Clash by Night (1952)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Mae Doyle comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl.
- Actors:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe, J. Carrol Naish, Silvio Minciotti, Keith Andes
- Directors:
- Fritz Lang
- Producers:
- Harriet Parsons
- Writers:
- Alfred Hayes, Clifford Odets
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- A History of Cinemas in Films, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Marilyn Monroe, A Brief History of Film...
More like Clash by Night
Found in these customers lists
Reviews (1) of Clash by Night
Heavy Soap. - Clash by Night review by Steve
Weighty melodrama adapted from Clifford Odets' social realist Broadway play about an adultery. Of course, at the height of the Production Code there was only so much a Hollywood film could say and show on this subject and the ending especially is compromised. But Fritz Lang shades the film with some noir atmospherics and the interesting cast makes the film worthwhile.
A hard-luck dame (Barbara Stanwyck) returns to her home town, a fishing port on the California coast. On the rebound, she marries a dull stalwart (Paul Douglas) but then falls into a stormy affair with his boozy braggart best friend (Robert Ryan). That's already a decent cast-list, and a pre-stardom Marilyn Monroe also appears...
...as a worker in a fish processing factory! But glamorous. She's clearly a star in waiting but hasn't yet created her trademark sexpot schtick. Stanwyck delivers a handful of great lines with vinegary aplomb. The first half is slow as she is reluctantly courted by Douglas, but comes to the boil when Stanwyck and Ryan are whooping it up.
Lang laces the melodrama with documentary footage of a working fishing port which lends some authenticity. There is a realistic impression of damaged survivors shuffling their dwindling chances of happiness. In 1950, audiences had just seen A Streetcar Named Desire which instantly dated this. But it comes alive still when Monroe is on, or Stanwyck casting her spiky epigrams.