The (1950) 83m. ½ D: William Wellman. James Whitmore, Nancy Davis (Reagan), Lillian Bronson, Jeff Corey, Gary Gray. The voice of God is heard nightly on the radio (but not by the audience) and has a profound impact on average American Whitmore, his wife, and son. Ambitious if not terribly successful message film produced by Dore Schary.

Niagara (1953) C-89m. D: Henry Hathaway. Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Casey Adams (Max Showalter), Don Wilson, Richard Allan. Black murder tale of couple staying at Niagara Falls, the wife planning to kill husband. Produced and cowritten by Charles Brackett; good location work.

Nice Girl? (1941) 95m. D: William A. Seiter. Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Walter Brennan, Robert Stack, Robert Benchley. Little Deanna grows up in this cute comedy, with Tone and Stack developing amorous ideas about her. Songs: “Love At Last,” “Thank You America.” Video includes alternate ending.

Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed, A (1958) 87m. D: Henry Levin. Tom Ewell, Mickey Rooney, Mickey Shaughnessy, Dina Merrill. Cast is game, but story is pure cornball about goofy crooks using their gains to buy a racehorse. CinemaScope.

Nicholas Nickleby (1947-British) 108m. D: Alberto Cavalcanti. Derek Bond, Cedric Hardwicke, Alfred Drayton, Bernard Miles, Sally Ann Howes, Mary Merrall, Sybil Thorndike, Cathleen Nesbitt. Dickens’ classic tale of young man’s struggle to protect his family from scheming uncle and a cruel world is vividly brought to life. Can’t compare with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 8½-hour stage version—but still quite good. Some American prints run 95m. Remade in 2002.

Nick Carter Detective Nick Carter was created in 1886 and became the busiest crime solver in American literature, being featured in hundreds of short stories in magazines and books. He was the hero of a number of silent films both here and in France, but for all his durability on the printed page he never enjoyed great success on-screen. MGM launched a series in 1939 which cast urbane Walter Pidgeon as the detective, but only three films resulted. All of them are fast paced, flippant, and somewhat outlandish (like the original stories), with typical MGM polish distinguishing them from other studios’ grade-B product, but their chief distinction is the casting of Donald Meek as Bartholomew, The Bee-Man, an off-center oddball who foists himself upon Nick. Nothing about Pidgeon, or the characterization of Carter, created any compelling reason to want to see more. Carter was later played in France by Eddie Constantine, and in a short-lived series, but his most striking screen appearance came in a 1978 Czech film called, variously, NICK CARTER IN PRAGUE and DINNER FOR ADELE, which finally attempted to reproduce the time and atmosphere of the original pulp stories.

NICK CARTER

Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)

Phantom Raiders (1940)

Sky Murder (1940)

Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939) 60m. D: Jacques Tourneur. Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson, Henry Hull, Donald Meek, Addison Richards, Milburn Stone, Sterling Holloway. Pidgeon is good, tracking down industrial spy in slickly done detective film. Starts out very snappy, then slows to a crawl and loses its way. Memorable for some striking aerial shots.

Night After Night (1932) 70m. D: Archie Mayo. George Raft, Mae West, Constance Cummings, Wynne Gibson, Roscoe Karns, Louis Calhern, Alison Skipworth. Story of nightclub owner Raft’s infatuation with “classy” Cummings is a crashing bore, but when Mae West comes on the screen lights up. It’s her film debut, and she’s in rare form.

Night Ambush (1957-British) 93m. D: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Dirk Bogarde, Marius Goring, David Oxley, Cyril Cusack, Christopher Lee. Taut WW2 actioner set in Crete, with fine British cast. Originally released in England as ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT at 104m. VistaVision.

Night and Day (1946) C-128m. D: Michael Curtiz. Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Monty Woolley, Ginny Simms, Jane Wyman, Eve Arden, Mary Martin, Victor Francen, Alan Hale, Dorothy Malone. Music only worthy aspect of fabricated biography of songwriter Cole Porter, stiffly played by Grant, who even sings “You’re the Top.” Martin re-creates “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” in film’s highlight. Look fast for Mel Tormé as a drummer. An altogether different perspective on Porter may be found in DE-LOVELY (2004).

Night and the City (1950) 96m. ½ D: Jules Dassin. Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan, Herbert Lom, Mike Mazurki, Kay Kendall. Frenetic nightclub tout (Widmark) maneuvers himself into a big score by promoting a London wrestling match that results in tragedy. Film noir gem features a memorable turn by Widmark as a quintessential noir loser, with stellar support from slimy nightclub owner Sullivan and his duplicitous mate Withers. Superb location work in London is another asset. Jo Eisinger adapted Gerald Kersh’s novel. At 101m., British version has a different music score and additional scenes with Tierney. Remade in 1992.

Night at the Opera, A (1935) 92m. D: Sam Wood. Groucho, Chico, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter Woolf King, Margaret Dumont, Sigfried Rumann. The Marx Brothers invade the world of opera with devastating results. Arguably their finest film (a close race with DUCK SOUP), with tuneful music and appealing romance neatly interwoven. One priceless comedy bit follows another: the stateroom scene, the Party of the First Part contract, etc. This is as good as it gets.

Night Caller, The SEE: Night Caller from Outer Space

Night Caller from Outer Space (1965-British) 84m. ½ D: John Gilling. John Saxon, Maurice Denham, Patricia Haines, Alfred Burke, Jack Watson, Aubrey Morris. Well-done sci-fi thriller of alien kidnapping humans to take back to his home, a moon of Jupiter. U.S. theatrical title: BLOOD BEAST FROM OUTER SPACE. Original British title: THE NIGHT CALLER.

Night Club Scandal (1937) 70m. ½ D: Ralph Murphy. John Barrymore, Lynne Overman, Louise Campbell, Charles Bickford, Evelyn Brent, Elizabeth Patterson, J. Carrol Naish. Doctor Barrymore murders his wife and tries to frame her boyfriend. OK thriller carried by a first-rate cast. Remake of GUILTY AS HELL (1932).

Night Court (1932) 90m. D: W.S. Van Dyke. Phillips Holmes, Walter Huston, Anita Page, Lewis Stone, Mary Carlisle, John Miljan, Jean Hersholt. Slimy, crooked night court judge Huston will stop at nothing to avoid being pinned by city watchdog Stone; that includes framing an innocent young couple. Watchable but far from subtle, or surprising, until final twist.

Night Creatures (1962-British) C-81m. ½ D: Peter Graham Scott. Peter Cushing, Yvonne Romain, Patrick Allen, Oliver Reed, Michael Ripper, Martin Benson, David Lodge. In 18th century England, country parson is also the notorious “dead” pirate leader of smugglers who pose as ghosts. Good fun with some scary moments. Remake of DR. SYN. Original British title: CAPTAIN CLEGG.

Night Editor (1946) 67m. D: Henry Levin. William Gargan, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell, Coulter Irwin, Charles D. Brown. Minor B movie with a needlessly complicated structure. Married cop Gargan, involved in an affair with sluttish Carter, compromises himself after witnessing a murder. Based on the radio show of the same name; first in a proposed series that never materialized.

Nightfall (1957) 78m. D: Jacques Tourneur. Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft, Jocelyn Brando, James Gregory, Frank Albertson, Rudy Bond. Ray plays an innocent man who’s being hunted by an insurance investigator and two deadly holdup men who think he has their money. Rock-solid cast in a taut thriller written by Stirling Silliphant, from a novel by David Goodis. Great location work in L.A. and snowy Utah by cinematographer Burnett Guffey.

Night Fighters (1960-British) 85m. ½ D: Tay Garnett. Robert Mitchum, Anne Heywood, Dan O’Herlihy, Cyril Cusack, Richard Harris, Marianne Benet. Sporadically actionful tale of Irish Revolution, with Mitchum joining the cause against his will. Original title: A TERRIBLE BEAUTY.

Night Flight (1933) 85m. D: Clarence Brown. John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, C. Henry Gordon. During the inaugural 24 hours of a night airmail service in South America, the hard-nosed boss (John Barrymore) pushes pilots to fly over treacherous mountains in the fog and rain to deliver serum to a hospital, while their women anxiously wait for their return. Absorbing, well made, with a poetic and arty quality rare for MGM, yet somehow falls short of greatness. All-star cast rarely share screen time together. Based on a novel by Antoine de Saint Exupery.

Night Freight (1955) 79m. ½ D: Jean Yarbrough. Forrest Tucker, Barbara Britton, Keith Larsen, Thomas Gomez, George Sanders. Straightforward tale about the bitter rivalry between railroad operator Tucker and trucker Gomez, who compete for business.

Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) 80m. ½ D: John Farrow. Edward G. Robinson, Gail Russell, John Lund, Virginia Bruce, William Demarest. Intriguing story of magician who has uncanny power to predict the future; script is corny at times. Based on a story by Cornell Woolrich.

Night Has Eyes, The (1942-British) 79m. ½ D: Leslie Arliss. James Mason, Joyce Howard, Mary Clare, Wilfrid Lawson, Tucker McGuire. OK mystery of schoolteacher Howard discovering why a friend disappeared in the Yorkshire Moors; Mason is a shellshocked composer she loves. Aka TERROR HOUSE.

Night Heaven Fell, The (1958-French-Italian) C-90m. D: Roger Vadim. Brigitte Bardot, Alida Valli, Stephen Boyd, Pepe Nieto. Convent girl Bardot falls for ne’er-do-well Boyd, who accidentally kills her uncle.Turgid. CinemaScope.

Night Holds Terror, The (1955) 86m. D: Andrew L. Stone. Jack Kelly, Hildy Parks, Vince Edwards, John Cassavetes, Jack Kruschen, Joel Marston, Jonathan Hale. Somber little film of family being held captive for ransom.

Night in Casablanca, A (1946) 85m. D: Archie Mayo. Groucho, Harpo, Chico Marx, Lisette Verea, Charles Drake, Lois Collier, Dan Seymour, Sig Ruman. No classic, but many funny sequences in latter-day Marx outing, ferreting out Nazi spies in Casablanca hotel.

Night in New Orleans, A (1942) 75m. ½ D: William Clemens. Preston Foster, Patricia Morison, Albert Dekker, Charles Butterworth, Dooley Wilson, Cecil Kellaway. Thin yarn of Morison trying to clear husband Foster of murder charge.

Night in Paradise (1946) C-84m. ½ D: Arthur Lubin. Merle Oberon, Turhan Bey, Thomas Gomez, Gale Sondergaard, Ray Collins, Ernest Truex. Tongue-in-cheek costumer of Aesop wooing lovely princess Oberon in ancient times; colorful, at least.

Night Into Morning (1951) 86m. D: Fletcher Markle. Ray Milland, John Hodiak, Nancy Davis (Reagan), Lewis Stone, Jean Hagen, Rosemary DeCamp. Small-town professor loses family in fire, almost ruins own life through drink and self-pity. Realistic settings in modest production, with fine performance by Milland.

Night Is My Future (1948-Swedish) 87m. ½ D: Ingmar Bergman. Mai Zetterling, Birger Malmsten, Olof Winnerstrand, Naima Wifstrand, Hilda Borgstrom. Somber, brooding tale of young Malmsten, blinded while in military service; he struggles for self-respect, and is befriended by housemaid Zetterling. Early, minor Bergman. Aka MUSIC IN DARKNESS.

Night Is the Phantom SEE: Whip and the Body, The

Night Is Young, The (1935) 81m. BOMB D: Dudley Murphy. Ramon Novarro, Evelyn Laye, Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel, Edward Everett Horton, Donald Cook, Rosalind Russell, Henry Stephenson, Herman Bing. Novarro, wretchedly miscast and mugging mercilessly, brings his 10-year MGM career to a pitiful end playing a Viennese archduke who spurns his royal fiancée for a fling with ballerina Laye (who bolted back to England after this disaster). Oscar Hammerstein–Sigmund Romberg score includes “When I Grow Too Old to Dream.”

Night Key (1937) 67m. D: Lloyd Corrigan. Boris Karloff, Warren Hull, Jean Rogers, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ward Bond. Middling yarn about crooks forcing elderly inventor to help them with their crimes.

Night Life of the Gods (1935) 73m. ½ D: Lowell Sherman. Alan Mowbray, Florine McKinney, Peggy Shannon, Richard Carle, Theresa Maxwell Conover, Phillips Smalley, Wesley Barry, Henry Armetta, Geneva Mitchell, Robert Warwick. Mowbray dreams that he can turn people (like his annoying family) into statues and bring statues (like the Greek gods at the local museum) to life. Amusing if watered-down version of Thorne Smith’s risqué novel doesn’t make the most of its premise but remains a fascinating curio. John Fulton’s special effects are impressive. Title on-screen is THORNE SMITH’S NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS.

Nightmare (1942) 81m. ½ D: Tim Whelan. Diana Barrymore, Brian Donlevy, Gavin Muir, Henry Daniell, Hans Conried, Arthur Shields. Occasionally flavorful mystery with gambler Donlevy breaking into Barrymore’s home on the night husband Daniell is murdered and their subsequent flight from both the police and Nazi spies.

Nightmare (1956) 89m. ½ D: Maxwell Shane. Edward G. Robinson, Kevin McCarthy, Connie Russell, Virginia Christine, Rhys Williams, Meade “Lux” Lewis, Billy May. Location filming in New Orleans is a major asset of this moody psychological drama about musician McCarthy, who has an all-too-real nightmare in which he commits murder. Robinson sparks the proceedings as a crafty homicide detective. Remake of FEAR IN THE NIGHT, based on a story by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich).

Nightmare (1964-British) 83m. ½ D: Freddie Francis. David Knight, Moira Redmond, Jennie Linden, Brenda Bruce, George A. Cooper, Clytie Jessop, Irene Richmond. Linden returns to her family mansion, plagued by nightmares, and fears that she may be turning into an insane killer, like her mother before her. Typical Hammer Films it’s-all-a-plot plot in DIABOLIQUE vein is heightened by elegant camerawork, good performances. Hammerscope.

Nightmare Alley (1947) 111m. ½ D: Edmund Goulding. Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker, Taylor Holmes, Mike Mazurki, Ian Keith, Julia Dean. Morbid but fascinating story of carnival heel Power entangled with mind-reading Blondell, blackmailing psychiatrist Walker, other assorted sideshow weirdos in highly original melodrama. Compelling look at carny life. Jules Furthman scripted, from William Lindsay Gresham’s novel.

Nightmare Castle (1965-Italian) 104m. D: Allen Grünewald (Mario Caiano). Barbara Steele, Paul Muller, Helga Liné, Laurence Clift, John McDouglas (Giuseppe Addobbati), Rik Battaglia. In early 20th-century Italy, a cold-blooded scientist, Dr. Arrowsmith, no less, murders his evil wife (brunette Steele) and her lover, then marries the wife’s kind-natured stepsister (blonde Steele) and tries to drive her insane in order to get her inheritance. But there are also supernatural powers at work. Atmospheric horror thriller diminished by overly familiar plotline, but Steele does her exotic best.

Nightmare in the Sun (1964) C-80m. ½ D: Marc Lawrence. John Derek, Aldo Ray, Arthur O’Connell, Ursula Andress, Sammy Davis, Jr., Allyn Joslyn, Keenan Wynn. Turgid account of what happens when sexy Andress picks up hitchhiker Derek. Look for Richard Jaeckel and Robert Duvall as motorcyclists!

Night Monster (1942) 73m. ½ D: Ford Beebe. Bela Lugosi, Irene Hervey, Don Porter, Nils Asther, Lionel Atwill, Leif Erickson, Ralph Morgan. Intriguing grade-B thriller about creepy figure stalking country estate, murdering doctors who are treating crippled Morgan.

Night Must Fall (1937) 117m. D: Richard Thorpe. Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Dame May Whitty, Alan Marshal, Kathleen Harrison, E. E. Clive, Beryl Mercer. Famous film of Emlyn Williams’ suspenseful play. Young woman (Russell) slowly learns identity of mysterious brutal killer terrorizing the countryside. Montgomery has showy role in sometimes stagy but generally effective film, with outstanding aid from Russell and Whitty. Screenplay by John Van Druten. Remade in 1964.

Night Must Fall (1964-British) 105m. ½ D: Karel Reisz. Albert Finney, Susan Hampshire, Mona Washbourne, Sheila Hancock, Michael Medwin, Joe Gladwin, Martin Wyldeck. Cerebral attempt to match flair of 1937 original, this remake is too obvious and theatrical for any credibility. Reisz and Finney produced.

Night My Number Came Up, The (1955-British) 94m. D: Leslie Norman. Michael Redgrave, Sheila Sim, Alexander Knox, Denholm Elliott, Ursula Jeans, Michael Hordern, George Rose, Alfie Bass. First-rate suspense film will have you holding your breath as it recounts tale of routine military flight, the fate of which may or may not depend on a prophetic dream. Screenplay by R. C. Sherriff, from an article by Victor Goddard.

