Joseph Losey's (The Servant/King & Country) 1951 film noir about a fateful night when a boy goes out to seek revenge against the man who beat his father in front of him. John Drew Barrymore (Drew's dad) wakes up on his birthday to finalize his plans for that night (he & his dad are planning to attend the fights) but in the midst of blowing out the candles on his cake, in walks a man (a sports writer of some renown) who promptly makes his father takes off his shirt, lay down on the floor & get beaten by his cane. The image rolls around in the boy's head so he resolves to get his by taking the family gun & go out into the night to mitigate some payback. At the fights, he befriends a professor (he scalps his extra ticket to him) & while on the chase decides to tag along w/him to a night club. What follows, in seemingly real time, is a journey into choices which may or may not backfire on him as he finally finds the sports scribe & hopefully get the answers he searches for. Running a scant 80 minutes, the film is a marvel shot in actual locations w/the prospect of salvation around every corner. Also starring Dorothy Comingore (she played Kane's mistress in Citizen Kane) & Emile Meyer who plays a nasty heavy who encounters our hero at the fights.
Review of The Big Night
