A Night of Adventure (1944)

A Night of Adventure (1944)


Plot Summary

 Drama, romance and mystery plunge two socialites into a whirl of adventure as they tangle with murder in an attempt to save the life of an innocent man. Mark Latham, (Tom Conway) suave and sophisticated criminal attorney, battles for the love of his estranged wife, Erica, (Audrey Long) who unwittingly becomes involved with a murder suspect. The suspect, Tony Clark, (Louis Borel) finds himself not only falsely accused of murder but is to be defended by the husband of the woman he loves.

This is a pretty good B film remake of a film done 10 years earlier (I didn't realize it was a remake until after viewing this. I will definitely make an effort to watch the original) called Hat, Coat and Glove. Despite the fact that it's a remake it was quite an enjoyable little film with the first half setting up the courtroom drama that made up the 2nd half of the film.

The movie stars Tom Conway the brother of the more famous George Sanders. Interestingly, i've never fully embraced Sanders' style. Conway however, comes off similarly but doesn't seem so smarmy in his film roles. Here he plays the suave and ingenious workaholic lawyer husband of Audrey Long. The film opens up with a neat little scene of him at the supper club with his right hand man Steve (played by Ed Brophy who is most known for playing the dimwitted cop in various B detective films. He's very likable in this movie) and he makes like he's hitting on another man's wife when it's really his wife. It's her birthday and the movie does a great job at showing how inattentive he's been towards her but at the same time showing that he does love her despite the fact that he's always busy. This bears itself out as Steve informs Mark of Benny Sarto (Russell Hopton) trying to leave town. Sarto is a goon working for the corrupt political boss of the city and Mark leaves to catch him and use Sarto as a witness to clear a defendant's name. This gets the attention of Washington DC where Mark has to go to the next morning. This doesn't sit too well with Erica and she informs Mark that she'll be gone once he gets back.

This leads to Erica finding a new lover in Tony Clark who is an artist. Mark comes back to town and finds out that she's with Tony. We see a scene in which Erica is at Tony's studio and in barges his OTHER lover who is clearly drunk and makes a scene. Tony takes Erica home and Mark ends up going to Tony's place ten minutes later. The lover is clearly distraught and plans to kill Tony but Mark tries to calm her down only to have her accidentally killed. Unbeknownst to Mark, Sarto has been tailing him and makes the scene look as if Mark had killed the lover.

So that's the basic setup. The drama in all this is just how the heck Mark is going to get Tony off when circumstantial evidence with witnesses makes him guilty as sin. Mark makes the case that someone else was there that night but unfortunately he makes it clear as day that he was the one in the studio that night. So he's pretty much over his head. I think you can guess how he gets out of it (think Sarto and the political machine boss trying to get rid of Mark for good) and while that does seem like a "magic genie" way out of the plot predicament it actually comes off pretty well here.

Despite this being a B grade film there are lots of little things that make this great. One of the witnesses is a burlesque girl who works next door to the studio. Her scene in the courtroom is pretty hilarious as she was part Mae West/Gypsy Rose Lee/Judy Holliday. Another great aspect of the movie was the relationship between Mark and Steve. After Erica has left Mark (and before he finds out who she's with) Steve tries to cheer Mark up but he's pretty much in the dumps knowing his actions have made this all happen. The two of them have a good buddy-buddy relationship and it's nice to see Brophy in something that makes him look reasonably competent rather than an oafish boob.

If there's one complaint I have with this movie it has to be most of the scenes with Mark and Erica. They crank up the score and plays this really overwrought dramatic music which really oversells the dramatic mood of the conversations. It's the one really garish aspect of the film and nearly kills it but thankfully the two scenes where this is the case are spread out a bit so it's not TOO bad.

So to summarize: The movie has a bit of an improbable plot but the ingenious plot resolution and the interesting and fast paced courtroom drama that makes up the 2nd half of the film makes the film worth watching. This is one movie that has a slight sense of humor that keeps the drama from overwhelming things.

A solid *** stars.