A Cry in the Night (1956) User Reviews (24)

Intriguing themes, solid performances by noir stalwarts Burr, Donleavy and O'Brien, save 50s police procedural

[bmacv · 7/10 · 21 February 2003]

When Raymond Burr's face (grotesquely lighted by John F. Seitz) looms out of the shrubbery at Lovers' Loop, he adds A Cry in the Night to his long string of films in which he cemented his reputation as the noir cycle's most indispensable and unforgettable creep. He's prowling the petting grounds looking for a girl, and doesn't care how he gets her. Assaulting the male half (Richard Anderson) of a necking couple, he kidnaps the other (Natalie Wood), spiriting her off to a den he's fixed up in an abandoned brickyard. This time, though, there's a catch to Burr's villainy: He's a dim-witted hulk, a childish monster akin to Lennie in Of Mice And Men.

The police mistake the dazed Anderson for a drunk and lock him up. Only when a doctor suspects concussion does his story emerge, leading captain Brian Donleavy to mobilize a dragnet for Wood and her abductor. As it happens, Wood's father (Edmond O'Brien) is one of their own, a hot-headed, rigid cop out for blood - he throws a punch at the already reeling Anderson. Meanwhile Burr plies Wood with apricot pie and sequined gowns, as she desperately tries to flee. A break in the case comes when Burr's mother calls in to report her 32-year-old son missing....

Along with Burr, A Cry in the Night unites stalwarts of the cycle Donleavy and O'Brien; even the familiar voice in the opening narration belongs to Alan Ladd, who appeared in this director Frank Tuttle's This Gun For Hire 14 years earlier. The movie stays a pretty standard police procedural, albeit with a few intriguing touches. It offers as subtexts some period glimpses into dysfunctional parenting. His spinster sister, another victim of his vigilance against beaux come a-couring, accuses the overprotective O'Brien of driving Wood to Lovers' Loop and hence to peril.

Even less wholesome is Carol Veazie as Burr's doting, sweet-toothed mother. Managing simultaneously to suggest Dame Judith Anderson, Jean Stapleton and Doris Roberts, she shuffles around drinking coffee in her horse-blanket bathrobe, whining about that missing slice of apricot pie. Nineteen-fifty-six, some may recall, was the high-water mark of a national panic about `Momism,' a threat deemed scarcely less perilous to the republic than the international Communist conspiracy; Veazie endures as one of its most formidable operatives (her successors would include the unseen Mrs. Bates in Psycho, Angela Lansbury's Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate, and Marjorie Bennet's Dehlia Flagg in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?).

Early in the movie, before the tight walls of his world come tumbling down, O'Brien pours himself a beer and waits for the nightly movie on TV. When it starts, he sighs, `Another one of those cop pictures,' and switches it off. There he was, in the Indian Summer of the noir cycle, and couldn't care less. Couldn't he have forseen that, almost 50 years later, there would be an avid audience for those cop pictures - even the ones starring him?

Victim and perpetrator with parent issues

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 20 July 2012]

Alan Ladd's Jaguar Productions made this film for Warner Brothers and Ladd made sure a lot of friends got work here. A quick glance of the credits will show that almost the whole cast worked with Ladd at some point in their careers. And in a prominent role as the boyfriend of Natalie Wood is Richard Anderson who was at one time Ladd's stepson-in-law being married to Sue Carol Ladd's daughter by a former marriage. Alan Ladd always liked having familiar faces and friends working with or for him.

A Cry In The Night is about a cop's daughter being kidnapped by a deranged peeping Tom in a lover's lane. Natalie Wood is the daughter and Raymond Burr is the kidnapper and he slugs Richard Anderson and steals his car as well as Natalie in his getaway.

The curious thing about A Cry In The Night is that both victim and perpetrator have serious parent issues. Wood is the daughter of an overprotective father who happens to be a police captain played by Edmond O'Brien. Burr's bad luck to kidnap a cop's daughter because the whole police force of the town is after him now, working 24/7. She's afraid to bring Anderson home to meet the folks because no one is good enough for daddy's little girl.

But that's nothing compared to what Burr is dealing with with Mumzie Dearest played by Carol Veazie. An overprotective mother has left Burr with social problems, an inability to relate to the opposite sex. At times Burr exudes menace and at times and sometimes the same time Burr is so childlike he's pitiable. No doubt Burr's character was inspired by Lennie from Of Mice And Men. In fact I'm surprised Raymond Burr never considered doing a remake of that John Steinbeck classic. He would have been wonderful in the part. When he's on screen Burr steals the film and when he's off you're waiting to see him return.

