Night in New Orleans (1942)

Name: Night in New Orleans
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Released: 1942-07-01
Duration: 75 min
Rating: 4.2
Cast: Preston Foster, Patricia Morison, Albert Dekker, Charles Butterworth, Dooley Wilson

Night in New Orleans (1942), directed by William Clemens, starring Preston Foster and Patricia Morison.

07/01/1942 BR Crime, Drama and Mystery 1h 15m

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Synopsis

A policeman's family helps to exonerate him of murder charges in the death of a man he had under interrogation.

Leo ToverCinematography
Merritt B. GerstadCinematography
William ClemensDirector
Ellsworth HoaglandEditing

About the film

Night in New Orleans is a 1942 American crime film directed by William Clemens and loosely adapted by Jonathan Latimer from the 1940 novel Sing a Song of Homicide by James R. Langham. The film stars Preston Foster, Patricia Morison, Albert Dekker, Charles Butterworth, Dooley Wilson and Paul Hurst. The film was released on July 1, 1942, by Paramount Pictures.

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Plot

Steve Abbott and Bill Richards are both lieutenants in the New Orleans police department, colleagues and rivals alike. Steve, seeking love letters his wife Ethel once wrote to a Phillip Wallace, finds the man's dead body and immediately becomes Bill's prime suspect. Both report to Dan Odell, their chief.

Ethel, an amateur detective, investigates on her own while her husband's under suspicion. The trail leads to the Mississippi Inn on the riverfront, where house man Shadrach Jones proves helpful to her. Steve's suspicions turn toward the dead man's brothers, George and Edward, particularly to the former, who runs the casino, helped by girlfriend Janet Price. His boss, Odell, meanwhile, sternly advises Ethel to stay away from the case.

After the slain body of George is discovered, a costumed Edward tries to escape during the Mardi Gras parade as the detectives deduce him to be the killer of his brothers. Steve and Bill join forces for his capture, with an assist from Ethel.

Cast

Preston Foster as Police Lt. Steve Abbott

Patricia Morison as Ethel Abbott

Albert Dekker as Police Lieutenant William Richards

Charles Butterworth as Edward Wallace

Dooley Wilson as Shadrach Jones

Paul Hurst as Sergeant Casper Riordan

Jean Phillips as Janet Price

Cecil Kellaway as Dan Odell

William Wright as George Wallace

Noble Johnson as Carney

Joe Pope as Carlson

Yola d'Avril as Mme. Lamballe

Emory Parnell as Jensen

Reception

T.S. of The New York Times said, "After changing its name three times, Night in New Orleans descended upon the Rialto yesterday. An appropriate title it is, too, because the picture is about as lucid as a blackout. As a story of murder and municipal skulduggery in Huey Long's one-time parish, it is a thriller so haphazardly contrived, so studded with loose clues and endless coincidence, that even the author seems to have been confused by his meandering fable. Around Preston Foster and Patricia Morison, as a police lieutenant and harebrained spouse who bear a wee resemblance to Mr. and Mrs. North, the producers have rigged an unsteady story of sweet-faced old crooks, blond honky-tonk floozies, thick-headed and toughspoken cops, and the inevitable colored servant who makes sounds of appropriate comic alarm when the lights go out or a body suddenly splashes off a fogbound wharf."

References

External links

Night in New Orleans at IMDb

Text from Night in New Orleans on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_in_New_Orleans

Trivia

It premiered on July 1, 1942, a Wednesday.
It runs 1h15 — short for a feature film.
This film's quiz has 12 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.