''Night Without Stars'' is a 1951 British

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

dramatic thriller film directed by

Anthony Pelissier Harry Anthony Compton Pelissier (27 July 1912 – 2 April 1988) was an English actor, screenwriter, producer and director. Biography Pelissier was born in Barnet, north London, and came from a theatrical family. His parents were the theatr ...

and starring David Farrar,

Nadia Gray Nadia Gray (born Nadia Kujnir; 23 November 1923 – 13 June 1994) was a Romanian film actress. Biography Gray was born into a Jewish family in Bucharest. Her father moved to Romania from Russia, and her mother was from Akkerman, in Bessarabia ( ...

and

Maurice Teynac Maurice Teynac (8 August 1915 – 28 March 1992) was a French actor. In 1948 he starred in the film '' The Lame Devil'' under Sacha Guitry. In 1954 he appeared in London's West End in J.B. Priestley's poorly reviewed play ''The White Cou ...

. The screenplay was by

Winston Graham Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE, born Winston Grime (30 June 1908 – 10 July 2003), was an English novelist best known for the ''Poldark'' series of historical novels set in Cornwall, though he also wrote numerous other works, including contemp ...

based on his 1950 novel of the same name. The film was produced by Hugh Stewart.

Plot

The film begins in the spring of 1947 on the south coast of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on the

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

. English lawyer Giles Gordon has been partially blinded during service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and fears his eyesight is worsening. After he stumbles in a shoe shop, the shop assistant Alix Delaisse recognises him later in the day and joins him at a cafe. She explains she is the widow of a

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

fighter hanged in Nice.

Restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspe ...

Pierre Chava approaches Giles and warns him off with the claim that Alix is already promised to him. He tells Giles that Alix is involved with

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

ers,

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

ers and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

ers from the war years and demands that Giles forget her and return to England. Giles and Alix spend more and more time together. After a day of water sports in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, he mistakenly enters a room of Alix's black market contacts. She tells him to go home to England. Pierre also pressures him to leave. He goes to Pierre's flat and finds a dead body which, due to his poor eyesight, he presumes to be Pierre, but he is persuaded by a marketeer that it was not Pierre. Giles goes back to England and goes to his doctor who says he can restore his sight. He has an operation and is shown a press cutting saying that Pierre has been killed in a car crash, but his body is unrecognisable. Giles returns to France and wears dark glasses to disguise his restored sight. He tracks down Alix and reveals that he can now see. Armand invites him to dinner with Alix and explains the whole situation: Pierre had betrayed the Resistance group to the Nazis, bringing the death of Alix's husband, and they had sought revenge. Malinay (Alix's brother) had killed Pierre in his flat. He later returned to collect the body and stage an accidental death. The marketeers decide Giles knows too much and try to stage another death, pushing him over a cliff in a car. They fail to see him fall out on the way down and presume he is killed when the car explodes at the bottom. Giles struggles to ascend the steep cliff back to the road. He returns to confront Malinay and declare his love for Alix.

Cast

* David Farrar as Giles Gordon *

as Alix Delaisse née Malinay *

as Louis Malinay *

Gérard Landry Landry Fernand Charles Marrier de Lagatinerie (16 October 1912 – 18 September 1999), known professionally as Gérard Landry, was an Argentine actor. He began acting in 1932 with his first movie ''Mirages de Paris'', acted for over fifty ye ...

as Pierre Chaval *

June Clyde June Clyde (born Ina Parton, December 2, 1909 – October 1, 1987) was an American actress, singer and dancer known for roles in such pre-Code films as '' A Strange Adventure'' (1932) and ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1933). Early years June Cly ...

as Claire * Robert Ayres as Walter *

Clive Morton Clive Morton (16 March 1904 – 24 September 1975) was an English actor. Best known for playing upper class Englishmen, he made many screen appearances, especially on television. Career In 1955, Morton appeared in Laurence Olivier's film vers ...