At the time the film was being made Raymond Burr and Natalie Wood were on some studio arranged dates. Very arranged because after his death we learned that Raymond Burr was a closeted gay man. Natalie Wood found that out earlier than most of us, but in a recent biography she said that she enjoyed Burr's company.

Brian Donlevy has the role of the no nonsense police captain overseeing the manhunt. A Cry In The Night holds up well after over 50 years and could use a remake today. If it was remade, who would you cast?

I'm the one running the night shift! Your only here on a rain check!

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 16 June 2010]

(Some Spoilers) In between the movie "Godzilla" and the popular TV "Perry Mason" series Raymond Burr took the time out to go against type and play the part of the homely and love starved 32 year old momma's boy Harold Loftus in the 1956 crime thriller "A Cry in the Night".

Harold on his way to momma's Mrs. Mable Loftus', Carol Veazie, place drives up with his battered 1941 jalopy to Lover's Loop to not only eat his lunch but check out the young and hot to trot couples making out there. It's when teenage Liz Taggrt, Natalie Wood, and her boyfriend car dealer Owen Clark, Richard Anderson startle, in being discovered hiding in the bushes, Harold spying on them that he completely loses it! Knocking out Owen with his lunch box Harlod takes Liz, after also putting her to sleep, to his hideout in an abandonment brickyard on the outskirts of town.

Liz's concerned father L.A police detective Dan Taggert, Edmond O'Brian, takes out his frustrations on Liz's busted up boyfriend Owen for taking her out to that God forsaken place Lover's Loop where anything goes and usually does. Meanwhile back at his hideout Harold tries to make a play for the terrified teenager by offering her a piece off apricot pie. The very piece of pie he brought for his mom in order to keep her, by constantly breaking his chops, off his back.

With an all points manhunt out from the missing Liz and her unknown at the time kidnapper, Harold Loftus, Dan Taggert's boss Capt. Ed Bates, Brian Donlevy, gets a tip from non other then Harold's mom herself to who Liz' kidnapper is! Mrs. Loftus tells the captain that her son who's late from work with her apricot pie must be in some kind of trouble. It doesn't take long for Capt. Bates to figure out that Harold is the one who kidnapped Liz with his photo, looking like he's been lobotomized, positively identified by Liz's boyfriend Owen as the one who clobbered him!

One of Raymond Burr's best performance in him playing a cross between the mentally challenged Lenny in " Of Mice & Men" and the love starved and homely Marty of the Academy Award winning 1955 film of the same name. In his rat and roach infested hideout Harold tries to get Liz to understand his situation in him being an outcast from society with a overbearing mother who turned his life into a living hell. Even when Harold didn't show up from work his mom seemed to be far more interested in her apricot pie, that Harold was to bring her, then her son's own safety!

***SPOILER*** Tracked down at the brickyard Harold who was starting to get Liz to see things his way makes a desperate run from the police ending up bing cornered, after shooting and wounding a perusing policeman, by Liz's outraged dad Det. Dan Taggert! Hitting the by now helpless Harold with a series of lefts and rights, that have no effect at all on the bear like Harold, Dan soon realizes, by Harold crying out Mommy! Mommy!, that the guy has serious mantel and emotional problems! It's then the men with the white suites together with the LAPD take Harold away more for mental observation then for being put behind bars as a captured criminal! With Harold now in custody and Liz freed her dad Det. Dan Taggert invites her boyfriend and future husband Owen, whom he had a very strong disked for, to drive back home with them.

Okay Suspenser

[dougdoepke · 17 July 2011]

Seeing Raymond Burr as a quirky psychotic takes some getting used to after years as ultra- respectable Perry Mason. Still, he does well in the role, his bulky frame and sad eyes perfect for an overgrown mama's boy. Since Harold (Burr) can't have a normal romantic relationship, he hides in a lover's lane to watch others. Except one night, he panics and kidnaps young Elizabeth (Wood). Now the cops (Donlevy and O'Brien) need to find them before he panics some more.

