edwagreen Ray Milland had plenty of experience coming off as a drunkard in this 1951 film from his 1945 Oscar winning performance in "The Lost Weekend."As an English professor, College secretary Nancy Davis, runs in to inform him in front of the class that his house exploded. Of course, in this type of situation, he would have been called out privately. He is devastated by the loss of child and his wife.Milland is again terrific as always. While he descends into heavy drinking, he is still able to maintain his position, though he becomes an embittered and quite nasty at times. As the secretary who is sympathetic to his plight, because she lost her husband to World War 11, Nancy Davis is marvelous here and it's probably by far the best performance she has given on screen. John Hodiak plays a member of the faculty who is involved with Davis, but feels threatened by her overly sympathetic embrace of the Milland character.It is only when he is involved in a car accident helped by his not being sober does Milland come to grips with the problem and speaks in a memorable way to his outgoing class at term's end.

kijii Wow, what a surprise this movie was for me!! I did it mainly to see another example of Nancy Davis's acting ability. Until now, I had only seen her in fairly limited roles in The Next Voice You Hear... (1950) and It's A Big Country(1951). I was not only impressed with her totally natural acting but was pleasantly surprised by this movie itself. I had never heard of it before. Perhaps I have seen The Lost Weekend (1945) too many times; but with Night Into Morning, I felt Milland gave a better performance as a depressed alcoholic than he did in his Oscar- winning performance in The Lost Weekend.The movie presents the story about a Berkley University English professor (Ray Milland) whose life is turned upside down when he looses his entire family because his basement furnace blows up. Suddenly, without his wife (Rosemary DeCamp) and son, he is left with a totally empty life. He copes with his emptiness by immersing himself in his work and in the bottle. Although his fellow workers and friends try to help him get his life back on track, only his fellow professor's fiancée (Nancy Davis) understands his pain, since she had been a WW II widow before remarrying the professor (John Hodiak). Her hyper-understanding of Ray Milland's character threatens her new marriage, which gives the movie yet another dimension.Other good performances in the movie are turned in by Lewis Stone, as the English Department Head, and Jean Hagen as his neighbor. Lewis Stone was a staple in the Silents early 'Talkies,' but seemed to get even better with age. Jean Hagen is the familiar character actress with the funny voice from Singin' in the Rain (1952), Adam's Rib (1949), and The Asphalt Jungle (1950).

JoeKarlosi Ray Milland reprises his drunken "Lost Weekend" routine in this typical drama about a professor who mourns the accidental death of his wife and 10-year-old boy, and then instead of adequately grieving over the loss, takes to drowning his sorrows in the bottle and becomes an alcoholic. His two best friends who care about him constantly try to set him on the straight and narrow path. I found this to be pretty standard with predictable results, with a stagnant plot that really doesn't go anywhere. What set this above average and worth one look is the good performance from Milland as well as a young Nancy Davis (Reagan) as one of the thoughtful friends who's devoted to him and can relate, having lost a spouse herself. **1/2 out of ****

John Seal Perhaps it's the Berkeley locale that appeals to me, but I was riveted by this intelligently written and well acted look at alcoholism. Sure it's treading on similar ground to The Lost Weekend, but this is a much more intimate picture. Milland is outstanding as always, and even Nancy Kelly (Reagan) does well.