Night Nurse (1931) 72m. D: William Wellman. Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable, Charlotte Merriam, Charles Winninger. Excellent, hard-bitten tale of nurse (Stanwyck) who can’t ignore strange goings-on in home where she works. Blondell adds zingy support; one of Gable’s most impressive early appearances. Still potent today.

Night of Adventure, A (1944) 65m. ½ D: Gordon Douglas. Tom Conway, Audrey Long, Nancy Gates, Emory Parnell, Jean Brooks, Louis Borell, Edward Brophy, Addison Richards. Entertaining little drama with lawyer Conway attempting to exonerate bored wife Long’s suitor on a murder rap, all the while avoiding scandal. A remake of HAT, COAT AND GLOVE.

Night of Mystery (1937) 66m. D: E. A. Dupont. Grant Richards, Roscoe Karns, Helen Burgess, Ruth Coleman, Elizabeth Patterson, Harvey Stephens, June Martel. Tedious remake of THE GREENE MURDER CASE with Richards no match for William Powell as detective Philo Vance.

Night of Terror (1933) 65m. ½ D: Ben Stoloff. Sally Blane, Wallace Ford, Tully Marshall, Bela Lugosi, George Meeker, Gertrude Michael, Bryant Washburn. There’s mayhem in the titular a.m. on a walled estate where heirs bicker, a scientist arranges his own premature burial, and turbaned servant Lugosi participates in a séance—with everyone secretly observed at all times by a hairy, fanged knife murderer known as the Maniac. Lively mix of frights and fun. Name another movie with a curtain speech complete with a death threat to audience members!

Night of the Blood Beast (1958) 65m. ½ D: Bernard L. Kowalski. Michael Emmet, Angela Greene, John Baer, Ed Nelson, Tyler McVey. Astronaut returns from space apparently dead; when he awakens, he’s found to have alien embryos within him—a pregnant man! The alien also turns up murderously. Well directed but too low budget to succeed.

Night of the Demon SEE: Curse of the Demon

Night of the Ghouls SEE: Revenge of the Dead

Night of the Hunter, The (1955) 93m. ½ D: Charles Laughton. Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, James Gleason, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce. Atmospheric allegory of innocence, evil, and hypocrisy, with psychotic religious fanatic Mitchum chasing orphaned siblings for money stolen by their father. Mitchum is marvelously menacing, matched by Gish as wise matron who takes in the kids. Starkly directed by Laughton; his only film behind the camera. Screenplay credited to James Agee, from the Davis Grubb novel. Remade as a TVM in 1991 with Richard Chamberlain.

Night of the Iguana, The (1964) 118m. ½ D: John Huston. Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, Sue Lyon, Skip Ward, Grayson Hall, Cyril Delevanti. Plodding tale based on Tennessee Williams play; alcoholic former clergyman Burton, a bus-tour guide in Mexico, is involved with Kerr, Gardner, and Lyon. Dorothy Jeakins won an Oscar for her costumes. Also shown in computer-colored version.

Night of the Quarter Moon (1959) 96m. ½ D: Hugo Haas. Julie London, John Drew Barrymore, Nat King Cole, Dean Jones, James Edwards, Anna Kashfi, Agnes Moorehead, Jackie Coogan. Trite handling of miscegenation theme; good cast wasted. Retitled: FLESH AND FLAME. CinemaScope.

Night Parade (1929) 71m. ½ D: Malcolm St. Clair. Aileen Pringle, Hugh Trevor, Dorothy Gulliver, Robert Ellis, Ann Pennington, Lloyd Ingraham. Innocent prizefighter is seduced by a “dirty Broadway tramp” and a racketeer, who pay him to take a dive. Crudely filmed early talkie enlivened by climactic bout in a thunderstorm but otherwise a compendium of boxing genre clichés. Based on a play cowritten by George Abbott. Look for Oscar Levant as a piano player in a party scene.

Night Passage (1957) C-90m. D: James Neilson. James Stewart, Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Brandon de Wilde, Dianne Foster. Sound Western of Stewart working for railroad, brother Murphy belonging to gang planning to rob train payroll; exciting climactic shoot-out. Technirama.

Night People (1954) C-93m. ½ D: Nunnally Johnson. Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Anita Bjork, Rita Gam, Walter Abel, Buddy Ebsen, Casey Adams (Max Showalter), Jill Esmond, Peter Van Eyck. Peck tries to rescue an American soldier who’s been abducted to East Germany. Intelligent if not particularly inspired Cold War thriller filmed on location in Berlin. CinemaScope.

Night Plane From Chungking (1943) 69m. ½ D: Ralph Murphy. Ellen Drew, Robert Preston, Otto Kruger, Steven Geray, (Victor) Sen Yung, Tamara Geva, Soo Yong. Adequate adventure yarn about a plane shot down in the jungle, with captain Preston falling for Drew while going up against the Japanese.

Night Riders, The (1939) 58m. ½ D: George Sherman. John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune, Doreen McKay, Ruth Rogers, Tom Tyler, Kermit Maynard, Sammy McKim. The Three Mesquiteers are uncharacteristically transposed back into the 19th century, where they wear hoods and capes to combat a megalomaniac with a forged land grant. Some scenes uncomfortably (though unintentionally) suggest parallels to the Ku Klux Klan. Based on a true incident. Slick Western with throbbing action throughout. Minor complaint: too many interiors.

Night Runner, The (1957) 79m. D: Abner Biberman. Ray Danton, Colleen Miller, Merry Anders, Eddy Waller. Violent B film of insane Danton on killing spree, about to gun down his girlfriend.

Nights of Cabiria (1957-Italian) 117m. D: Federico Fellini. Giulietta Masina, Francois Perier, Amedeo Nazzari, Franca Marzi, Dorian Gray. Masina is a joy as waifish prostitute dreaming of rich, wonderful life but always finding sorrow. Basis for Broadway musical and film SWEET CHARITY. One of Fellini’s best, and a most deserving Oscar winner as Best Foreign Film. Restored in 1998 to put back a 7m. sequence Fellini was forced to cut after the premiere.

Nights of Rasputin (1960-French-Italian) 87m. D: Pierre Chenal. Edmund Purdom, Gianna Maria Canale, John Drew Barrymore, Jany Clair. Purdom is miscast as Rasputin in this plodding biography of the conniving, libidinous hypnotist who gained influence in Czarina Alexandra’s court prior to WW1. European version runs 93m., and is in color. Aka THE NIGHT THEY KILLED RASPUTIN.

Night Song (1947) 101m. D: John Cromwell. Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, Ethel Barrymore, Hoagy Carmichael, Jacqueline White. Overlong, soapy drama of socialite Oberon falling in love with blind pianist Andrews. Barrymore is very good in the unusual role of comic relief. Artur Rubinstein and conductor Eugene Ormandy appear in the climactic concert sequence, playing the concerto composed especially for the film by Leith Stevens.

Night Spot (1938) 60m. ½ D: Christy Cabanne. Parkyakarkus, Allan Lane, Gordon Jones, Joan Woodbury, Lee Patrick, Bradley Page, Jack Carson, Cecil Kellaway. Comedy, music, and melodrama are an uneasy mix in this trifle in which policeman-musician Lane goes undercover to expose the machinations of an unsavory nightclub owner. Top-billed Parkyakarkus (real name Harry Einstein) is the father of Albert Brooks.

Night Stage to Galveston (1952) 62m. ½ D: George Archainbaud. Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, Virginia Huston, Thurston Hall, Judy Nugent, Robert Livingston, Clayton Moore, Harry Lauter. Weak outing as Gene and his pal Pat reform the disbanded Texas Rangers to fight corrupt state police while looking after orphan Nugent. Poor pacing, ineffectual villains scuttle this latter-day Autry.

Night the World Exploded, The (1957) 64m. D: Fred F. Sears. Kathryn Grant, William Leslie, Tris Coffin, Raymond Greenleaf, Marshall Reed. Scientists discover a strange, exploding mineral that threatens to bring about title catastrophe and rush to prevent it. OK idea hampered by low budget.

Night They Killed Rasputin, The SEE: Nights of Rasputin

Night Tide (1963) 84m. ½ D: Curtis Harrington. Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson, Gavin Muir, Luana Anders, Marjorie Eaton, Tom Dillon, H. E. West, Cameron. Lonely sailor Hopper falls for Lawson, who works as a mermaid at the Santa Monica pier, but learns she may be a killer—and a descendant of the sirens. Odd, dreamy little drama is strangely compelling, though not a horror film, as often promoted. Written by the director.

