Somewhere In The Night (1946)

In the final weeks of WWII, a man (John Hodiak) awakes with amnesia in a military field hospital. Among his personal longings is a letter vehemently accusing him of an unspecified wrong against the writer. When he returns to civilian life, he finds a note advising him that a bank account has been opened in his name by a man called Larry Cravat. With nothing else to go on, he attempts to find Cravat in the hope of finding out who he was before the amnesia. Based on the short story THE LONELY JOURNEY by Marvin Borowsky and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (ALL ABOUT EVE). Not particularly well reviewed when it opened in 1946, this nifty film noir is now a favorite of the genre's fans. Often difficult to follow, the movie takes us on a tangled labyrinth through an assortment of femme fatales, thugs, cops, thieves and murderers. Though the movie's "surprise" twist is easy enough to guess, the journey is intriguing enough to keep the tour pleasurable. As the film's mystery man, Hodiak is convincing enough to keep us on his side. With Richard Conte, Lloyd Nolan, Nancy Guild, Josephine Hutchinson and Margo Woode.