ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT

Director: Vincent Sherman

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Peter Lorre, Jane Darwell

Year: 1941

Rating: N/A

A wonderful - and wonderfully rousing film set during World War II, All Through the Night is one of my favorite of all of Humphrey Bogart's film; certainly one of the most entertaining films he ever made. With exactly the right amounts of drama, humor, and intrigue, the film also benefits from an amazing supporting cast of some of best character actors working from that era (some of whom would grow into major stars in their own right) - Frank McHugh, William Demarest, Judith Anderson, Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, and Barton MacLane all shine in their own right, in this tale of a gang of "fifth columnists" (Nazis) accidentally discovered plotting in the heart of New York City.

Bogart - terrifically relaxed and so much fun to watch here - stars as Gloves Donahue, a big-shot in Manhattan's theater district whose actual occupation is a bit shady; he is affiliated with the horse racing industry, but also seems to be the kind of guy who has his hands in several pots (not all of them strictly on the up-and-up), always has money ... and is loved by his buddies and community not only because he gives back to them - but the guy also even has a loving mother (Jane Darwell) he dotes on. The cops constantly seem to be keeping an eye on Gloves (whose nickname comes from the fact he is always wearing gloves on his hands) - but it's not even clear if they know why. Gloves is a bit shady, in other words, but overall a good guy.

It's Mrs. Donahue (Gloves' mother), in fact, who draws Gloves into the case of a murdered bakery owner - Gloves' favorite maker of cheesecake in the entire city of New York. When Gloves finds the body of Mr. Miller in the basement of the bakery, soon after a mysterious woman with an accent (Kaaren Verne) comes asking for the baker - and scrams fast when she learns from gloves that the guy has been murdered. Gloves leaves everything to the police, but Mrs. Donahue has "a feeling" - and when she has a feeling, it won't go away; she follows the mystery woman to a nightclub the girl sings at ... then goes to Gloves and asks him to please follow up, by questioning why the girl wanted to talk with Mr. Miller in the first place.

Gloves agrees, and soon after entering the club finds out that something is, indeed, screwy. His probing leads to the girl being whisked out of the club against her will by a pair of bad guys - and another dead body that the police end up blaming Gloves for, after he accidentally leaves one of his telltale gloves behind near the corpse.

Now wanted for murder, Gloves has no choice but to follow the clues and clear his name - and in doing so, along with a couple of buddies, stumbles across the hiding place for a gang of Nazis plotting some very nasty local sabotage. The trouble is in getting the police to believe him ... while not getting himself arrested for murder ... while finding out what the girl's involvement is in the whole thing, as she seems to be the key to his troubles.

This is such a great film, pure propaganda with a capital "P" - but so much fun, so pro-American/anti-Nazi, you can't help but stay hooked until the end. There's a lighthearted, even sarcastic and funny edge to the film that, despite the serious subject matter, is why it works so well - thanks, again, to the terrific supporting cast of character actors, most of whom play Gloves' buddies that band together like a bunch of over-anxious Teamsters to rescue him in the end. Fun, exciting, exhilarating and suspenseful in all the right places, this is one of Bogie's best roles - and a film deserving of more attention, in relationship to Bogart, than it usually gets. **** - Reel Awesome