Night Time in Nevada (1948) C-67m. D: William Witney. Roy Rogers, Adele Mara, Andy Devine, Grant Withers, Marie Harmon, Joseph Crehan, George Carleton, Holly Bane, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers. Years after her father is murdered by unscrupulous miner Withers, Mara comes to claim her inheritance and becomes a target of bad men . . . until Roy steps in. Top-notch screenplay, with Withers a memorably despicable villain. Good example of one of Rogers’ later, hard-edged Westerns. Only b&w prints seem to survive.

Night to Remember, A (1943) 91m. ½ D: Richard Wallace. Loretta Young, Brian Aherne, Jeff Donnell, William Wright, Sidney Toler, Gale Sondergaard, Donald MacBride, Blanche Yurka. Sparkling comedy-mystery of whodunit author Aherne and wife Young trying to solve murder.

Night to Remember, A (1958-British) 123m. D: Roy (Ward) Baker. Kenneth More, David McCallum, Jill Dixon, Laurence Naismith, Frank Lawton, Honor Blackman, Alec McCowen, George Rose. Meticulously produced documentary-style account of sinking of the “unsinkable” passenger liner Titanic. Superb combination of disaster spectacle and emotional byplay; a notable contrast to Hollywood’s Titanic films. Vivid adaptation by Eric Ambler of Walter Lord’s book.

Night Train (1940-British) SEE: Night Train to Munich

Night Train (1959-Polish) 90m. D: Jerzy Kawalerowicz. Lucyna Winnicka, Leon Niemczyk, Teresa Szmigielowna, Zbigniew Cybulski. Murky account of young woman on a train, forced to share compartment with a doctor; their lack of communication and presence of killer on train are film’s focal points.

Night Train to Munich (1940-British) 93m. D: Carol Reed. Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood, Paul Von Hernried (Henreid), Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Felix Aylmer, Roland Culver. Expert Hitchcockian thriller about British intelligence agent Harrison trying to rescue Czech scientist who escaped from the Nazis to London only to be kidnapped back to Berlin. Stylishly photographed (by Otto Kanturek), sharply scripted by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, who also wrote Hitchcock’s THE LADY VANISHES (which introduced the comic characters reprised here by Radford and Wayne). Based on Gordon Wellesley’s novel Report on a Fugitive. Originally released in U.S. as NIGHT TRAIN.

Night Unto Night (1949) 85m. D: Don Siegel. Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp, Osa Massen, Art Baker, Craig Stevens. Somber, unconvincing film about relationship of dying scientist and mentally disturbed widow. Finished in 1947 and shelved for two years. Reagan’s performance isn’t bad, but script is against him.

Night Waitress (1936) 57m. ½ D: Lew Landers. Margot Grahame, Gordon Jones, Vinton Hayworth, Marc Lawrence, Billy Gilbert, Donald Barry, Anthony Quinn. Waitress Grahame, who’s out on probation, finds herself neck-deep in murder and mayhem. Adequate programmer features very young Quinn as a hoodlum.

Night Walker, The (1964) 86m. D: William Castle. Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, Lloyd Bochner, Rochelle Hudson, Judi Meredith, Hayden Rorke. One of the better Castle horror films has Stanwyck as wealthy widow discovering cause of recurring dreams about lost husband. Effective psychological thriller with good cast, unusual script by Robert Bloch. Title on-screen is WILLIAM CASTLE’S THE NIGHT WALKER.

Night Without Sleep (1952) 77m. D: Roy (Ward) Baker. Linda Darnell, Gary Merrill, Hildegarde Neff, Hugh Beaumont, Mae Marsh. Pat treatment of man thinking he’s committed murder.

Night Without Stars (1951-British) 86m. ½ D: Anthony Pelissier. David Farrar, Nadia Gray, Maurice Teynac, June Clyde, Gerard Landry. Adequate mystery with partially blind lawyer Farrar becoming involved with Gray and a murder.

Night World (1932) 56m. D: Hobart Henley. Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, Dorothy Revier, Russell Hopton, Clarence Muse, Hedda Hopper, Bert Roach, George Raft. Outrageous little pre-Code item about the various goings-on in a Prohibition-era nightclub. Karloff is its corrupt owner; Ayres a troubled young man whose mother has murdered his father; Clarke a wiscracking chorus girl; Muse a philosophical doorman; Raft (in a small role) a Broadway tinhorn. Add to this some vintage Busby Berkeley choreography . . . and the result is a real curio.

Nikki, Wild Dog of the North (1961) C-74m. D: Jack Couffer, Don Haldane. Jean Coutu, Emile Genest, Uriel Luft, Robert Rivard. Wolfdog Nikki is separated from his master, a Canadian trapper, and fends for himself in a variety of adventures. Exciting Disney film.

Nine Girls (1944) 78m. ½ D: Leigh Jason. Ann Harding, Evelyn Keyes, Jinx Falkenburg, Anita Louise, Jeff Donnell, Nina Foch, Marcia Mae Jones, Leslie Brooks, Lynn Merrick, Shirley Mills, William Demarest. Wisecrack-laden comedy-mystery about murder at a sorority house.

Nine Hours to Rama (1963) C-125m. ½ D: Mark Robson. Horst Buchholz, Jose Ferrer, Robert Morley, Diane Baker, Harry Andrews. Ambitious attempt to make meaningful story of events leading up to assassination of Mahatma Gandhi; bogs down in trite script. Filmed on location in India. CinemaScope.

Nine Lives Are Not Enough (1941) 63m. ½ D: A. Edward Sutherland. Ronald Reagan, Joan Perry, James Gleason, Peter Whitney, Faye Emerson, Howard da Silva. Reagan is an aggressive newspaperman who solves a murder case. Enjoyable, fast-paced Warner Bros. B comedy-mystery.

1984 (1956-British) 91m. D: Michael Anderson. Edmond O’Brien, Michael Redgrave, Jan Sterling, David Kossoff, Mervyn Johns, Donald Pleasence. Thought-provoking version of George Orwell’s futuristic novel. Lovers O’Brien and Sterling trapped in all-powerful state, try valiantly to rebel against “Big Brother.” Remade in 1984.

Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1964-Czech) 90m. ½ D: Jiri Weiss. Anne Heywood, James Booth, Donald Wolfit, Ann Todd. Turgid account of Heywood, who works in food store, accused of theft; intertwined with passionate love episodes. Czech-made, with British stars. CinemaScope.

99 River Street (1953) 83m. D: Phil Karlson. John Payne, Evelyn Keyes, Brad Dexter, Peggie Castle, Ian Wolfe, Frank Faylen. Rugged crime caper with Payne caught up in tawdry surroundings, trying to prove himself innocent of murder charge. Unpretentious film really packs a punch.

Ninotchka (1939) 110m. ½ D: Ernst Lubitsch. Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi, Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart, Alexander Granach, Richard Carle. Amid much outdated sociological banter, a lighthearted Garbo still shines. Lubitsch’s comedy pegged on tale of cold Russian agent Garbo coming to Paris, falling in love with gay-blade Douglas. Supporting cast shows fine comedy flair. Script by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, and Walter Reisch was basis for Broadway musical and film SILK STOCKINGS.

Ninth Guest, The (1934) 67m. ½ D: R. (Roy) William Neill. Donald Cook, Genevieve Tobin, Hardie Albright, Edward Ellis, Edwin Maxwell, Helen Flint, Vince Barnett, Samuel S. Hinds, Nella Walker. Not-bad adaptation of Owen Davis’ play, a kissin’ cousin to Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. Eight people with shady pasts are invited to a swanky penthouse party, but no one knows the identity of the host—a disembodied voice who reveals that “the ninth guest is Death.”

Nitwits, The (1935) 81m. D: George Stevens. Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Betty Grable, Fred Keating, Evelyn Brent, Erik Rhodes, Hale Hamilton, Willie Best. Enjoyable comedy-musical-mystery with Wheeler and Woolsey seeking to uncover the identity of the Black Widow, a blackmailer-killer. Grable plays Wheeler’s girlfriend, a murder suspect. Based on a story by Stuart Palmer.

Noah’s Ark (1929) 100m. ½ D: Michael Curtiz. Dolores Costello, George O’Brien, Noah Beery, Louise Fazenda, Gwynn (Guinn “Big Boy”) Williams, Paul McAllister, Myrna Loy. Hokey and derivative story (by Darryl F. Zanuck) has devil-may-care O’Brien, gallivanting through Europe, falling in love with German girl Costello on the eve of WW1, and finally realizing his duty and enlisting in the U.S. Army. Somehow all this is paralleled to the days of Noah in a lengthy flashback sequence. Biblical segment is dazzlingly elaborate and full of great special effects. Silent film with somewhat awkward talking sequences; originally 135m., restored in 1989; beware of 1957 reissue prints running 75m.

