Nocturne (1946)
Directed by Edwin L. Marin

Film Review

Nocturne may not be the slickest or most original of film noir escapades (the plot similarities to Otto Preminger's far superior Laura are hard to overlook) but it is a moderately entertaining ramble over familiar territory, its needlessly convoluted crime narrative somehow finding a way to include some surpising comic interludes.  The film was directed by Edwin Marin, a competent but seldom inspired filmmaker, towards the end of his busy career, and produced by Joan Harrison, a long-time collaborator of Alfred Hitchcock.

George Raft does what he does best, playing the hardboiled cop who is ever ready to deliver a pithy putdown or a punch in the solar plexus, always looking like a man who has somehow wandered into a film studio (or acting career) by mistake.   Raft may not have been the greatest actor in the world, but here, in the role of the maverick cop who is clearly a forerunner of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, he appears strangely at home, having to contend not only with a glamorous entourage of suspected murderesses and a bellicose thug who is badly in need of a few English lessons, but also an interfering mother who just can't help taking an active interest in his work and his love life.  It would only have taken a small nudge to turn Nocturne into an outright comedy, and it would probably have been a much better film if it had gone this way.

Every decent film noir deserves at least one luscious femme fatale to set the pulse racing and this one offers several, beginning with Lynn Bari at her most alluring and mischievous as Raft's reluctant playmate (she seems to be the only member of the cast who sees the humorous side of things).  Making a stunning screen debut is the radiant Virginia Huston, who would become a film noir regular, best known today for playing alongside Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past (1947).  The even more glamorous Myrna Dell proves to be a born focus-stealer in her few put memorable scenes, relishing the film's best line: "He was a lady killer. But don't get any ideas. I ain't no lady."  With so much high voltage girl power at its disposal, Nocturne could hardly fail to entertain, although the muddled plot (which is rendered virtually incomprehensible by some last minute editing) makes it something of a mind bender.

Film Synopsis

Whilst entertaining a woman in his apartment one evening, a composer named Keith Vincent is composing a farewell song to his latest amorous conquest.  The next day, he is found dead, and the police have every reason to believe he shot himself.  The only cop who is unconvinced by the suicide verdict is Joe Warne, who doggedly begins an investigation to uncover the musician's killer.  The only clue he has is the name 'Dolores' written by the dead man on a sheet of music paper.  Unfortunately, it turns out that Vincent had a string of former lovers, all of whom he referred to by this name.  Convinced that one of these women is the murderer, Warne sets out to question them all.  The prime suspect is Frances Ransom, a glamorous brunette who clearly has something to hide...