Nocturne is an atmospheric, entertaining noir/mystery thriller starring taciturn George Raft as a suspended Los Angeles police detective obsessed with proving an apparent suicide was actually a murder. During the course of his investigation, he gets to check out a covey of beautiful dames, as the murder victim was a Lothario par excellence. Even with the list narrowed down, figuring out which babe is the real femme-fa-tale may be the key to the mystery. Was it beautiful, buxom Lynn Bari, leggy, glamorous singer Virginia Huston, or some other honey -- you can't even trust the cleaning lady in this one! Wise-cracking, live-in maid Myrna Dell may have been more and known more than she lets on. Never mind the detective lives with his mother. He probably couldn't have supported the old bingo babe in the style she wasn't accustomed with separate digs on his salary. Mamma's boy or not, he's tough enough for the physical and emotional poundings he will have to go though before he gets to the bottom of this convoluted mystery.Nocturne is stylishly directed and sensuously filmed by all-purpose director Edwin L. Marin and veteran cinematographer Harry J. Wild with classic noir atmosphere so thick they could have bottled it. Top screen writer and sometimes mystery novelist Jonathan Latimer provides crackling, tough dialog while managing all the taut twists and turns of the Frank Fenton/Rowland Brown story. Marin was equally at home directing mystery thrillers like this, Ann Sothern's light comedies, or some of Randolph Scott's better westerns -- see my review of Fort Worth (1951). Nocturne is one of several collaborations between Marin and Raft, and they seemed to bring out the best in each other. The dark, intense, scene with Raft at the window curtains of the photographer's house is a text book example of noir cinema.Much ink -- far too much in fact -- has been spilled on this forum labeling George Raft a stiff, even a bad actor. All unfairly. Raft was a stone face to a certain extent all right, but that fit the characters he played -- and his fans liked. Nevertheless he said a lot with his eyes, inflections of his slightly nasal Lower-East Side Manhattan voice, and an enigmatic half-smile. Such a stoic style was admired in men of the 1940's, who regarded "wearing your emotions on your lapel" as unmanly, self-centered, and ill-mannered. This is of course a concept alien to the typically self-absorbed Baby Boomers and their strange hatchlings Gen-Xers, who spend practically every evening examining their navels then all the next day spilling their guts about it to whomever will listen.George Raft was actually a pretty good actor. And Nocturne is an excellent noir/mystery -- atmospheric, thrilling, dramatically engaging, dark, mysterious, exotic, and ultimately satisfying. Top drawer entertainment from Old Hollywood's Golden Era.

Tough and dogged detective George Raft investigates a composer's death. It was ruled a suicide but Raft doesn't buy it. Despite being ordered off the case, he continues to look into it and tracks down some of the women the composer had "relationships" with.George Raft gets a lot of flack for being stiff or playing the same role over and over, but I happen to like most of his movies that I've seen. He had no pretenses about being a Shakespearean actor. He knew what he was good at playing and worked with it quite well. His earlier WB successes in gangster movies and the like were always fun. Here he's playing a film noir detective, which isn't too far removed from those older roles come to think of it. He's quick with a snappy comeback and doesn't back down from anybody. It's a part Raft plays with ease but that shouldn't be taken as a put-down, as is often the case. Several tough female roles in this one. Lynn Bari and Virginia Huston (in her film debut) get the juiciest parts but honorable mentions should go to Myrna Dell as a wisecracking maid and Mabel Paige as Raft's mom, who helps him with his investigation.Good script with some punchy noir lines, interesting characters, and a good ending. A nice fight scene, too. By the way, the film's title refers to the song the composer writes for his latest conquest. The guy wrote songs for all the women he screwed. They had a classier kind of douchebag in the old days, I guess.

Watching George Raft and Mabel Page was like catching an episode of Burns and Allen. He was the straight man for Mabels witty quips. Can't help thinking, though, that Raft was too straight...like a wooden plank.Someone else, like Scott Brady or his brother Lawrence Tierney might have given the job a much needed shot in the arm.The music was an excellent tribute to the late forties, as was the piano playing, but it indeed sounded odd coming out of a spinet...actually the entire scoring struck a good balance between the usual frantic (read, loud) filler that many noirs think they need, and the drab monotone that still other noirs feel they need.Lynn Bari looked and sounded good (great voice) and Myrna Dell did a good Myrna Dell. What struck me was why did no one see that facially, Virginia Huston was a dead ringer for Carole Lombard. Someone should have taken that and run with it. Just four years after her tragic early death, Huston could have been groomed to play a lot of similar characters that Lombard was known for. I think she had the acting chops to do it.

Anyone who knows me knows I enjoy pre-1960 films that use Los Angeles as a backdrop, and Nocturne is one of 'em. Several scenes were shot off the lot, and one can catch quick (and sometimes elongated) glimpses of Hollywood Blvd., Vine Street, Tom Brenneman's, the Pantages, and the (Hollywood) Brown Derby in their heyday - the exterior of the Derby is used for a scene between Warne and Torp, the oafish thug for hire. One of the places I haven't been able to pinpoint is the location of the Shawn photography studio. It could very well be the area of Sunset Blvd. printed on the photographer's mark in the film... hard to say as the whole area has changed dramatically since the late 1940's. And that's too bad, because the building they used for the exterior shot of the studio looked pretty nice. But I suspect that it's one of those buildings like Mildred Pierce's Glendale house: the actual structure was 1 storey on the outside and the Hollywood set shows it magically to be 2 storeys on the inside. Suspension of disbelief anyone?If you like post-war design as much as I, a couple of the sets are a treat to see - those being Vincent's house (possibly a Neutra-inspired creation) and the Shawn Studio, both of which feature up-to-the-minute trends in styling and decor (that is, for Southern California, 1946). Personally, I'd move into Keith Vincent's house in a heartbeat! It's like a little bit of Palm Springs in the Hollywood Hills.When it comes to performances, Mabel Paige steals the show, especially in the scene where she's having tea with her gambling partner, Mrs. O'Rourke (Virginia Edwards). Her character adds a delightful touch of homespun levity to the story. I'd love to have her as a grandmother!Surprisingly, George Raft's performance is so stiff that Woody Woodpecker was probably eying him for lunch. He kind of traipses through the pic with a strange, wry countenance, and grins at (what strike me as) odd times, like we're all missing out on some behind-the- scenes joke. Raft doesn't strike me as a great actor of the period, the likes of Clark Gable or Edward G. Robinson, but he held his own in movies where he played the bad guy. I don't think he really got the concept of how to play the good guy. Someone else said that Dick Powell should have been awarded the role, and I couldn't agree more. What a great transitional picture that could have been for Powell, the warbler from Warner Bros. turned private dick. Music and murder. But alas...Myrna Dell is a kick. I see her as a kind of a cross between Eve Arden and Joan Blondell. Wish there were more of her in the movie. Her delivery of lines like "I didn't listen to his music. It was icky!" are priceless.The full cast list includes characters in scenes that were deleted. I wonder what the deleted scenes were all about...(POSSIBLE SPOILER FOLLOWS) All in all, I really like this movie. It's got some fun twists and turns as it goes along, and the revelation of the culprit caught me by surprise. I have this film on a commercially-released VHS but have not come across it on DVD yet. Apparently it was released on DVD in the early 90's, so it probably isn't a restored print, and I'd also assume it wouldn't have any decent bonus material (like the deleted scenes). Too bad, because this is a good little film worth watching, all in all.