Fred Zinnemann's early directorial career yielded many interesting films and this is one of them. Here Zinnemann directs the young Donna Reed (who plays a character who is appallingly arrogant, spoilt and pig-headed, very convincingly), and eleven years later in 'From Here to Eternity' (1953), he would turn to her again for a part where she would win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The main character in the film is a blind detective, Duncan Maclain, played to perfection by Edward Arnold. He has a seeing-eye dog, Friday, who responds to the most complex commands, opens doors by turning the door handles with his teeth, leaps out of basements through high windows, and does many impossible things. Dog lovers will be fascinated by this film. There are some hilarious scenes between the dog and Arnold's butler, played by Mantan Moreland, where the butler is constantly having his job taken away from him by the dog (Friday fetches his master's slippers before the butler can reach the closet, etc.) The haunted looks of Ann Harding are good for her part, her eyes dreamy and distant, her complexion pale, all good mystery stuff. There is an eerie chill cast by the excellent performance of Katherine Emery, with strong lesbian implications as she looks at Donna Reed in 'a certain way'. The scenes where Edward Arnold searches for clues in the dark, because being blind he does not need light, are highly effective. As an early wartime thriller with a certain relevance to the dangers of 'the enemy', this film avoids being hackneyed and is fresh and stands on its own, transcending any propaganda aspects. What less would be expect from Fred Zinnemann?
Review of Eyes in the Night