Actually, the film is about that favorite teen topic of the mid-1950's—bad parenting, e.g. Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Note how loony Harold's problems are blamed on an overbearing mom (Veazie). At the same time, Elizabeth's ducking around lover's lanes is blamed on an over-protective dad (O'Brien), while spinster sister Madge (Lawrence) stands as an older version of what Liz will become thanks to Dad. Both parents' fears appear based on keeping offspring away from the opposite sex, another hot topic of the time. Note too how the script makes clear from the beginning how Liz and her beau Owen (Anderson) are headed for marriage, which makes their petting acceptable to the mores of the time.

The movie itself is an okay suspenser, more like a TV play than a feature film. Still, it's a first- rate cast, including those two old pro's Donlevy and O'Brien, while director Tuttle keeps things moving. Had the movie been made a few years earlier, I suspect its noirish overtones would have replaced teen angst with full-fledged noir.

great performance by Raymond Burr

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 11 September 2018]

A brilliant performance by Raymond Burr as a mentally-challenged man who feels stifled by his mother makes "A Cry in the Night" a good watch. The film also stars Brian Donlevy and Edmund O'Brien.

Natalie Wood plays Elizabeth, the teenaged daughter of police Captain Taggart (O'Brien) involved with Owen (Anderson) - the two of them are together in a lovers' lane when Owen sees someone watching them. He gives chase and gets knocked out for his trouble. The voyeur, Harold Loftus (Burr) kidnaps Elizabeth.

Anyone who's watched the news or the ID channel knows that as kidnappings go, this was pretty benign. We also know a little bit more about how to handle a kidnapper - Elizabeth finally catches on and tries to befriend him. Meanwhile, her hot-tempered father is frantically looking for her and comes up against Harold's overprotective mother (Carol Veazie).

Burr is just the saddest character in this, it's heartbreaking. Natalie is very pretty and, as we have seen in other films, good at histrionics.

Since it was made in 1956, the film has a few questionable or politically incorrect moments, like when a fellow lovers' lane person hears Elizabeth screams and says, "Slap her again. They like it." And there's the subplot of Taggart's sister still unmarried because her brother broke them up - apparently she didn't care how lousy he was since he was breathing. And Elizabeth's mother tells her husband "not to scare away" the one Elizabeth has on the hook.

Schools today sometimes ban these politically incorrect films - ones that are much more blatant than this. I think it's a great idea for new generations to see them and understand how women were thought of and what was important to them - husbands.

See if for Burr's striking performance.

A Rare 'Family Noir'

[jdsuggs · 6/10 · 12 November 2016]

"A Cry in the Night" starts fast: an idealized fifties couple parked in a convertible at the local Inspiration Point, a conked boyfriend, a kidnapped teenage girl (inevitably, the police captain's daughter). From there it fans out into a number of ideas, most of which wander into the dark and disappear, none of which are delivered with any particular inspiration.

We get the question of personal responsibility and "getting involved" when no one else on the scene responds to Natalie Wood's cries for help- from which the title derives- with anything more than mockery. We get the question of how a monster is made when we meet Raymond Burr's horrific and self-absorbed mother. We get the idea of Natalie Wood, victim, fighting to survive by forging a personal connection with her captor. We get the idea that her home life was another form of captivity. Nonetheless, all we really get is a police chase, and it's a pretty mundane one.

From Raymond Burr, we get an interpretation of an unstable but very human mentally-challenged person that builds in places on Lon Chaney Jr.'s performance in "Of Mice and Men", but is still just an unconvincing sketch. From nearly every one else, we get a lot of scenery-nibbling where chewing is called for: Edmond O'Brien, as the missing girl's father, takes his anger level to about a seven and is always willing to stop and quibble about minor distractions. Natalie Wood does a fine job, but knowing what she had been through personally by this time in her young life makes her character's situation more than a bit painful.

Perhaps fortunately, sexual tension is greatly minimized by the era of the film: it's there, eventually, but a much more overt rape threat might truly have demonized Burr's character and thus done a disservice to people who were already marginalized in society.

Unsurprisingly, the subplot in which the Taggart family problems are brought to light by the ordeal at hand is absurdly simplistic and about as subtle and deft as a sledgehammer.

It all moves briskly enough, and Burr's creepy lair is a plus, along with the exciting situation, but there's a much better film in this material. To see a fairly similar story in far more skilled hands (only a year earlier), check out William Wyler's "The Desperate Hours".

For once, I didn't like Edmund O'Brien's performance...

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 14 June 2010]

Edmund O'Brien is one of my favorite actors. He was able to play cynical and he was able to play tough. And, with his rather ugly mug, he was the perfect film noir hero or anti-hero. However, "A Cry in the Night" is the rarest of films--an Edmund O'Brien film that I did not particularly like--or at least his character. He was, in my opinion, the weakest link in the film.

