A Paris detective encounters mysterious murders while on vacation in the French countryside.Some day when I have absolutely nothing to do I'm going to count the number of window shots in this film. I hope I can count that high. Actually, all that imagery pays off with a richly symbolic final shot. The movie itself has a rather sumptuous look for a cheap second feature, a credit to the art department and director Lewis' visual imagination, I suppose. Anyway, it's an interesting little noir with an ironical ending, even if it doesn't reach the suspenseful heights of My Name Is Julia Ross, Lewis' previous movie.I wasn't sure where So Dark was going since it begins in rather leisurely fashion. However, once the apparently motiveless murders occur, the plot thickens into a mystery. Still, the screenplay doesn't really play up the whodunit potential, which it could have. Then too, stronger lead performers, I think, would have helped. Steven Geray made a notable career as a waiter or maitre'd in upscale night spots, but as a detective, his presence is a little thin. Also, I agree with the reviewer who thinks Cheirel a shade too old for the ingénue role.Anyway, Lewis' visual talent is on vivid display, making this a very watchable 70 minutes, even though I'm canceling my next visit to the French countryside.

***SPOILERS*** Burnt out famous Paris police inspector Henri Cassin, Steven Geray, decides to take a trip out to the country to chill out and get his head back together. That's after solving a string of unsolvable crimes that almost put him in the hospital suffering from exhaustion.At the small town of Saint Margot Henri stays at the Le Cheval Noir Inn where he plans to catch up with his long needed sleep and spend his free time out fishing at the local river. It's when the inns owner Pierre Michaud's, Edger Borden, daughter Nanette, Micheline Cheirel, laid her eyes on Henri, who's exploits as a crime solver preceded him, she went completely gaga over the meek middle aged police inspector. In fact it was Mama Michaud, Ann Codee, who tried to get Nanette and Henri matched up against the objections of her husband Pierre who thought that he, being some 20 years Nannete's senior, was a bit too old for her.Things got a little sticky when Nanette's boyfriend, who was also engaged to her, Leon Achard, Paul Marion, got wind of her attraction to Henri and didn't like it one damn bit! Not being able to hold back his dislike for Henri Leon felt that Nanette's mother was the cause of her being so involved with Henri. Leon realized that Henri being the big man in crime solving that he is compared to himself a dirt poor farmer was more of a catch, in Mama Michaud opinion, then he was for her daughter Nanette.It's when Leon caught both Henri and Nanette smooching at the riverbank that he completely flipped out. Telling Nanette that he's not going to stand for her to leave him for Henri and that he'll kill her if she did didn't makes thing any better for Henri who was not really that interested, in him being a life long bachelor, in marrying her in the first place. It's later when Nanette was found dead and dumped off a bridge into the river that Leon became the prime suspect in her murder! That's until Leon himself was found murdered like Nanette, strangled to death, outside his farm!***SPOILERS*** With Henri being put on the murder investigation by the local constable he after examining all the evidence comes up with absolutely nothing in who murdered both Leon and Nanette! Becoming obsessed in cracking the murder case Henri slowly, due to the pressure of the job, starts to crack up himself! It's almost by accident that Henri uncovers the person who murdered both Nanette and Leon in a plaster cast he made at one of, Leon's, the murder scenes. But the person that Henri came up with is so unconnected to Leon and Nanette's murder that his boss back at the Paris Police Department thinks that Henri has finally lost it and even goes so far as recommending that he spend some time in a sanitarium for a long needed rest.Little did anyone know at the time that Henri, crazy as he was, was right on target in whom he suspected in Leon and Nanette's murders! With no one believing him Henri on his own went out to prove his murder theories by going back to Saint Margot where the murders were committed! And by him bringing the murderer to justice Henri could finally get the much needed rest that he so badly needed. Even if in the end it ended up killing him!

A French cast is featured in "So Dark the Night," a 1946 B noir directed by Joseph Lewis. Steven Geray is Henri Cassin, a burnt-out detective who goes on holiday. He falls in love with Nanette Michaud (Micheline Cheirel), who kind of plays both ends against the middle. Nanette is already engaged to someone she's known from childhood, and she tells him that she loves him. Meanwhile, she's attracted to the older detective's perceived money and Paris residence. One day, they both end up dead - and there's more tragedy to come.I would have loved to see this plot directed by someone like Hitchcock, who could build the suspense. As it is, it's a good story, but the film is on the lifeless side. Only 29 at the time of filming, Micheline Cheirel comes off as a bit too mature for some reason. Since the movie was low budget, however, there wasn't any attention paid to lighting or soft lenses to give her a more ingénue look. Geray is very good and underplays his role."So Dark the Night" plays about an 1:15 minutes. It's intriguing, but it could have been so much more.

Really not much to keep you locked to the screen here. Cassin is not exactly charismatic or intense enough for you to believe his role in that twist (or is it wrench?) of an ending and the supporting cast is as two dimensional as the "French countryside" backdrop. The only thing of interest is how Lewis attempts, somewhat perversely, to employ noir conventions and build suspense in a sun-dappled bucolic landscape. Hey, at least the guy was always mixin' it up! 5/10.