SYNOPSIS: Nazi spies in the guise of servants have managed to infiltrate the household of inventor Stephen Lawry (Reginald Denny). Lawry is working on a secret formula for the U.S. government. Fortunately, his wife (Ann Harding) has called in the famous private detective, Captain Duncan Maclain (Edward Arnold), to handle a problem involving her step-daughter (Donna Reed). The detective moves in as a house guest. The Nazis are not unduly alarmed. Duncan Maclain is blind.NOTES: Second of the Duncan Maclain series. The first film in the series, The Last Express (1938) starred Kent Taylor in the part now played by Edward Arnold. The third and final entry, The Hidden Eye (1945), also featured Edward Arnold. COMMENT: This was the first - and the better "B" picture featuring Edward Arnold as a blind sleuth. The story is now both dated and innocuous, but Zinnemann's direction is more than competent. He even manages to work in a few nice overhead shots. And there's a scene that pre-dates Wait Until Dark.The cast is top-grade, with Donna Reed looking very glamorous and Katherine Emery acting most effectively.OTHER VIEWS: Edward Arnold as a tediously unconvincing blind detective and Ann Harding as a misunderstood stepmother - the Lord help us! The camerawork is so undistinguished, it's impossible to separate Planck's work from Lawton's. The direction is likewise routine. Admittedly, the hokey script with its climax borrowed from old Rin Tin Tin movies - only this time it's Friday trotting his stuff - doesn't help. -- JHR writing as George Addison.

The title derives from the main character, an elderly detective named Duncan Maclain (Edward Arnold) who is blind. Yet, together with his seeing-eye dog, Friday, and a human sidekick, Maclain investigates a murder and unmasks the villain.The story's underlying premise is weak and time-bound, having little relevance post WWII. But the antics of Friday the dog, combined with Arnold's fine and at times hammy performance, compensates for the weak story. That dog is something else. More than merely posing with human-like expressions, and responding to human chatter, he fetches shoes and guns, uses doorknobs to open doors, and improvises a clever way to escape a basement.I would have liked the film more if it had been a whodunit. As is, there's not a lot of mystery or suspense. The villain is identified in the first half. The ending is a bit of a disappointment.Although the source material is a novel, the script and visuals compare to a stage play, with most scenes set indoors and containing quite a bit of dialogue. But some of the banter is fresh and interesting, like when blind Maclian tells the butler Hansen: "And Hansen, turn out the light, will you; I think I'll read awhile".Sets are a bit cheap looking, composed mostly of drab wood with minimal artifacts. Lighting trends dark. One long scene near the end is filmed in total blackness. Of course, that's consistent with a great theme, that of being able to perceive without physical sight. The intermittent background music is dreary and nondescript. A topnotch cast, including wonderful Mantan Moreland helps the production. Overall acting is fine, especially that of Edward Arnold.It's not a terrific film. Yet despite a weak story premise and a lack of mystery, "Eyes In The Night" has enough going for it to make it enjoyable, not the least of which is that dog. The film will appeal especially to viewers who like detective stories of the 1940s.

Although Edward Arnold did play some other good guys in his career, it's one that's normally associated with villainy. So he must have looked on with gratitude to MGM for allowing him to play Baynard Kendrick's fictional blind detective Duncan MacLain in two films of which Eyes In The Night is the first. My guess is that if Arnold were an MGM contract player the screen might have seen more of the resourceful Duncan MacLain.Blindness as it has in a lot of people has forced Duncan MacLain to rely on those remaining senses and has honed his intelligence to a fine edge. He thinks pretty fast on his feet, especially after being hired by Ann Harding gains entrance to her household while she's away by convincing her servants that he's a long lost blind uncle. It's from there he finds out what's going on.Harding hires Arnold because she's concerned that her step daughter Donna Reed is getting in way over her head with actor John Emery. When Emery turns up dead later that's an understatement.But when Arnold gets into the household and sees what an interesting group of servants Harding and husband Reginald Denny have, he's thinking that romance might not just be at the bottom of this mystery.Aided by filmdom's most remarkable dog since Rin Tin Tin in the canine of Friday, MacLain is also aided for strong arm stuff by his driver Allen Jenkins. Although as you will see in the film, Arnold when he gets in close is every bit up to the rough house aspect of the gumshoe profession.The cast is excellent, especially butler Stanley Ridges who becomes Arnold's opposite number in terms of wit and intelligence. A worthy Moriarty type to Arnold's Holmes. It's too bad that film never saw more of Duncan MacLain.

Eyes in the Night (1942) *** (out of 4) A woman (Ann Harding) fears that her stepdaughter (Donna Reed) is involved with an evil man so she goes to his apartment to ask him to leave her alone. Once at the apartment she finds the man dead and the step daughter catches her there and believes that she did the killing. The mother goes to her blind detective friend (Edward Arnold) who starts to investigate and learns that German spies were behind it. This was the first of a two part series for MGM and I'm really not sure why more weren't made as both proved to be good films. This film features a very attractive cast, a nice story and some very good direction by Zinnemann, which makes this a must see for fans of detective movies. Arnold is very good in his role making it very believable that his character is actually blind. The actor plays the part very well and has good chemistry with everyone in the cast. Harding comes off quite strong as well even though her character isn't the best written in the film. Stephen McNally, Katherine Emery, Allen Jenkins and Reginald Denny all add nice supporting performances as well. Reed actually steals the show as the 17-year-old step daughter with an attitude. Her attitude is so dead pan perfect that you'll have no problem hating the young lady who thinks she knows everything. Mantan Moreland is wasted in his few scenes though. The German subplot just works itself into the story and there's never a spotlight shined on it due to WW2, which is a nice twist for this type of film. Most movies from this era beat the war stuff to death but this film stays away from that.