Nob Hill (1945) C-95m. ½ D: Henry Hathaway. George Raft, Joan Bennett, Vivian Blaine, Peggy Ann Garner, Alan Reed, B. S. Pully, Emil Coleman, Smith and Dale, Rory Calhoun. Gold Coast saloon owner Raft has his head turned when socialite Bennett shows an interest in him. Predictable formula musical given handsome Technicolor production.

Nobody Lives Forever (1946) 100m. D: Jean Negulesco. John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson, George Coulouris, George Tobias. Well-done but familiar yarn of con man Garfield fleecing rich widow Fitzgerald, then falling in love for real.

Nobody’s Baby (1937) 68m. ½ D: Gus Meins. Patsy Kelly, Lyda Roberti, Lynne Overman, Robert Armstrong, Rosina Lawrence, Don Alvarado, Jimmie Grier’s Orchestra. After washing out of show business, Kelly and Roberti become nurses and wind up taking care of an infant for a nightclub dancer who has kept her marriage a secret. Agreeable (if unmemorable) vehicle for two talented comediennes who were teamed by producer Hal Roach.

Nobody’s Darling (1943) 71m. D: Anthony Mann. Mary Lee, Louis Calhern, Gladys George, Jackie Moran, Lee Patrick, Bennie Bartlett, Marcia Mae Jones. The neglected daughter of a famous Hollywood couple tries to get their attention by auditioning for the school play. Minor Republic Pictures musical is competently staged (with choreography by Nick Castle) but shows no signs whatsoever of Mann’s future brilliance with Westerns and noirs.

Nobody Waved Goodbye (1965-Canadian) 80m. D: Don Owen. Peter Kastner, Julie Biggs, Claude Rae, Toby Tarnow, Charmion King, Ron Taylor. Straightforward, perceptive account of alienated teenager Kastner. A sequel, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, is set 20 years later, and details the plight of Kastner and Biggs’s own teen offspring.

Nocturne (1946) 88m. ½ D: Edwin L. Marin. George Raft, Lynn Bari, Virginia Huston, Joseph Pevney, Myrna Dell. A ladykiller-songwriter is murdered, the police think it’s suicide, but stubborn tough-guy cop Raft knows otherwise. Moderately entertaining mystery. Highlight: Raft’s investigation takes him to RKO and the set of SINBAD THE SAILOR!

No Down Payment (1957) 105m. D: Martin Ritt. Joanne Woodward, Jeffrey Hunter, Sheree North, Tony Randall, Cameron Mitchell, Patricia Owens, Barbara Rush, Pat Hingle. Topical suburban soaper of intertwining problems of several young married couples. CinemaScope.

No Escape (1943) SEE: I Escaped From the Gestapo

No Escape (1953) 76m. ½ D: Charles Bennett. Lew Ayres, Marjorie Steele, Sonny Tufts, Gertrude Michael. Modest narrative about couple seeking actual killer to clear themselves of homicide charge. Retitled: CITY ON A HUNT.

No Greater Glory (1934) 77m. D: Frank Borzage. George Breakston, Jimmy Butler, Jackie Searl, Frankie Darro, Donald Haines, Rolf Ernest, Samuel S. Hinds, Ralph Morgan, Christian Rub. Rival gangs of street kids engage in deadly war games as they vie for control of a vacant lot in 1914 Hungary. Deeply felt antiwar allegory, based on Molnár’s The Paul Street Boys, strikingly photographed by Joseph August and passionately acted by its juvenile cast. Filmed before in Hungary in 1929 and remade several times, notably as THE BOYS OF PAUL STREET (1969).

No Greater Love (1959-Japanese) 208m. ½ D: Masaki Kobayashi. Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Ineko Arima, Chikage Awashima, Keiji Sada, Sô Yamamura, Akira Ishihama, Eitarô Ozawa, Shinji Nambara. South Manchuria, 1943: Kaji (Nakadai), a humane, married Japanese steel company employee who is about to be conscripted into the military, is assigned to supervise a rural ore-mining operation whose workers are Chinese POWs. Stirring epic mirrors age-old enmity between Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans while offering a deeply felt portrait of a man who must play a deadly balancing act as he struggles to maintain his values. Scripted by Kobayashi and Zenzo Matsuyama, based on a six-volume novel by Junpei Gomikawa. Aka HUMAN CONDITION I; followed by THE ROAD TO ETERNITY and A SOLDIER’S PRAYER.

No Highway in the Sky (1951) 98m. D: Henry Koster. James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Janette Scott, Elizabeth Allan, Ronald Squire, Niall MacGinnis, Kenneth More, Maurice Denham, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Offbeat, engrossing drama with Stewart as an engineer who desperately tries to convince others that aircraft can suffer from metal fatigue, and should be grounded after a given time. Dietrich is a glamorous passenger on the fateful flight. Based on a novel by Nevil Shute. Made in England, where it was released as NO HIGHWAY.

No Holds Barred (1952) 65m. D: William Beaudine. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Leonard Penn, Marjorie Reynolds, Bernard Gorcey, David Gorcey, Tim Ryan, Bennie Bartlett, Henry Kulky. Freak-of-nature Sach develops some amazing physical attributes and becomes a wrestling star in this unsurprising Bowery Boys match.

No Leave, No Love (1946) 119m. D: Charles Martin. Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, Pat Kirkwood, Guy Lombardo, Edward Arnold, Marie Wilson. No script, no laughs; Johnson and Wynn are sailors on the town in this overlong romantic comedy.

No Limit (1931) 72m. D: Frank Tuttle. Clara Bow, Norman Foster, Stuart Erwin, Dixie Lee, Harry Green, Thelma Todd. Manhattan movie-palace usherette is courted by a Park Avenue suitor but falls instead for a jewel thief who operates a floating gambling den. Improbable light comedy turns serious toward the end. Clumsy at times, though futuristic art deco sets and N.Y.C. location filming are assets. Bow seems miscast as a troubled but virtuous character.

No Love for Johnnie (1961-British) 110m. D: Ralph Thomas. Peter Finch, Stanley Holloway, Mary Peach, Mervyn Johns, Donald Pleasence, Dennis Price, Oliver Reed. Civilized study of politician who cares only about winning the election. CinemaScope.

No Man Is an Island (1962) C-114m. ½ D: John Monks, Jr., Richard Goldstone. Jeffrey Hunter, Marshall Thompson, Barbara Perez, Ronald Remy, Paul Edwards, Jr., Rolf Bayer, Vicente Liwanag. Spotty production values mar true story of serviceman Hunter trapped on Guam during the three years Japanese controlled area.

No Man of Her Own (1932) 85m. ½ D: Wesley Ruggles. Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Dorothy Mackaill, Grant Mitchell, Elizabeth Patterson, Lillian Harmer, George Barbier. Snappy story of heel reformed by good girl, noteworthy for only co-starring of Gable and Lombard (then not married).

No Man of Her Own (1950) 98m. ½ D: Mitchell Leisen. Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, Richard Denning, Milburn Stone. Turgid drama based on Cornell Woolrich tale of Stanwyck assuming another’s identity, later being blackmailed by ex-boyfriend. Remade in 1982 as I MARRIED A SHADOW and in 1996 as MRS. WINTERBOURNE.

No Minor Vices (1948) 96m. D: Lewis Milestone. Dana Andrews, Lilli Palmer, Louis Jourdan, Jane Wyatt, Norman Lloyd, Bernard Gorcey, Beau Bridges. Pretentious comedy in which stereotypically eccentric artist Jourdan attempts to come between pediatrician Andrews and wife Palmer. Starts off well but bogs down.

No More Ladies (1935) 81m. ½ D: Edward H. Griffith. Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Charlie Ruggles, Franchot Tone, Edna May Oliver, Gail Patrick. Crawford marries playboy Montgomery, tries to settle him down by making him jealous over her attention to Tone. Airy comedy. Joan Burfield (Fontaine) made her film debut here.

No More Orchids (1932) 68m. D: Walter Lang. Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Louise Closser Hale, Lyle Talbot, C. Aubrey Smith, Allen Vincent, Ruthelma Stevens. Lombard sparkles as a spoiled heiress who falls for “nobody” Talbot, but agrees to marry a fatuous prince in order to save her father’s (Connolly) failing bank. Hale steals every scene she’s in as Lombard’s tippler grandmother in this smart and sophisticated blend of romantic comedy and drama.

No My Darling Daughter (1961-British) 97m. ½ D: Ralph Thomas. Michael Redgrave, Michael Craig, Juliet Mills, Roger Livesey, Rad Fulton, Renee Houston. Generally funny film with Mills, rich industrialist’s daughter, torn between two suitors, playboy and hard-working businessman.