The film begins with two young lovers (Richard Anderson and Natalie Wood) out at lover's lane when they notice some strange man lurking in the bushes--staring at them. Anderson goes to see who this guy is and sees a much larger and very crazy Raymond Burr--who proceeds to beak the stuffing out of Anderson. And, following this attack, Burr e kidnaps Wood and drags her away to his secret lair. His motivation and character, though not realistic, is pretty cool--and fun to watch unfold throughout the film.

Naturally, the police eventually get involved--especially since Wood turns out to be the daughter of tough cop O'Brien. But, as he's not on duty and this crime strikes close to home, Brian Donlevy plays the detective who is in charge of the case--and I liked his character. But O'Brien--what a rather one-dimensional and annoying guy. He is, at times, almost cartoon-like--with his snarling and growling...and not acting the least bit like a professional. He is, to put it bluntly, pretty annoying.

Overall, the film has some interesting moments and is worth seeing--just don't expect a particularly inspired movie. For fans of noir or O'Brien, it's worth seeing---for all others, it's just a time-passer.

This 50's time capsule is a prelude to "Psycho"

[benoit-3 · 7/10 · 14 June 2010]

This little-known sordid shocker played as part of a Natalie Wood homage on TCM. The action is set in Los Angeles, "although it could be any city, your city", intones the voice-over. Yeah, right. Natalie, 18, is abducted from lovers' lane by a voyeur-psycho (Raymond Burr) who slugs her beau (Richard Anderson) and absconds with his car. Her father (Edmond O'Brien) is a police captain who happens to be a sexist, macho, insensitive, over-protective, overbearing, filthy, repulsive S.O.B. and probably a Republican to boot. He is neglectful to his wife and has shouted down his sister into the life of a sterile old maid - a plan he seems to be enacting again with his daughter. He would probably also be a homophobe if he had any notion that such a thing as homosexuals even existed.

The details of police procedure are laughable. The slugged-out beau gets first mistaken for a drunk and put in the drunk tank. When a doctor intervenes and diagnoses a concussion, his story checks out but he still has to contend with the captain's brutality, fatherly possessiveness and attempts at psychological castration.

Meanwhile, through another coincidence, the police stumbles on the abductor's mother - an even more unhealthy version, although living, than "Psychos"'s dead and embalmed mama, which leads to a break in the case. We are asked to believe that those cops - who don't have the slightest element of psychology or know how to raise their own children - immediately associate a missing 32-year-old male living with his possessive mother with a potential sexual psycho who is probably the abductor. They turn out to be right.

Given what Natalie has to put up with at home, one has to wonder if she wouldn't be better off with her abductor for understanding and comfort. She limps through half the movie in a torn-up skirt, thus fulfilling the obligatory prurient cheesecake element for a film of that genre, budget and period.

The climax takes place in a brickworks factory, the dirt and slime being a fitting visual complement to what goes on in the male characters' minds.

David Buttolph's incidental music tries hard to make this sound like "Rebel Without A Cause" but is too generic to make a mark.

The film as a whole is a priceless - if laughable - time capsule of attitudes towards crime, sex, cops, victims, perpetrators and anything and anyone that is slightly out of the ordinary. It's enough to turn any "Momma's boy" into a "pinko commie" or a "psycho"...

Interesting 1950s psycho/melodrama artifact

[fmlester · 4/10 · 15 June 2010]

Edmond O'Brien gets to chew the scenery as a desperate police captain on the hunt for a blubbering, wallowing, cretinous pervert/Peeping Tom/kidnapper played by Raymond Burr, in one of his last roles before starting work on "Perry Mason." The kidnapper played by Burr has snatched O'Brien's daughter, played by Natalie Wood, from a tryst on Lover's Lane with a car salesman played by Richard Anderson, who was later to play Oscar Goldman in "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman." You can see the ending a million miles away, but the point isn't the plot as much as the B-movie feel and the often unintentionally hilarious line readings, characters, and themes. The film is a mediocre example of a kind of morality play that frequented American film-making in the 1950s, with a stern father with an explosive temper -- O'Brien -- ruling with an iron fist over a household that on the surface seems perfect but which of course has shadows lurking within, complete with a simpering wife and a dark (but not that dark) secret that gets revealed at the end, and with ham-handed references to sub-Freudian psychological motivations for the kidnapper's brutish behavior. Natalie Woods looks and acts every bit the part of a quivering, naive 18-year-old fifties débutante, in a role that would have had Elizabeth Taylor finding a way to scratch the kidnapper's eyes out. O'Brien is the prototypical cop who can't leave his work at home and spends most of the movie haranguing his hapless night supervisor and browbeating his daughter's boyfriend. Anderson doesn't really look the part of a young boyfriend, but then again, Natalie Wood was dating Raymond Burr behind the scenes while the film was being shot. The ending is abrupt and pat.

