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All Through the Night
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by MGM (Video & DVD)
Sales Rank: 14538
Price: $19.98
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A slight but enjoyable comedy-thriller, <I>All Through the Night</I> offers Humphrey Bogart as Gloves Donahue, a Big Apple high-roller whose fondness for cheesecake ultimately pits him against Nazi saboteurs and fifth columnists. Bogart, having fun with a lighter variation on the gunsels that were his cinematic calling card, makes Gloves a natty, wise-cracking gambler and petty crook who can't be bothered to look beyond the sports page as the story opens. By the final reel, however, he's considerably better informed on current events, transformed into a newly minted, patriotic vigilante ready to "knock those heels on their Axis."<p> In line with Hollywood's own surging patriotism of the day, the script is cheerful propaganda that makes good use of Conrad Veidt as the fanatical chief saboteur (complete with dachsund!), Peter Lorre as a leering trigger man, and Judith Anderson as the spy ring's coldly elegant second-in-command. When their top secret plan to sabotage the newest U.S. battleship leads them to murder the kindly German who bakes Gloves' favorite cheesecake, Bogart and a wonderful cast of shady good guys (including William Demarest, Frank McHugh, Barton MacLane, Phil Silvers, and a very young but already flamboyant, double-talking Jackie Gleason) are drawn into the intrigue. Helping heighten Bogie's curiosity is a blonde German nightclub singer (Kaaren Verne) with her own dangerous secret.<p> It's worth noting that another 1942 Bogart vehicle from the same producer (Hal B. Wallis) shared several key supporting players, another patriotic (and arguably propagandist) subtext, and even a pale-haired European love interest. Instead of a Damon Runyon-esque New York, however, it was set overseas--in Casablanca. <I>--Sam Sutherland</I>
Viewer Reviews
Nazi fifth columnists, led by sinister, sadistic Peter Lorre as Pepi, are infiltrating a city, and big-time gambler Humphrey Bogart is there to weed them out. When a popular baker is found murdered, Bogart investigates. He's led to a warehouse and discovers a room filled with Nazi paraphernalia and a book that explains what happened to the baker (he also gets a lot of help from Kaaren Verne, who has been forced to play along with the Nazis). In a fiery climax, while a motorboat packed with explosives is being directed toward a battleship to blow it up, Bogart takes control, sees Lorre get killed, and then steers the boat away from the ship before diving overboard to safety. He gets a hero's welcome, of course, and Verne. Lorre is excellent as the evil Pepi, killing at will and at another point smashing the fingers of a guy after losing his temper. There are a couple too many chase scenes, so that the picture seems to go on too long - probably too long by 10 minutes. Seeing Nazi fifth columnists meet their doom, however, was just what 1942 audiences wanted. Incidentally, Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers make appearances in small roles. A good one, worth a watch.
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All Through the Night
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