No Name on the Bullet (1959) C-77m. D: Jack Arnold. Audie Murphy, Charles Drake, Joan Evans, Virginia Grey, Warren Stevens, Edgar Stehli, R. G. Armstrong, Willis Bouchey, Karl Swenson, Charles Watts, Jerry Paris, Whit Bissell. A quiet, cultured gunman (Murphy, in a fine performance) rides into a small town to kill someone, though no one but he knows who his target is. Guilt and paranoia create their own victims. Slow, philosophical, and intelligent, this is the best of sci-fi director Arnold’s several Westerns. CinemaScope.

None But the Brave (1965) C-105m. ½ D: Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra, Clint Walker, Tommy Sands, Tony Bill, Brad Dexter. Taut war drama focusing on crew of cracked-up plane and Japanese army patrol who make peace on a remote island during WW2. Panavision.

None But the Lonely Heart (1944) 113m. ½ D: Clifford Odets. Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, Jane Wyatt, Dan Duryea, George Coulouris, June Duprez. Odets’ moody drama of a Cockney drifter features one of Grant’s most ambitious performances and some fine moments, but suffers from censorship restrictions of the time and misplaced WW2 rhetoric. Barrymore won Supporting Actress Oscar as Grant’s dying mother. Also shown in computer-colored version.

None Shall Escape (1944) 85m. D: Andre de Toth. Marsha Hunt, Alexander Knox, Henry Travers, Richard Crane, Dorothy Morris, Eric Rolf, Ruth Nelson, Kurt Kreuger. Trial of Nazi officer reviews his savage career, in taut drama that retains quite a punch. Released before, but set after, the end of WW2.

No, No, Nanette (1940) 96m. ½ D: Herbert Wilcox. Anna Neagle, Richard Carlson, Victor Mature, Roland Young, Helen Broderick, ZaSu Pitts, Eve Arden, Billy Gilbert. Lumbering adaptation of the Broadway musical with the title character coming to the aid of her philandering uncle, while an artist (Carlson) and a theatrical producer (Mature) both fall in love with her. British star Neagle (during her brief stay in Hollywood) seems a bit long in the tooth to play Nanette. Previously filmed in 1930; later reworked as TEA FOR TWO (1950). Pitts, cast as a wisecracking servant, played the same role in 1930, while Arden appears in the 1950 version (albeit in a different role).

Non-Stop New York (1937-British) 71m. D: Robert Stevenson. John Loder, Anna Lee, Francis L. Sullivan, Frank Cellier, Desmond Tester. Fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek Hitchcock-like yarn about a woman who can provide alibi for innocent man accused of murder—but no one believes her. Love that luxury airplane!

No One Man (1932) 73m. D: Lloyd Corrigan. Carole Lombard, Ricardo Cortez, Paul Lukas, George Barbier. Another tired love triangle, with spoiled rich girl Lombard caught between suave but heartless Cortez and earnest doctor Lukas. Becomes laughable before long.

No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948-British) 104m. D: St. John Legh Clowes. Linden Travers, Jack La Rue, Walter Crisham, MacDonald Parke, Lili Molnar, Danny Green, Percy Marmont, Richard Neilson. Heiress is kidnapped and ultimately finds herself at the mercy of a gang led by an out-and-out psycho (played by American gangster-movie veteran La Rue). Genuinely odd, micro-budget British film aspires to be a Hollywood film noir and misses by a mile. Travers originated the role of Miss Blandish onstage in London. Considered perverse by British critics and censors and badly cut for original U.S. release. Based on a novel by James Hadley Chase, later remade as THE GRISSOM GANG.

Noose Hangs High, The (1948) 77m. ½ D: Charles Barton. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Joseph Calleia, Leon Errol, Cathy Downs, Mike Mazurki, Fritz Feld. Mistaken identity leads to complications with the boys robbed of a large sum of money; typical A&C, bolstered by presence of Errol. Highlight: “Mudder and Fodder.”

No Other Woman (1933) 58m. ½ D: J. Walter Ruben. Irene Dunne, Charles Bickford, Gwili Andre, Eric Linden, Christian Rub, Leila Bennett, J. Carrol Naish. Mining-town couple Dunne and Bickford go from rags to riches with young Linden’s great chemical discovery but sacrifice their happiness in the process. OK soap opera dignified by solid performances. Impressive montages by the great Slavko Vorkapich.

No Place Like Homicide! (1962-British) 87m. D: Pat Jackson. Kenneth Connor, Sidney James, Shirley Eaton, Donald Pleasence, Dennis Price, Michael Gough. At times strained satire about group of people gathered at haunted house for the reading of a will. Remake of THE GHOUL. British title: WHAT A CARVE UP!

No Place to Hide (1956) C-71m. ½ D: Josef Shaftel. David Brian, Marsha Hunt, Hugh Corcoran, Ike Jariega, Jr., Celia Flor. Tense account of search for two children who accidentally have disease-spreading pellets in their possession; filmed in Philippines.

No Questions Asked (1951) 81m. ½ D: Harold F. Kress. Barry Sullivan, Arlene Dahl, Jean Hagen, George Murphy, William Reynolds, Mari Blanchard. Snappy little film of insurance company lawyer Sullivan seeking easy road to success via crime rackets.

Nora Prentiss (1947) 111m. ½ D: Vincent Sherman. Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, Bruce Bennett, Robert Alda, Rosemary DeCamp, John Ridgely, Robert Arthur, Wanda Hendrix. Proper married doctor Smith falls for kicked-around singer Sheridan, leading to plenty of complications. Entertaining, albeit predictable, drama.

No Regrets for Our Youth (1946-Japanese) 111m. D: Akira Kurosawa. Denjiro Okochi, Eiko Miyoshi, Setsuko Hara, Susumu Fujita, Kuninori Kodo, Haruko Sugimura, Aritake Kono, Takashi Shimura. In prewar Kyoto, a well-bred university student’s frivolous world quakes when her professor father is arrested as a political criminal. Then, when her lover is executed as a spy, she moves to the country home of her would-have-been in-laws, who reveal themselves as nothing more than malicious peasants. Feminist drama, portraying a sturdy heroine’s victory over governmental oppression and emotional abuse, still rings true.

No Road Back (1957-British) 83m. D: Montgomery Tully. Sean Connery, Skip Homeier, Paul Carpenter, Patricia Dainton, Norman Wooland, Margaret Rawlings. Blind and deaf woman sacrifices everything for son, becomes involved with criminals—who then try to pin robbery on the innocent son. Plodding melodrama.

No Room for the Groom (1952) 82m. ½ D: Douglas Sirk. Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Spring Byington, Don DeFore, Jack Kelly. Harmless shenanigans of ex-G.I. Curtis returning home to find it filled with in-laws.

North by Northwest (1959) C-136m. D: Alfred Hitchcock. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Leo G. Carroll, Martin Landau, Jessie Royce Landis, Philip Ober, Adam Williams, Josephine Hutchinson, Edward Platt. Quintessential Hitchcock comedy-thriller, with bewildered ad-man Grant chased cross country by both spies (who think he’s a double agent) and the police (who think he’s an assassin). One memorable scene after another, including now-legendary crop-dusting and Mount Rushmore sequences; one of the all-time great entertainments. Witty script by Ernest Lehman, exciting score by Bernard Herrmann. VistaVision.

Nor the Moon By Night SEE: Elephant Gun

Northern Pursuit (1943) 94m. ½ D: Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop, Helmut Dantine, John Ridgely, Gene Lockhart, Tom Tully. Flynn, a Mountie of German descent, pretends to have Nazi sympathies in order to learn the objectives of Nazis operating in Canada, in this standard but slickly done drama.

North of the Great Divide (1950) C-67m. D: William Witney. Roy Rogers, Penny Edwards, Gordon Jones, Roy Barcroft, Jack Lambert, Douglas Evans, Noble Johnson, Riders of the Purple Sage. Indian agent Rogers is sent into Canada to quell trouble between Indians and a ruthless salmon-cannery owner (Barcroft) who’s starving them out. Solid story in this Trucolor outing.

North of the Rio Grande (1937) 72m. ½ D: Nate Watt. William Boyd, George Hayes, Russell Hayden, Stephen Morris (Morris Ankrum), Bernadene Hayes, John Rutherford. When his brother is killed in a railroad holdup, Hopalong Cassidy poses as a desperado to solve the mystery and administer retribution to the dual-identity culprit, masked villain “The Lone Wolf.” Good series entry climaxes with an exciting train chase. Based on 1924 novel Cottonwood Gulch by series creator Clarence E. Mulford. Feature debut of Lee J. Cobb, fresh from N.Y.C.’s Group Theater.