An 18yo Natalie Wood and ... um not much else.

[AaronIgay · 6/10 · 21 October 2013]

OK, first things first. This isn't a good film, no insights on the meaning of life here, not even a good proper noir ending. But with Raymond Burr playing a psychopathic "Lenny-type" villain who kidnaps a fetching young Natalie Wood, who could possibly not recommend this film? Filmed a year after her role in "Rebel Without a Cause" the alluring 18yo Wood is so at the top of her game that she reportedly coaxed the homosexual Burr into her bed during filming of this crime drama. Wood, whose drowning off Catalina Island back in 1981 was shrouded in such suspicion that the LA Coroner's Office was still investigating the case in 2013! Shame they don't make proper Noirs anymore, as the story of her final wild weekend would probably make a pretty good one. If Natalie isn't your cup of tea, feel free to pass on this film.

Would-be noir, well cast but otherwise insubstantial...

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 16 April 2009]

Policeman's daughter, out on Lovers' Loop late one night with her secret boyfriend, is kidnapped by a somewhat simple-minded behemoth with a mommy-complex. Curiously old-fashioned and corny bit of police business masquerading as a gritty noir (and advertised as a juvenile delinquent flick: "18...A nice girl...How did she fall so far?"). As the lonely, tormented abductor, Raymond Burr actually manages a thoughtful performance, however this case is wrapped up so quickly (with the movie clocking in at a scant 75 minutes) that neither Burr nor victim Natalie Wood has a chance at carving out a three-dimensional character. Wood, who faints from a slap across the face, is made to be the stereotypical weak female, while over-protective father Edmond O'Brien and police captain Brian Donlevy overact mercilessly. Poor screenplay, by David Dortort--adapting a book by Whit Masterson, the uncredited "All Through the Night"--doesn't seem to know much about police procedures or personalities, and the sequences set at the station are hopelessly mediocre (what with an eyeball-rolling desk sergeant and a hilariously overeager police psychiatrist). Though distributed by Warner Bros., this doesn't have the solid production values usually associated with the studio; it feels cheap and under-populated, like an early episode of "Dragnet", with only Burr's forceful work and a decent climax putting it above typical television fare. ** from ****

A Cry in the Night (1956)

[trimbolicelia · 9/10 · 19 May 2019]

I always liked this little film. A dating couple, to escape the girl's overbearing detective father, go the local lovers lane and run afoul of an emotionally retarded (though mentally normal), disturbed loner. It seems his mother (who needs an army of psychiatrists herself) has so consumed his life he has virtually no social interaction with anybody. Anyway the loner, in fear, slugs the boyfriend and abducts the girl. Thus starts a frantic all-night search by the police, including the girl's father (who bullies everyone) and the boyfriend. The family dynamics are the most interesting point. Dad keeps a loving but tight lid on the family. The wife walks on eggs when she imparts the daughter's activities. Dad's sister is a emptied spinster whose one chance at a life of her own was derailed by her brother when he ran off her young man. When she lets him have it that he's doing the same thing to his daughter the look on his face is priceless. Apparently he 's always been so sure he's right in all he does that it has never occurred to him that he's strangling his family. Good performances all around for a minor little film with some near-A list performers. The Warner Archive Collection DVD-R has no extras but is excellent quality. It would have been better if it was a regular DVD. Recommended.

"I don't stop. Not me. Not when it's my family."

