Clash By Night
Mae Doyle is a good-time girl, but now times are bad. Weary of too much booze and too many men, she returns to her girlhood home, the fishing village of Monterey, California. There she finds security as the wife of a devoted and dull fisherman?and passion in the arms of his provocative best friend. Film noir master Fritz Lang (The Big Heat, Ministry of Fear) directs four towering talents - Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan and rising star Marilyn Monroe - in a stark tale of lives burnished by human emotion and shattered by human failings. Intense and powerfully realistic, Clash by Night (from a Clifford Odets play) is about many towns, many families. Serene on the surface. Roiling with desperation underneath.
Member Reviews
One of My Favourite Movies - ScrewballDame
After the end of an affair with a married man Mae Doyle moves back to the small fishing town she grew up in. There she marries a sweet, dependable guy and has a child, but she grows bored and restless with her life, so she begins an affair with Earl, her husband’s misogynistic friend.
This is a wonderfully moody film noir, starring Barbara Stanwyck at the peak of her acting abilities. She has great chemistry with Robert Ryan as they hurl heated insults at one another. It's also directed by Fritz Lang a film noir veteran. This happens to be my favourite role of Marilyn Monroe as well. It's early on in her career before she's had too much work done. She plays a fiesty cannery worker engaged to Stanwyck's brother. Well worth seeing for her performance as something other than the sweet, ditzy blonde. This film features a refreshing ending for any film noir fan whose had to sit through many the predictable ending where the main character has to pay for their sins.Promising film ruined by contrived ending - vadim
This is an interesting film that holds your attention for the most part (with some wonderful acting by the leads) but falls apart in the end in my opinion. I found the ending a tad anti-climactic and sudden; it was a unrealistic sappy ending. I don't believe Mae would go back to him. Almost nothing in her character as presented prepares us for her doing that. In fact, her comments of dissatisfaction with the marriage are so much stronger and more convincing than her previous hints of wanting some stability. I believe that the ending is a direct result of the hollywood studio tying up director Fritz Lang's hands, because Lang is a master for unsettling, dark endings. I would not reccomend zipping this melodrama!Another good film almost ruined by a Hollywood type ending. - TomD
There's a lot to like about this. Robert Ryan is magnificent as a nasty woman hater who can't seem to stay away from Barbara Stanwyck, She is equally good as someone who recognizes Ryan for exactly what he is but can't help herself from being drawn. Paul Douglas and Marilyn Monroe are also excellent. Apparently this was derived from a play, but I wonder if it was director Fritz Lang who was responsible for lifting the material above the clichés into which it could have easily descended. The ending seems a bit too forced. Things may have ended up that way but I can't help thinking it would have taken weeks, maybe months, to reach that point. A more ambiguous ending pointing at the final outcome would have been much better.
Member Reviews
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One of My Favourite Movies - ScrewballDame
After the end of an affair with a married man Mae Doyle moves back to the small fishing town she grew up in. There she marries a sweet, dependable guy and has a child, but she grows bored and restless with her life, so she begins an affair with Earl, her husband’s ...Promising film ruined by contrived ending - vadim
This is an interesting film that holds your attention for the most part (with some wonderful acting by the leads) but falls apart in the end in my opinion. I found the ending a tad anti-climactic and sudden; it was a unrealistic sappy ending. I don't believe ...Another good film almost ruined by a Hollywood type ending. - TomD
There's a lot to like about this. Robert Ryan is magnificent as a nasty woman hater who can't seem to stay away from Barbara Stanwyck, She is equally good as someone who recognizes Ryan for exactly what he is but can't help herself from being drawn. Paul Douglas ...