North Star, The (1943) 105m. ½ D: Lewis Milestone. Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Erich von Stroheim, Jane Withers, Farley Granger, Walter Brennan. Dramatic battle sequences in WW2 Russia marred by uninteresting stretches until German von Stroheim matches wits with village leader Huston. Good performances all around; script by Lillian Hellman. Later edited to 82m. to deemphasize the good Russians and retitled ARMORED ATTACK. Also shown in computer-colored version.

North to Alaska (1960) C-122m. D: Henry Hathaway. John Wayne, Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Fabian, Capucine, Mickey Shaughnessy, Joe Sawyer, John Qualen. Fast-moving actioner with delightful tongue-in-cheek approach; prospectors Wayne and Granger have their hands full dealing with latter’s kid brother Fabian, con artist Kovacs, and gold-digging (in the other sense) Capucine. CinemaScope.

Northwest Frontier SEE: Flame Over India

North West Mounted Police (1940) C-125m. ½ D: Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Preston Foster, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, George Bancroft, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney, Jr., Robert Ryan. DeMille at his most ridiculous, with Cooper as Dusty Rivers, Goddard a fiery half-breed in love with Preston, Lynne Overman as Scottish philosopher in superficial tale of Texas Ranger searching for fugitive in Canada. Much of outdoor action filmed on obviously indoor sets.

Northwest Outpost (1947) 91m. ½ D: Allan Dwan. Nelson Eddy, Ilona Massey, Hugo Haas, Elsa Lanchester, Lenore Ulric. Rudolf Friml operetta of California calvarymen lumbers along pretty lamely. Eddy’s last film.

Northwest Passage (Book I—Rogers’ Rangers) (1940) C-125m. ½ D: King Vidor. Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan, Ruth Hussey, Nat Pendleton, Robert Barrat, Addison Richards. Gritty, evocative filming of Kenneth Roberts’ book about Rogers’ Rangers and their stoic leader (Tracy), enduring hardships and frustrations while opening up new territory in Colonial America. Young and Brennan are greenhorns who learn hard knocks under taskmaster Tracy. The river-fording sequence is a knockout.

Northwest Rangers (1943) 64m. ½ D: Joseph M. Newman. James Craig, William Lundigan, Patricia Dane, John Carradine, Jack Holt, Keenan Wynn, Grant Withers, Darryl Hickman. Orphaned after an Indian attack, two boys are raised by a Canadian Mountie but grow up on opposite sides of the law. Lively Western programmer boosted by MGM production gloss.

Northwest Stampede (1948) C-79m. ½ D: Albert S. Rogell. Joan Leslie, James Craig, Jack Oakie, Chill Wills, Victor Kilian, Stanley Andrews, Lane Chandler. Rodeo star Craig returns to the family ranch after his father’s death, tangles with cute but tough female foreman Leslie. A coveted white stallion also comes into play in this formulaic oater.

No Sad Songs for Me (1950) 89m. D: Rudolph Maté. Margaret Sullavan, Wendell Corey, Viveca Lindfors, Natalie Wood, Ann Doran. Moving account of dying mother Sullavan preparing her family to go on without her. Ironically, Sullavan’s last film.

Nosferatu (1922-German) 94m. ½ D: F. W. Murnau. Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroeder. Early film version of Dracula is brilliantly eerie, full of imaginative touches that none of the later films quite recaptured. Schreck’s vampire is also the ugliest in film history. The making of this film is dramatized in SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE. Remade in 1979. Aka NOSFERATU, A SYMPHONY OF HORROR.

Not as a Stranger (1955) 135m. D: Stanley Kramer. Olivia de Havilland, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum, Charles Bickford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Lee Marvin, Lon Chaney, Henry (Harry) Morgan, Virginia Christine, Jerry Paris. Morton Thompson novel of Mitchum marrying nurse de Havilland who supports him through medical school despite oft-strained relationship. Glossy tribute to medical profession contains excellent performances by all. Producer Kramer’s directorial debut.

Nothing but a Man (1964) 92m. ½ D: Michael Roemer. Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris, Gloria Foster, Martin Priest, Leonard Parker, Yaphet Kotto, Stanley Greene. Quietly powerful look at blacks in the South, with Dixon as a railroad worker who tries to settle down for the first time in his life with schoolteacher Lincoln, and has to deal with a level of prejudice—and self-denial—he’s never faced before. Perceptive and honest, this film manages to make its points without melodrama. A small gem. Look for Esther Rolle and Moses Gunn in small roles.

Nothing but the Best (1964-British) C-99m. ½ D: Clive Donner. Alan Bates, Denholm Elliott, Harry Andrews, Millicent Martin, Pauline Delany. Biting look at social-climbing playboy Bates who commits murder to get ahead in the world. Written by Frederic Raphael.

Nothing But the Truth (1941) 90m. D: Elliott Nugent. Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Edward Arnold, Leif Erickson, Helen Vinson, Willie Best. Entertaining comedy based on sure-fire idea: Bashful stockbroker Hope wagers that he can tell the absolute truth for 24 hours. Good fun. Filmed before in 1920 (with Taylor Holmes) and 1929 (with Richard Dix); also an ancestor of Jim Carrey’s LIAR LIAR.

Nothing But Trouble (1944) 69m. D: Sam Taylor. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mary Boland, Philip Merivale, David Leland, Henry O’Neill. Lesser L&H vehicle with duo hired as servants, meeting young boy king whose life is in danger. Boland is amusing as usual.

Nothing Sacred (1937) C-75m. ½ D: William Wellman. Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger, Sig Rumann, Frank Fay. Classic comedy about hotshot reporter (March) who exploits Vermont girl’s “imminent” death from radium poisoning for headline value in N.Y.C. Ben Hecht’s cynical script vividly enacted by March and Lombard (at her best). Gershwinesque music score by Oscar Levant. Trivia note: Connolly’s character is named Oliver Stone! Later a Broadway musical called Hazel Flagg. Remade as LIVING IT UP.

No Time for Comedy (1940) 98m. ½ D: William Keighley. James Stewart, Rosalind Russell, Genevieve Tobin, Charles Ruggles, Allyn Joslyn, Louise Beavers. Slick but dated adaptation of S. N. Behrman play about actress who tries to keep her playwright-husband from taking himself too seriously. Smoothly done but artificial. Aka GUY WITH A GRIN.

No Time for Flowers (1952) 83m. D: Don Siegel. Viveca Lindfors, Paul Christian, Ludwig Stossel, Manfred Ingor. Low-grade version of NINOTCHKA set in Prague; a pale shadow of its ancestor.

No Time for Love (1943) 83m. ½ D: Mitchell Leisen. Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ilka Chase, Richard Haydn, Paul McGrath, June Havoc. Cute but obvious romance between famous magazine photographer Colbert and down-to-earth MacMurray. The stars give this a lift.

No Time for Sergeants (1958) 119m. ½ D: Mervyn LeRoy. Andy Griffith, Myron McCormick, Nick Adams, Murray Hamilton, Don Knotts. Funny military comedy based on Ira Levin’s Broadway play (which got its start as a 1955 U.S. Steel Hour TV play). Griffith and McCormick repeat roles as hayseed inducted into service and his harried sergeant. Griffith’s best comedy, with good support from Adams, and, in a small role as a noncommissioned officer, Knotts. Script by John Lee Mahin. Followed years later by a TV series.

No Time to Be Young (1957) 82m. D: David Lowell Rich. Robert Vaughn, Roger Smith, Merry Anders, Kathy Nolan, Tom Pittman. Pedestrian programmer about a trio of troubled young men: arrogant Vaughn’s just been booted out of college; confused Smith is hung up on older woman; and insecure Pittman lies to his girlfriend. Skip it.

No Time to Die SEE: Tank Force

Not of This Earth (1957) 67m. ½ D: Roger Corman. Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones, William Roerick. Above-par low-budget entry from Roger Corman with blank-eyed Birch as an alien vampire here to get blood for his atomic war–ravaged home world. Good supporting cast; great bit by Dick Miller. Remade in 1988, 1996 (for TV), and 1997 (as STAR PORTAL).

Notorious (1946) 101m. ½ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin, Reinhold Schunzel, Moroni Olsen. Top-notch espionage tale by Ben Hecht, set in post-WW2 South America, with Ingrid marrying spy Rains to aid U.S. and agent Grant. Frank, tense, well acted, with amazingly suspenseful climax (and one memorably passionate love scene). Remade for cable TV in 1992.