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 31 August 2014]

Policeman (Edmond O'Brien) hunts down the hulking brute (Raymond Burr) who kidnapped his teenage daughter (Natalie Wood). Had potential to be a sleazy thriller but doesn't live up to it. As for the acting, the special of the day is ham. Raymond Burr channeling Lenny from "Of Mice and Men" will elicit laughter from most viewers. Carol Veazie as his trashy mom is fun to watch. Overweight Edmond O'Brien's turn as the hot-headed thuggish overprotective father is impossible to stop watching. Seems like every scene he has he's grabbing someone and yelling at them. It's not good acting but the movie is much more intriguing when he's on screen. Brian Donlevy spends most of the movie telling his pal O'Brien to go home. For her part, Natalie Wood is lovely to look at and handles herself fine in a weak role. Herb Vigran is good as the comic relief desk sergeant. Somewhat interesting for its glimpse at 1950s' attitudes towards sex, parenting, and mental illness. Ultimately can't be taken seriously enough to work as a thriller and it's not quite over-the-top enough to work as camp. Watchable but nothing special.

"The Teen-Age Date in Lovers' Lane They'll Never Let Her Forget!"

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 18 June 2010]

Just turned eighteen-years-old, attractive Natalie Wood (Elizabeth "Liz" Taggart) parks on "Lovers' Loop" to neck with older fiancé Richard Anderson (as Owen Clark). Hidden in the bushes, sexually repressed Raymond Burr (as Harold "Baby" Loftus) watches the action for awhile; then, he knocks Mr. Anderson out cold, and carries Ms. Wood off to a brickyard shack. Wood's father turns out to be policeman Edmond O'Brien (as Dan Taggart), who decides to hunt down Mr. Burr. Chief of police Brian Donlevy (as Ed Bates) helps. Burr's possessive mother Carol Veazie (as Mabel Loftus) provides clues to his mental state.

It's odd to see Wood and Burr in such a cheap, lurid picture - right up to the cut Burr notices on Wood's inner thigh. But, this was before he became "Perry Mason" and she was taken seriously as an actress. Wood is notably making acting gains herein; she is now obviously working on different appearances and mannerisms for her characterizations. Tabloid whisperers made much ado about a supposed off-screen "romance" between Burr and Wood; but, the real story was Wood's ability to attract many men from 1955-1961 (both on and off the screen) who weren't exclusively interested in the opposite sex. A tribute to Natalie's universal appeal.

**** A Cry in the Night (8/17/56) Frank Tuttle ~ Natalie Wood, Raymond Burr, Richard Anderson, Edmond O'Brien

Fissioning the Nuclear Family

[boblipton · 4/10 · 15 June 2010]

Frank Tuttle returns to the world where borderline psychotics pursue their crumbling self-interests that he investigated in 1942's THIS GUN FOR HIRE, but this one doesn't work. In the midst of hysterical creeps -- including Edmond O'Brien in an astonishingly obnoxious, one-note performance -- the only calm voices are Brian Donleavy as the shift commander and Natalie Wood as a kidnapped teenager trying to talk her way out from her kidnapper, a brain-damaged Raymond Burr during his creepy murderer phase.

Unfortunately, the hysteria simply detracts from the terror of the situation: instead of letting the audience provide their own emotions, we have hysterical cops, and that lessens the effect. Compare that with the calm manner in which Robert Preston chases the seemingly calm Alan Ladd in the 1942 noir -- or its best expression in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, in which everyone is just doing his job. Even the comedy lull, in which Tina Carver is booked and revealed to have married multiple servicemen for their pay, doesn't work when you notice that one of the goggling drunks observing the activity is Fred Kelsey, perpetual dumb cop, unable to prevent this breakdown in society.

Veteran DP John Seitz does provide some interesting visuals -- indeed, the whole production looks to be a gloss on THIS GUN FOR HIRE, on which he was also the director of photography. But this is 1956 and the noir cycle is near the end. The crazies who commit crimes at this point don't do them for Nazi Germany or profit, any more, but because they are crazy. The genre is on its last legs and already changing into something different with pieces like Clouzot's DIABOLIQUE and Hitchcock's VERTIGO. In three years Hitchcok would release PSYCHO and that would be it for noir. We'd be entering the Slasher era.

Of Mice And Women

[GManfred · 15 June 2010]

'Cry In The Night' was on TCM last night and is more of a social drama than a film noir. Even worse, it's about a hostage situation and seems much longer than its 75 minute running time as there is very little action.

The cast was overripe but good, with Brian Donlevy and Edmond O'Brien as the cops on the case and Natalie Wood as the hostage. Raymond Burr plays the kidnapper very much like Lenny from "Of Mice and Men". Burr is really the main character and departs from his usual menacing heavy role here and plays an emotionally arrested momma's boy. Donlevy and O"Brien are reliable old warhorses and manage to pull off their parts despite advancing age. Much time was spent in arguments and squabbles among the various cast members and I felt less time should have been spent on scenes illustrating what a disturbed guy Burr's character was, as we knew that.

