I decided to watch this film out of curiosity, because the cast included Edward Arnold, Donna Reed, Reginald Denny, Steven Geray, and Mantan Moreland -- and it was difficult to imagine what sort of film could include that diverse cast. Of course there are murders and it is a crime drama, but was rewarded far beyond my expectations, for this is a real gem of a feature, operating on many levels, all of them great.
Edward Arnold is very convincing as a blind detective who practices jiu-jitsu, Donna Reed is given a surprisingly selfish and treacherous role to play, Mantan Moreland is his usual great comedic self, and there are villains galore -- but the two actors who most impressed me were the charming and sincere Ann Harding, and Friday the dog, about whom more later.
The directing is excellent, albeit set-bound, with a particularly inventive shoot-out in a pitch-black basement. The plot is tight, the script is fascinating, and the acting is excellent. The casting was unusual for the number of stage-trained British actors it featured, and they all had a ripping good time, giving the whole affair a bit of the fun of an Ealing comedy -- which will doubtless annoy both film noir purists and gritty-grim crime movie buffs, but charmed me no end.
Outstanding was Stanley Ridges as an over-educated butler who bursts into a rapturously dramatic line reading from "Samson Agonistes" by Milton, which apparently cracked up Edward Arnold to the point that he could not quite keep a straight face. Additionally, the beloved Reginald Denny gives us all a lesson in baritone elocution, but the screenwriter delights us with some not-so-subtle in-joke references to Denny's heroic WW I fighter plane record, his days as a Hollywood stunt pilot, and his essential work for the US military -- even as the film was in production! -- developing radio-operated target drone planes.
Now, on to Friday the dog. IMDb's biography does not tell us this, but according to his biography at the American Kennel Club's National Purebred Dog Day site, he was the son of Flash, a German Shepherd cinema dog who starred in "His Master's Voice" (1925), "The Flaming Signal" (1933), and "Call the Mesquiteers" (1938). Flash had the shorter ears and paler saddle of the "modern" German Shepherd, while Friday had the longer ears, a longer muzzle, and darker saddle seen in the original Rin Tin Tin.
Like all of the "Rinty" type dogs in the movies, Friday was trained in schutzhund or protection work, and could feign an attack on command. But he went far, far beyond that basic stunt. Throughout the film we see him leaping over shrubs, sailing over garden hurdles, opening doors with his mouth, fetching named objects, plunging out of windows and off of roofs to hard landings, and hair-raisingly scaling tall brick walls by leaping up, hooking his front feet on top and hoisting his body up with a scrabble of hind legs. He runs long distances unguided, escapes a cellar through clever direction, and walks in harness as a seeing eye dog to boot. He is an incredible agility stunt dog with a pleasingly emotive expression, perhaps the finest all-around dog actor i have seen next to Higgins, who was trained by Frank Inn and starred in the "Petticoat Junction" TV series (1964 - 1970), "Mooch Goes to Hollywood" (1971), and "Benji" (1974).
The resemblance between Friday and Higgins is more than a matter of acting style, by the way. In "Eyes in the Night," Friday performs a particularly difficult stunt, clambering up a wall, ascending a rising series of narrow ledges, turning to the right, and entering a window -- a stunt that is almost step for step the same as one later performed by Higgins in "Benji." It is pretty obvious to me that Friday was trained by Frank Inn during his days with Rudd and Frank Weatherwax, where he also helped train Pal, the star of "Lassie" and its sequels (1943 - 1954). The major difference between the two versions of the ledge-and-window stunt is that Friday ascends to the window, finds it closed, backs around and runs at it a second time, crashing through the glass and tearing a lace curtain inward behind him. When this spectacular stunt was reprised in "Benji," with the much smaller Higgins, the window was left slightly open, and Higgins wiggled inside, because it would have been unbelievable to have a tiny pooch break through the glass the way that Friday did. Although the duplication of this stunt, 32 years later, is all the proof i need that Friday was trained by Frank Inn, there is another similarity between the two dogs worth noting: both Friday and Higgins could sneeze on command, a rather unusual trick, and one of Inn's signature pieces of business.
I was so impressed with Friday that i am off to look for the sequel, "Hidden Eyes" (1945), starring Edward Arnold and Friday.