Notorious Affair, A (1930) 69m. D: Lloyd Bacon. Billie Dove, Basil Rathbone, Kay Francis, Montagu Love, Kenneth Thomson, Philip Strange, Gino Corrado. Rathbone is uncomfortably cast as a neurotic violinist married to Dove; she finds out he is having an affair but dutifully nurses him back to health when he has a breakdown. Plush production can’t save this stagy soap opera.

Notorious Gentleman (1945-British) 123m. D: Sidney Gilliat. Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, Godfrey Tearle, Griffith Jones, Margaret Johnston, Guy Middleton, Jean Kent. Philandering life of irresponsible playboy is told with wit and style in this handsome production. British title: THE RAKE’S PROGRESS.

Notorious Landlady, The (1962) 123m. ½ D: Richard Quine. Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire, Lionel Jeffries, Estelle Winwood, Maxwell Reed. Lemmon entranced by houseowner Novak, decides to find out if she really did kill her husband; set in London. Offbeat comedy-mystery written by Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart.

Notorious Lone Wolf, The (1946) 64m. D: D. Ross Lederman. Gerald Mohr, Janis Carter, Eric Blore, John Abbott, William B. Davidson, Don Beddoe, Adele Roberts, Peter Whitney. The Lone Wolf returns from WW2 and is embroiled in a museum jewel theft. Mohr replaced Warren William for this humdrum entry.

Notorious Sophie Lang, The (1934) 64m. ½ D: Ralph Murphy. Gertrude Michael, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Byron, Alison Skipworth, Leon Errol, Arthur Hoyt. N.Y.C. police detective Byron is determined to catch jewel thief Michael, who’s just returned from London. She’s awfully slick, but then, so is her rival (Cavanagh). Amusing vehicle for Michael with a top supporting cast. Followed by THE RETURN OF SOPHIE LANG.

No Trees in the Street (1958-British) 108m. D: J. Lee Thompson. Sylvia Syms, Stanley Holloway, Herbert Lom, Ronald Howard, Joan Miller. Lower-class British life examined for its strengths and weaknesses; too sterile a human document.

Not So Dumb (1930) 76m. D: King Vidor. Marion Davies, Elliott Nugent, Raymond Hackett, Franklin Pangborn, Julia Faye, William Holden, Donald Ogden Stewart, Sally Starr. Davies is delightful as a well-meaning scatterbrain who throws a big weekend bash to advance the career of her aspiring businessman beau, only to turn it into a disaster. Deft precursor to screwball farces of the 1930s and ’40s, with celebrated playwright Stewart very funny in a rare acting role. Based on the play Dulcy by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. Previously filmed in 1923 and remade in 1940 under that title.

Not Wanted (1949) 94m. ½ D: Elmer Clifton. Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, Leo Penn, Dorothy Adams. Well-intentioned account of unwed mother seeking affection and understanding; produced and co-scripted by Ida Lupino (who also apparently directed most of the film). Later expanded with unrelated material (including childbirth footage) and released as an exploitation film THE WRONG RUT.

Novel Affair, A (1957-British) C-83m. D: Muriel Box. Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Patricia Dainton, Carlo Justini, Marjorie Rhodes, Megs Jenkins. Amusing tale of Leighton who writes a sexy novel, finding the fantasy come true. Nearly everyone plays dual roles, in real life and scenes from the novel! Original British title: THE PASSIONATE STRANGER.

Now and Forever (1934) 81m. ½ D: Henry Hathaway. Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple, Sir Guy Standing, Charlotte Granville. Standard jewel-thief-going-straight yarn; Lombard overshadowed by Cooper and Temple. On tape only in a computer-colored version.

No Way Out (1950) 106m. D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Bill Walker. Violent tale of racial hatred involving bigot Widmark, who has gangster pals avenge his brother’s death by creating race riots. Once-provocative film is still engrossing but seems a bit artificial at times. Film debuts of Poitier and Davis.

Nowhere to Go (1958-British) 87m. D: Seth Holt. George Nader, Maggie Smith, Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Bessie Love. Unsung, beautifully realized film noir stars Nader as a smooth Canadian con man in England who hides out with Smith while on the run. Brilliant deep-focus photography by Paul Beeson and a moody score by jazz trumpeter Dizzy Reece stand out. Smith’s film debut. Metroscope.

Now, Voyager (1942) 117m. ½ D: Irving Rapper. Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville, John Loder, Ilka Chase, Lee Patrick, Mary Wickes, Janis Wilson. Vintage, first-class soaper with Bette as sheltered spinster brought out of her shell by psychiatrist Rains, falling in love with suave Henreid, helping shy girl Wilson. All this set to beautiful, Oscar-winning Max Steiner music makes for top entertainment of this kind. Olive Higgins Prouty’s bestseller was adapted by Casey Robinson.

Nude in a White Car (1958-French) 87m. ½ D: Robert Hossein. Marina Vlady, Robert Hossein, Odile Versois, Helena Manson, Henri Cremieux. Hossein’s only clue to a crime is title person; suspenser set on French Riviera. Vlady and Hossein were married in real life. Retitled: BLONDE IN A WHITE CAR.

Nude in His Pocket SEE: Girl in His Pocket

Nuisance, The (1933) 83m. D: Jack Conway. Lee Tracy, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan, Charles Butterworth, John Miljan, Virginia Cherrill, David Landau. Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she’s a special investigator for a streetcar company he’s repeatedly victimized. Laugh-a-minute caper only slows down a bit toward the end for romance. Sparkling script by Samuel and Bella Spewack. Remade as THE CHASER (1938).

Numbered Men (1930) 65m. D: Mervyn LeRoy. Conrad Nagel, Bernice Claire, Raymond Hackett, Ralph Ince, Ivan Linow, George Cooper, Tully Marshall. After being framed for counterfeiting, Hackett tries to prove his innocence while working on a road gang that lets him visit sweetheart Claire at a nearby farmhouse. Starchy prison picture with most of the action taking place outside the walls of the big house. LeRoy fared better when he directed I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG two years later.

Number Seventeen (1932-British) 63m. D: Alfred Hitchcock. Leon M. Lion, Anne Grey, John Stuart, Donald Calthrop, Barry Jones, Garry Marsh. Entertaining comedy-thriller has tramp Lion stumbling upon a jewel thieves’ hideout. Exciting chase sequence involves a train and bus (though the “special effects” are pretty obvious). Screenplay by Hitchcock.

Nun’s Story, The (1959) C-149m. ½ D: Fred Zinnemann. Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Dean Jagger, Mildred Dunnock. Tasteful filming of Kathryn Hulme book, with Hepburn the nun who serves in Belgian Congo and later leaves convent. Colleen Dewhurst, as a homicidal patient, is electrifying. Screenplay by Robert Anderson.

Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) 108m. D: Herbert Wilcox. Anna Neagle, Edna May Oliver, George Sanders, ZaSu Pitts, May Robson, H. B. Warner, Robert Coote. Neagle is fine as dedicated WW1 nurse who worked with the Brussels underground to aid wounded soldiers. Sturdy production.

Nurse on Wheels (1963-British) 86m. D: Gerald Thomas. Juliet Mills, Ronald Lewis, Joan Sims, Noel Purcell, Raymond Huntley, Jim Dale. The trials of nurse Mills, who settles down to practice in a rural community. Entertaining, often touching.

Nut, The (1921) 74m. ½ D: Ted Reed. Douglas Fairbanks, Marguerite De La Motte, William Lowery, Gerald Pring, Morris Hughes, Barbara La Marr. Fairbanks is charming as a Greenwich Village romantic who adores a progressive-minded damsel (De La Motte) and must compete for her with a no-account gambler. There’s one funny sight gag after another in this enormously entertaining comedy, one of Fairbanks’ best. Highlight: Doug’s “impersonations” of Napoleon Bonaparte, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and Tom Thumb. Cowritten by Fairbanks (under the pseudonym Elton Thomas).

Nutty, Naughty Chateau (1964-French) C-100m. ½ D: Roger Vadim. Monica Vitti, Curt Jurgens, Jean-Claude Brialy, Sylvie, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Hardy. Bizarre minor comedy involving the strange inhabitants of a castle romping about in 1750s styles; most diverting cast. Based on a Françoise Sagan play. Franscope.

Nutty Professor, The (1963) C-107m. D: Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens, Del Moore, Kathleen Freeman, Med Flory, Howard Morris, Elvia Allman, Henry Gibson. Jerry’s wildest (and most narcissistic) comedy casts him as chipmunk-faced college professor who does Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation into swaggering Buddy Love (whom some have interpreted as a Dean Martin caricature). More interesting than funny, although “Alaskan Polar Bear Heater” routine with Buddy Lester is a riot; Lewis buffs regard this as his masterpiece. Remade in 1996. Later a stage musical.