Long story short, I can't really recommend 'Cry In The Night'; I didn't feel it was interesting enough for any more than a rating of a five.

"What Are You, Cops Or Plumbers?"

[davidcarniglia · 8/10 · 12 October 2018]

Surprisingly good psychological crime drama. On the surface a relatively simple story of a teenager's (Natalie Wood's Liz) kidnapping by a deranged man (Raymond Burr), A Cry In The Night becomes a complex story of two dysfunctional families.

Burr, as the arrested-development Harold, and Edmund O'Brien as Wood's father, give strong performances as disparate, but equally intense characters. O'Brien's role as Capt. Taggart as a bullying hothead is frightening. He acts as though Liz's boyfriend Owen (Robert Anderson) is as much to blame for her abduction as is the actual perpetrator. In a sense, it doesn't matter who Owen is or what he's like, Taggart wouldn't trust any guy with Liz. His suspicious nature is reinforced by his sister's admission that he ran off her last boyfriend.

Harold's mom (Carol Veazie) is also a suffocating presence. Harold has never been allowed to grow up. At least Liz manages to rebel enough to develop a romantic relationship. It's interesting that, although she's the one abducted, Liz keeps her cool while Harold never relaxes, alternating between panic and menace. She fights back by pleading, confronting, giving advice, showing sympathy, trying to wriggle away... showing much more capability than a stereotypical '50s girl-in-distress.

As many others have noted, Harold's 'lair' is suitably creepy. There's an incongruous assortment of girlie pictures with what looks like paperdolls, not to mention a dead dog. One thing that seemed too coincidental was the fact that police found the brickyard without any clues. Maybe Harold worked there, or his mom knew about it.

The chase scene at the end is loaded with noir traits. Abandoned industrial buildings make a nighttime maze of shadows, walls, ladders, stairs, and lofts for Harold's eventual capture.

A Cry In The Night features two great actors at their best, and a multi-layered story told with sharp pacing and good dialogue. Burr's ability to show shifting moods with his eyes and facial gestures is haunting. This movie is worth watching for Burr's performance alone. 8/10

Don't go walking down lovers loop, with anyone else but me.

[hitchcockthelegend · 5/10 · 7 July 2014]

A Cry in the Night is directed by Frank Tuttle and adapted to screenplay by David Dortort from Whit Masterson's novel All through the Night. It stars Edmond O'Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood, Raymond Burr and Richard Anderson. Music is by David Buttolph and cinematography by John F. Seitz.

Not a great deal to sing about here, which is a shame because the potential for an electric thriller is right there on the page. Burr plays a peeping tom type who is dominated by his mother, during one of his "sessions" up at Lovers Loop he gets caught and during the altercation he knocks out Anderson's boyfriend and kidnaps Wood, who happens to be the daughter of O'Brien's policeman. Film then relies on police procedural for its narrative thrust, stopping occasionally to tease us with serious parental issues on both sides of the fence, all while Burr acts on the edge of sanity whilst holding Wood captive in a remote old shack.

Apricot Pie.

The subject matter is a hot potato, but nothing ever rings true on account of cheap production values and uninspiring direction. Seitz does the best he can to create sweaty atmosphere via his camera lenses, and Buttolph's score is at one with the melodramatics. Unfortunately the cast are poor, with O'Brien unusually wooden, Burr not convincing, Donlevy is going through the motions and Anderson is not only dull, he's a bit old for the teen lover character he is playing. Wood comes out with credit and her scenes with Burr are the best parts of he film, while Carol Veazie as the domineering mother is a hoot.

The back stories to the making of the film are far more interesting than the film itself! 5/10

Weak, despite Natalie Wood

[gbill-74877 · 4/10 · 19 January 2019]

Intrigued as I was by seeing Natalie Wood a year after 'Rebel Without a Cause,' I have to say, this film is pretty bad. So many aspects of it are awkward at best, and awful at worst. The script, with its wooden dialogue. The character motivations, including the logic and actions of the police. The acting, with a few brief exceptions from Wood and Raymond Burr. The direction, which wanders into silly behavior at the police desk, presumably to fill out its (mercifully short) 75 minute run time. Even the casting, which has 30 year old Richard Anderson dating 18 year old Wood. Edmond O'Brien tries to breathe energy and verve into this drama, but it's often misplaced. The film plays out in a predictable and yet ridiculous way.

