Antonius Block
Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan play a couple of dissatisfied, bitter middle-aged people in 'Clash by Night', a film which may leave you as dissatisfied as it left me. It's a shame, because the combination of director Fritz Lang, Barbara Stanwyck, and Marilyn Monroe was intriguing. In the film, Stanwyck has returned to the fisheries in Monterey after failing to realize her big ambitions on the east coast, and Ryan is not happy in his marriage. Stanwyck rebuffs Ryan's advances because he's married, and then softens towards a nice guy (Paul Douglas). The film has several issues, starting with the characters being one-dimensional and not remotely likeable. Stanwyck is cynical, Douglas is cartoonishly simple, and Ryan is a glowering bully, who, among other things, gives us a highly racist and horrifying impression of Chinese people. The acting is overplayed and poor, particularly from Douglas and Ryan, but even Stanwyck's performance is uneven, though she has her moments. At various points all three actors break out into torrents of emotion in the least authentic way. There is also zero chemistry between Stanwyck and Ryan, and too often the dialogue or delivery is overwrought. Lang piles it on with obvious symbolism in shots of stormy clouds and the ocean pounding the shore. Everything about it seems heavy-handed, and on top of it all, the ending is unbelievable and groan-inducing.I would watch it just for the scenes with Marilyn Monroe, who is incidental to the main story, but delightful. She is unaffected and natural, as is Keith Andes, who plays her boyfriend (and Stanwyck's brother). I give one star for her, and one star for Stanwyck's better moments, and because I adore her so. After that, I have to say, whew it's tough. Not sure why this one gets as many high ratings as it does.
utgard14
Considering this is directed by Fritz Lang and features a good cast, I was expecting something better than a one-dimensional soaper. The story is about a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who reluctantly returns to her seaside hometown to live with her brother. She also reluctantly dates and then marries fisherman Paul Douglas. She further reluctantly enters into an affair with misogynist Robert Ryan. She does pretty much everything reluctantly. She's terrible but conflicted about it. That was the style at the time.At 45, Stanwyck is a little old for the part but she does fine with it. The studio system was faltering at this time and no great movie stars of the level of Stanwyck, Davis, or Crawford had risen to take their place. So the '50s often saw middle-aged actresses playing younger roles with often mixed results. There is one rising star here and that's a young Marilyn Monroe. She looks beautiful and does well in her supporting part. The movie's highlights all center around her. The men all do good jobs but again, these are rather clichéd soap opera parts so I hesitate to throw a party for them. Douglas and Ryan both play to type and do so well. The opening credits end with "And introducing Keith Andes." Who's Keith Andes? Exactly. He plays Stanwyck's brother and Marilyn's boyfriend. He does nothing to impress or offend. All of the acting feels very stagey. When I found out this was originally a play I wasn't surprised. Lang does what he can to make a picture out of it but the script offers little help. This is not a film noir, as it is often advertised, but rather a melodrama. So noir fans prepare yourselves before watching. Overall it's a watchable soap with a hollow ending that I won't be watching again.
ilprofessore-1
Fritz Lang, the German director who emigrated to Hollywood, is famous for Metropolis, one of the most original films of all time, and also one of the most atrociously acted. Lang had guts--let's give him his due!--and wasn't afraid to deal with lust and sex in a way more conventional studio directors avoided. However, everything he chose to touch upon, he eventually hammered down with his notorious heavy-hand. Everything here is over-done, exaggerated, spelled-out twice. Marilyn Monroe, who had only to walk in front of the camera to be erotic, wiggles and contorts her body in a way equal to the metal robot in Metropolis. A parody of sex rather than a portrait.
Michael Neumann
Tough cookie Barbara Stanwyck finds little piece of mind after returning home from the big city to the Monterrey seashore and marrying a mild-mannered fisherman. Before long, restlessness leads her into a tawdry affair with kindred spirit Robert Ryan, a hard drinking loner and one of her trusting husband's best friends. The entire cast of characters may be troubled and/or confused, but thankfully the same shortcomings don't extend behind the camera. From a stage drama that could easily have been played as shabby melodrama, Fritz Lang directed a memorable tragedy of human misconduct, crowded with unspoken passions and permeated by a climate of impending menace.
AD