I rated this movie a solid 10 out of 10. Friday is so amazing that my husband and i re-ran his scenes several times, agape with awe over his power and balletic grace. What a wonderful dog!
Edward Arnold is very convincing as a blind detective who practices jiu-jitsu, Donna Reed is given a surprisingly selfish and treacherous role to play, Mantan Moreland is his usual great comedic self, and there are villains galore -- but the two actors who most impressed me were the charming and sincere Ann Harding, and Friday the dog, about whom more later.
The directing is excellent, albeit set-bound, with a particularly inventive shoot-out in a pitch-black basement. The plot is tight, the script is fascinating, and the acting is excellent. The casting was unusual for the number of stage-trained British actors it featured, and they all had a ripping good time, giving the whole affair a bit of the fun of an Ealing comedy -- which will doubtless annoy both film noir purists and gritty-grim crime movie buffs, but charmed me no end.
Outstanding was Stanley Ridges as an over-educated butler who bursts into a rapturously dramatic line reading from "Samson Agonistes" by Milton, which apparently cracked up Edward Arnold to the point that he could not quite keep a straight face. Additionally, the beloved Reginald Denny gives us all a lesson in baritone elocution, but the screenwriter delights us with some not-so-subtle in-joke references to Denny's heroic WW I fighter plane record, his days as a Hollywood stunt pilot, and his essential work for the US military -- even as the film was in production! -- developing radio-operated target drone planes.
Now, on to Friday the dog. IMDb's biography does not tell us this, but according to his biography at the American Kennel Club's National Purebred Dog Day site, he was the son of Flash, a German Shepherd cinema dog who starred in "His Master's Voice" (1925), "The Flaming Signal" (1933), and "Call the Mesquiteers" (1938). Flash had the shorter ears and paler saddle of the "modern" German Shepherd, while Friday had the longer ears, a longer muzzle, and darker saddle seen in the original Rin Tin Tin.
Like all of the "Rinty" type dogs in the movies, Friday was trained in schutzhund or protection work, and could feign an attack on command. But he went far, far beyond that basic stunt. Throughout the film we see him leaping over shrubs, sailing over garden hurdles, opening doors with his mouth, fetching named objects, plunging out of windows and off of roofs to hard landings, and hair-raisingly scaling tall brick walls by leaping up, hooking his front feet on top and hoisting his body up with a scrabble of hind legs. He runs long distances unguided, escapes a cellar through clever direction, and walks in harness as a seeing eye dog to boot. He is an incredible agility stunt dog with a pleasingly emotive expression, perhaps the finest all-around dog actor i have seen next to Higgins, who was trained by Frank Inn and starred in the "Petticoat Junction" TV series (1964 - 1970), "Mooch Goes to Hollywood" (1971), and "Benji" (1974).
The resemblance between Friday and Higgins is more than a matter of acting style, by the way. In "Eyes in the Night," Friday performs a particularly difficult stunt, clambering up a wall, ascending a rising series of narrow ledges, turning to the right, and entering a window -- a stunt that is almost step for step the same as one later performed by Higgins in "Benji." It is pretty obvious to me that Friday was trained by Frank Inn during his days with Rudd and Frank Weatherwax, where he also helped train Pal, the star of "Lassie" and its sequels (1943 - 1954). The major difference between the two versions of the ledge-and-window stunt is that Friday ascends to the window, finds it closed, backs around and runs at it a second time, crashing through the glass and tearing a lace curtain inward behind him. When this spectacular stunt was reprised in "Benji," with the much smaller Higgins, the window was left slightly open, and Higgins wiggled inside, because it would have been unbelievable to have a tiny pooch break through the glass the way that Friday did. Although the duplication of this stunt, 32 years later, is all the proof i need that Friday was trained by Frank Inn, there is another similarity between the two dogs worth noting: both Friday and Higgins could sneeze on command, a rather unusual trick, and one of Inn's signature pieces of business.
I was so impressed with Friday that i am off to look for the sequel, "Hidden Eyes" (1945), starring Edward Arnold and Friday.
I rated this movie a solid 10 out of 10. Friday is so amazing that my husband and i re-ran his scenes several times, agape with awe over his power and balletic grace. What a wonderful dog!