One of the aspects I think it was going for was to try to put O'Brien's overbearing parenting next to the protective mothering of the disturbed person, which might have been an interesting idea had it been in better hands and properly developed. As it is, this film is just a pale, lightweight reflection of better dramas and noirs, without any real tension or believability. Oh, and there's some misogyny tossed in for good measure. Upon hearing Wood cry for help up on Lover's Lane, a young man nearby shouts "Sock her again! They love it!" And then later when O'Brien is informed his daughter has been kidnapped, his wife is left inside, because, well, you know how women can be right? I give the film two stars out of five for Natalie Wood, who for me is the only reason to watch it.

Moralistic badly-acted corn

[duncanjbrooks · 5/10 · 30 March 2021]

Brian Donlevy and Natalie Wood aren't too bad. But otherwise... Horribly corny acting (especially Edmund O'Brien - dreadful) on the basis of a horribly corny and 50s-moralistic script. Natalie Wood pointlessly but oh-so-conveniently gets her skirt ripped so that she can spend half the film flashing thigh only just short of her underwear. Raymond Burr's overdone infantilized kidnapper/killer, the most tragic and interesting character in the film, gets taken away, clearly to the electric chair, but obviously we're not supposed to be interested in or care about that - because we're made to focus on and take joy in the destructively insensitive and overprotective cop/father finally seeing the light and making up with the hapless boyfriend. Pathetic!

But, despite all that, still quite watchable :-)

Edmond O'Brien as a policeman having his daughter grabbed by a debile brute

[clanciai · 8/10 · 26 August 2018]

I was not particularly fond of this picture. It's a rather sordid naturalistic drama about loneliness, a young man living with and hating his possessive mother seeking desperately a way out by going rounds at midnight as a peeping Tom, and sees Natalie Wood (18 years old) being kissed by a well-to-do young man in a very smashing car. He slugs the boy and steals the car with Natalie Wood in it, whom he brings to a place where no one ever can find them. The problem is that Natalie Wood's farther is Edmond O'Brien and a choleric policeman.

None of the characters are sympathetic, there is very little humanity in this, and Raymond Burr as his mother's victim is almost painful to look at - this was his last film before he became Perry Mason. It's a difficult part, he does what he can out of it with more or less embarrassing results, while Edmond O'Brien vents his choler on both his family and the police force. Of course it can only end one way.

It's almost a Theodore Dreiser kind of intrigue, with none of the characters being more than ordinary and with almost an enforced effort to make the thriller exciting, but Raymond Burr and Natalie Wood are very far from Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in Frank Tuttle's previous "THis Gun For Hire"..

Studio Bound Study of Mommy and Daddy Bad Guys

[LeonLouisRicci · 5/10 · 14 August 2012]

Cheap looking, studio bound psychological study that has sprigs of suspense and some intrigue, but overall is lame and barely bearable.

For the 1950's it is one of those "offbeat", "other" off the mainstream films dealing with social malfunction. Here we have mother issues and father issues that result in two very different pathologies.

Except for a couple of short creepy scenes the film relies heavily on uninteresting dialog and pat characterizations combined with corny confrontations and stagy setups. Worth a view for its parts but as a complete work it does not rise above the regimental regalia and lock-step conformity that it is trying to criticize.

***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 1 September 2014]

Who was that woman who portrayed Raymond Burr's mother in this 1956 film? For her, her son is age 32 going on 6.

The central theme of this film is the effects of being overly-protective of your children. Burr is wonderful as the disturbed man. He loses his usual assertiveness in films and talks like a lost, troubled soul. His speech often sounds child-like which is perfect for the part.

On the other hand, Natalie Wood is the daughter of a strict, authoritarian police captain and the part was just made for Edmond O'Brien. Tough talking and demanding, he blames her boyfriend for taking her to the lonely place which leads to her kidnapping by Burr.

Peeping Ray

[searchanddestroy-1 · 27 July 2023]

Raymond Burr literally steals the show, I would say, besides Nathalie Wood too, in this predictable but tense nearly last feature from director Frank Tuttle, and produced by his long time friend Alan Ladd's production company Jaguar. It is good, happily not too long for this kind of plot, well cast but that's all. Only the overall atmosphere of those late fifties, music score, view of Los Angeles from I guess Mulholland Drive are really worth. There is nothing more that I can say, it is agreeable and especially rare, hard to catch. A dreamed role for Raymond Burr that seemed to have been made especially for him.