THE NIGHT OF JANUARY 16th
US, 1941, 80 minutes, Black-and-white.
Robert Preston, Ellen Drew, Nils Asther, Cecil Kellaway.
Directed by William Clemens.
While there were many brief murder mysteries and crime dramas in supporting features of the 1930s, as well as a lot of screwball comedies, the two genres began to mix in supporting features of the 1940s. This is one of those films, crime and murder along with some comedy routines.
Surprising to discover, the film is based on a play by philosopher Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead). Contributing to the screenplay was a writer-director with success to come in the next 20 years, Delmer Daves.
On the crime side, there are suspicions when the CEO of a company is involved in somewhat sinister discussions, goes to his board meeting, and there is a revelation that $20 million is missing. His secretary comes back from a trip and her movements are being noted. She confronts the CEO, rather upset, but he arranges for a substantial sum to be transferred to her bank account. Also present in the office is the CEO’s fiance. And at the board meeting, quite distracted, in sailor’s uniform, is the heir to the company fortune – played by Robert Preston in the comic style that was to develop over the coming decades. The secretary is played by Ellen Drew. The CEO is played by Nils Asther, in the style of villains like Paul Lukas with a continental accent.
Then the CEO is murdered, thrown from a high storey window and the secretary is accused of the murder. The sailor tries to help her, thinking that she knows where the money is, but finding that she is innocent. However, she goes to trial for murder. The sailor engineers her escape, the company allows them to have a plane to take them to Latin America. They work out a code of where the money is hidden and the assumed name of the killer.
It is not entirely surprising to find the CEO engineered his own death.
On the comedy side, the sparring between the secretary and the sailor has all the touches of misunderstood romance, strange situations (and the touch of the suggestive, 1940 style), a lot of sparring and eventual collaboration, the solution of the crime, the buying of a marriage license and happy ever after.
Cecil Kellaway provides comedy as a drunk toff.
The film was directed by William Clemens, a director of small budget features including several Nancy drew films as well as Falcon dramas.
