Review of The Night of the Following Day

Among the more obscure works in Brando's filmography is this moody, almost-surreal kidnapping drama. Brando plays a participant in the scheme to capture young heiress Franklin and hold her for ransom. Other kidnappers include tough Boone, weak mastermind Hahn and his sister, the depressed Moreno. These four take Franklin to a desolate beach house in France where she's kept in an upstairs room (part of her torment apparently being that she must sleep on the world's ugliest bedspread and under a window with the world's ugliest matching drapes!) With the sadistic Boone continuously threatening to do the girl harm and with Moreno feeling jealous towards her, Franklin tries to turn to Brando for some protection. Soon, the human failings of the captors begin to take their toll on the operation with Boone becoming greedy, Moreno sinking into drug-induced stupor and Brando accusing Hahn of failing to come up with a sure enough plan. All the while, local policeman Buhr keeps popping up at the most inopportune times until the whole enterprise begins to fray at the edges. Brando, who, according to the director, was practically impossible to deal with on this film, looks terrific in a blonde wig with a tan and a trim waistline. He is mostly unchallenged by the script, but does have one sizable improvisation scene. Boone is intimidating and delivers a solid performance. Moreno is almost the last person one would think of when casting a character called "Blonde", but she digs deep for an emotionally-charged portrayal with many dimensions. Director Cornfield considered her the finest actress he ever worked with and heaped praise on her work. She had had a 10 year affair with Brando close to a decade beforehand, which ended very badly, and she surely used this to color her performance. Franklin is given fairly little to do besides fret about her capture and scream occasionally. Her part may have been more meaningful had the original plot line gone through which included a love scene with Brando, but he nixed it, changing the focus of the story (much to Cornfield's dismay.) None of the characters, which are given labels instead of names, have much of a chance to become fully realized, but perhaps they aren't even meant to be when the twist ending is taken into account. It's notable that Hahn's character is called "Friendly" in the credits, but Brando refers to him as "Wally", perhaps in tribute to the man in Brando's life who meant more than any other, Wally Cox. Brando's character, credited as "Chauffeur" is called "Bud" on screen, which was Brando's real-life nickname. Character actor Lettieri (of "The Godfather" and "The Getaway") served as a producer on this film and has a small role as a hired pilot for the getaway. The film is unusual, at times practically wordless, and isn't completely satisfying, but it has an interesting style and features some interesting visuals and scenes. Unconventional would be a good word to describe it. Fans of Brando mustn't miss it if for no other reason than the fact that he looks so good at this stage. Keep an eye out, however, for the bomb-building scene in which Brando's graceful hands are replaced by a double with hairy, freckled, stubby, dirty, chubby, aged fingers!