as Dr. Coulson *

Eugene Deckers Eugene Francis Deckers (22 October 1917, in Antwerp – 1977, in Paris, France) was a Belgium, Belgian actor. Career After establishing himself on the British stage, Deckers made his first English language film appearance in 1946. Formerly a ...

as Armand * Martin Benson as White Cap * Gilles Quéant as Inspector Deffand *

Ina De La Haye Ina De La Haye (1906–1972) was a Russian-born actress and singer known for her performances in Britain on stage, film and television. She was also known as Ina Delahaye.Wearing p.56 She was married to Colonel J. V. Delahaye from 1930 to his de ...

as 'Mere Roget' *

Richard Molinas Richard Molinas (17 November 1911 – 1975) was a British stage and film actor. A character actor, he appeared in a number of supporting role A supporting character is a character in a narrative that is not the focus of the primary storyli ...

as driver * Jeanne Pali as Madame Colloni * Marcel Poncin as blind man

Production

It was shot at

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to t ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Alex Vetchinsky Alex Vetchinsky ( Alec Hyman Vetchinsky; 9 November 1904 – 4 March 1980) was a BAFTA nominated British film art director and production designer. He worked on more than a hundred productions during a career that lasted between 1928 and 1974. Ve ...

. Producer Hugh Stewart called the film "quite stylish" but was unhappy with the casting:

The central character was a man who was going blind, and resentful of this fact – prickly and awkward, but nevertheless one should see the charm. And I wanted
David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was an English actor, soldier, raconteur, memoirist and novelist. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in Classic Hollywood films. His accolades include an Academ ...
to play this. And Richard Hamer who was in charge of the theatres at that time, 1946, said, "Niven? He's finished!" ... And I had David Farrar. Well David Farrar was a very capable sort of actor, but totally wrong for this particular part, the film didn't do particularly well.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "''Night Without Stars'' seems uncertain of its purpose: the first half, handled at a very slow pace, is a fairly simple love story with overtones of mystery; the second provides a solution to a rather tame problem. As the love story is unconvincing and the mystery slight, the film's fundamental defect is shortage of material. But even with this plot, and with dialogue of the most stilted kind, director and players might have done more than they have, ''Night Without Stars'' is lacking in form or style (a symptom of this is the strange use of loud background music played indiscriminately over the most trivial happenings on the screen) and is tediously acted by players who give the utmost weight to the clichés of the dialogue." ''The

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

Guide to Films'' gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "David Farrar is virtually blind and retires to the Riviera where he falls in love with Nadia Gray. Then he tangles with murderers, blackmailers and forgers when he discovers she is the widow of a resistance fighter. He's pushed off a cliff which forces him to get his sight restored and – very smart this – return to the Riviera still claiming to be blind so that he can trap the dirty rotters."

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...

called the film an "enervated romantic melodrama." In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Humourless, rather incredible mystery-drama."

Releases

The film was released theatrically in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on 4 April 1951, in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

on 19 October 1951, in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 3 December 1951, in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

on 1 June 1952, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on 5 July 1953 and in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

on 16 November 1953. It was released in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

as ''Nacht ohne Sterne'', in

as ''Natten uden stjerner'', in Finland as ''Tähdetön yö'', in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

as ''Nyhta horis asteria'', in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

as ''Notte senza stelle'', in Portugal as ''Quando a Luz Voltou'', in Sweden as ''Natt utan stjärnor'', and in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

as ''Nacht ohne Sterne''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Night Without Stars 1951 films 1950s crime thriller films 1951 drama films 1950s mystery films 1950s romance films British black-and-white films British crime thriller films British drama films British mystery films Cold War films Film noir Films directed by Anthony Pelissier Films based on British novels Films based on mystery novels Films based on romance novels Films set in Nice Films set in London Films set in 1947 Films scored by William Alwyn Films shot at Pinewood Studios 1950s English-language films 1950s British films English-language crime thriller films English-language romance films English-language mystery films