Joseph H. Lewis was known as "Wagon-Wheel Joe" by studio editors when he was cranking out B-movie westerns as he was in love with using the wheel itself as a visual motif. But he was about more than just one genre. He directed Bela Lugosi in The Invisible Ghost, the musical Minstrel Man and plenty of TV late in his career, but he's mostly known for his film noir work.

One of those films, Gun Crazy, is a romance about, well, loving guns. There's a ten-minute bank heist sequence in that film that's been celebrated for decades. No one but the principal actors and people inside the bank were informed that this one-take scene was real. It's audacious -- the action goes from inside the bank to the getaway car with no cut and then Lewis let his actors improv all of their dialogue.

But we're here today to speak of So Dark the Night.

Inspector Henri Cassin (Steven Geray, who was in tons of films in supporting roles, but fans of this site may know him as Dr. Frankenstein in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter) has left Paris for a vacation he's waiting a long time for. He's a renowned expert who has solved all manner of the world's toughest cases, but he finally deserves some rest.

At a small country inn, he falls for the innkeeper's daughter Nanette. She's a simple country girl, but something speaks to the older Cassin and he hopes to marry her. Everyone informs him that he's too old, but his romantic heart beats for the possibility of a new life.

On the night of their engagement party, her ex-boyfriend Leon informs Cassin that he may have her now, but she will always think of her younger lover and eventually, he will have her. Nanette vanishes from her party with Leon as the main suspect, but he's soon found dead.

Nanette's mother is warned that she will be next to die and sure enough, she's soon strangled. Pierre, the patriarch of the family and owner of the inn, sells the inn as Henri returns to Paris

.The murders and disappearance haunt Henri, who sees the fact that he's solved hundreds of murders as meaning nothing when facing the one case that concerns the woman he truly loves. He comes up with a sketch of the killer and more information by studying the footprint found near Leon's body. That's when he comes up with an audacious hypothesis: he is the murderer. The sketch matches his face and his foot fits the print.

After confessing to the police commissioner, we learn that Henri is schizophrenic. Somehow, he escapes back to the inn where he attempts to kill Pierre. The police commissioner has followed him, however, and shoots our protagonist dead, putting him out of his misery (and mystery).

While this movie emerged from Columbia's b-movie factory, it's still fascinating and leagues beyond any movie that would be created today.

I'd never seen any of Lewis' work before, so this was a welcome change of pace. I'm looking forward to going deeper into his work.

"So Dark the Night" is a frustrating film to watch. That's because it's such a high quality film and yet the finale is amazingly unsatisfying. In fact, up until near the end of the movie I might have give the film an 8 (a great score for a low-budget B-movie)--but because of the ridiculously improbable ending, I think it earns a 6.

As I mentioned above, this film is a low-budget B-movie. None of the stars of the film have household names, though if you adore old films, you will at least recognize the face of the leading man, Steven Geray. Geray has a very rare chance to star here--usually he's a supporting actor and is hardly the leading man type. However, he's wonderful in this role and shows he really was a fine actor. The other star of the film is the director--Joseph H. Lewis. He was able to make the movie look great--a lot better than a normal B-movie. And, you'd swear the project took more than just 16 to complete.

The story is about a famous French detective. He's highly respected but also a workaholic who desperately needs a vacation. So, he goes to a quite rural town where he is warmly welcomed. However, soon there are a pair of murders--and the detective's vacation is brought to an end. However, this killer is no ordinary murderer--this one has the detective totally stumped. At this point in the film, I was pretty impressed. What did NOT impress me was the weird psychological twist at the end of the film--it seemed a bit silly and just didn't work for me. It's a shame, as up until then it really was a pretty good film. Still, despite this silly twist, it's not a bad movie. See it yourself and let me know what you think about the ending.

When a life-long bachelor police investigator from Paris takes a much needed vacation to the country, he finds more than he bargained for when a much younger pretty local maiden, excited by his glamorous city life, takes an interest in him. He's savvy as far as catching criminals and keeping law and order, but probably a bit too naive in the ways of understanding the female mind, especially one who longs more exciting things than what her provincial life has in store for her. They begin to spend romantic evenings together, but a young local farmer who has been away turns up to claim her, having been promised to her since they were children. This leads to the farmer becoming violently jealous, threatening both of them and resulting in murder, but not of who the audience suspects it will be.

Steven Geray, a gentle European character actor, is perfectly cast as the seemingly mild mannered investigator who doesn't plan on falling in love but is obviously too lonely not to respond to the attentions of the pretty Micheline Cheirel. Her parents (Eugene Borden and Ann Codee) have differing opinions on her attentions towards Geray with the socially ambitious Codee pushing her daughter towards Geray and away from the handsome but brooding Paul Marion who makes threats both towards Geray and Cheirel, to whom he says, "I'd rather see you dead than in the arms of anybody else!". It's obvious that Cheirel is not in love with Geray but definitely infatuated with him, and her sexual desires towards Marion make it clear that a marriage with Geray would be doomed.

The build-up to the murders makes the audience believe that somebody else is going to get knocked off first, not the actual initial victim. This gives the story some unexpected twists and turns that you don't see coming. It also builds up into great suspense. Beautifully moody photography and a gorgeous countryside setting make this lovely to look at, although certain physical elements give the impression that this was set some twenty years before it actually was. The twist of the plot as it reaches its conclusion, added with the performance of Helen Freeman as the hotel maid who realizes the truth, makes this a riveting melodrama, even if a few elements of its plot are somewhat unbelievable.