User Reviews

Happened on this movie entirely by chance, while skipping through the limited offers on local daytime TV. Decided to sit it out (I'm a sucker for 1930s and 40s black-and-white films) and was very pleased I did. This movie is a thriller of sorts, and it has a major twist: it features a blind detective - quite convincingly, I must add, since he has a very smart (scene-stealing) seeing-eye dog to help him. The story has enough action, suspense, and surprises to keep the viewer interested until the very end. It isn't Hitchcock, but it's very nicely done. Recommended.

Edward Arnold plays a blind detective asked to look into the murder of an actor. Very quickly things become complicated as Arnold realizes that there are sinister forces at work that are not run of the mill.

This is a great thriller. I would love to say mystery, except that the mystery is solved about a third of the way through. Granted there are other details to work out, but the mystery is effectively over. Thats not to say you won't be sitting on the edge of your seat, you will. Arnold is an imposing figure and its a joy to watch this "helpless" man turn the tables on all of those around him. We in the audience know he's far from helpless, having witnessed the opening judo lesson, so we know whats in store for those who think they can get the upper hand on him.

The film isn't perfect. There are a few contrived bits and the end is rushed, still its 80 minutes well spent. The highest praise I can think of is if you're like me you'll probably wish there was more with this character. (Actually there is one more film, made three years later called the Hidden Eye, unfortunately that was it)

8 out of 10

There are many excellent moments in this spy caper, detective and dog drama, murder mystery. The dog does do his own stunts and he does them well.

There are hints at romance, here and there, with the maid and her jailbird hubby, the young Donna Reed and her mom's ex-boyfriend and even the butler and the dog are lovesick for their partners.

Donna Reed looks beautiful. This was before It's a Wonderful Life and The Donna Reed Show. There is one scene I can tell you about without ruining anything for you. Women dressed to kill in the 1940s. In those days you always complimented a lady's new hat no matter how awful it looked. The hat Donna Reed wears at the end of the movie is so awful nobody could muster the courage to fake a compliment.

Edward Arnold is jovial and believable as the blind detective. I especially like the scene where he teaches one of the goons how to play Solitaire. He is also great with his voice in the darkened scene in the basement. The director does a wonderful job with this film.

The play within a movie is a fun idea for introducing some of the villains.

This one is very watchable. The dog is really good in his scenes.

Tom Willett

With an interesting plot, some suspenseful sequences, and a very effective performance by Edward Arnold, "Eyes in the Night" deserves to be much better known. Although its story contained a wartime message, as a whole it rises well above a mere message piece. It has numerous strong points, and not the least of them is director Fred Zinnemann, who scores a success in one of his earlier full-length features.

Arnold heads up a good cast as a blind but very resourceful detective, and he makes the character both interesting and believable. The story gives Arnold a lot of good opportunities, and he makes the most of them. The suspenseful basement sequence could almost have served as a prototype for a similar though much more elaborate sequence in the Audrey Hepburn classic "Wait Until Dark".

Ann Harding, a young Donna Reed, and Reginald Denny are also in the cast, and while they and the other characters cannot compete with Arnold, they all do a solid job. But the standout of the supporting cast is the dog 'Friday', who gets some of the best moments, and who performs very well.

The fast-paced story begins as a murder mystery, but as things slowly become clear, the last half focuses more on espionage and suspense. The story has its less plausible elements, to be sure, but it is all entertaining. It is just as good as a number of other movies from the era that are much better known, and it is well worth the time to watch.

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.

Edward Arnold plays blind detective Duncan Maclain in "Eyes in the Night," a 1942 MGM film directed by Fred Zinnemann that has a lot of other familiar faces. Ann Harding made her return to the screen after a few years in this small film, playing the stepmother, Norma Lawry, of a young actress, Barbara (Donna Reed at 21), who's fallen in love with an older actor with whom Harding was once involved. She wants Mac to help her convince the actor it's best to steer clear of Barbara. Norma's husband is in Washington presenting a formula to the government that is critical to the war effort.

Unfortunately, the actor turns up dead, and Barbara sees not only his dead body, but her stepmother, when she arrives at the man's apartment. Norma goes running to Mac for help. He sets out to find the killer, and it leads him into a web of espionage.

Nice job by Zinnemann, who was just starting out, though he didn't like doing the film except for working with Ann Harding and Donna Reed. As others have mentioned, his pitch black gun battle with the only light coming from the fired shots is most effective and portends the great things to come from him. Overall, it's an okay story, well done.

Edward Arnold does an excellent job (though Zinnemann said he kept blowing his lines) as the smart and likable blind detective, who is aided by an assistant (Allen Jenkins) and his dog Friday, who looks to be a German shepherd mix. Friday is unbelievable - what an actor and athlete! That dog had some training. Zimmemann didn't agree. Friday, who was descended from a silent dog star named Flash, apparently was only good for one take, becoming bored easily. In fact, Friday's only film appearances are in the two Duncan Maclain films. Besides Reed, one can spot Rosemary DeCamp as Vera the maid, Stanley Ridges as the butler, Stephen McNally as Vera's husband Gabriel, Mantan Moreland as Mac's butler, and I honestly thought Katherine Emery WAS Mercedes MacCambridge. Wow! Even the speaking voice.

This was intended as a series for MGM, but the studio only made one other. Universal took the fat man detective series from the radio and made a film with J. Scott Smart with an early appearance by Rock Hudson directed by William Castle, but never followed it up. Nevertheless, there's something about these fat detectives, going back to Nero Wolfe, I guess, that's appealing.

Enjoyable. Glad Friday was able to keep his date after all.

If you're a dog lover like me, you'll find this one hard not to like! Good old "Friday" steals this show-with some able assistance from a very keen and rugged blind man. I found this one easy to follow and it kept my interest all the way. A really neat mix of intrigue, mystery, and humor to boot. Oh...and some espionage thrown in as is per this era's thematics. The gal who plays the enemy is quite wicked!

This is a murder mystery that will get you smiling! A fun and easy frolic minus a tangled plot that uses all the "senses". Oh, and a young Donna Reed.......not bad at all. This one makes Rin Tin Tin and Lassie look like amateurs!

There's some gimmicky silliness in the film, especially the dog - but fortunately the detective's blindness is not used as a gimmick (except perhaps in a fight scene, which thus allows stalwart character actor Edward Arnold to exercise considerable acting muscle here - he does a splendid job - as does a young, energetic Donna Reed.

The film has a professional polish to it. The pacing could have been a little swifter, but not by much; generally the tension is maintained throughout.

Very much of its time, but worth preserving for strong performances and solid direction.

Overcoming the fears connected with World War Two was indeed difficult for citizens who were not physically challenged. For those who were, it must have added yet another burden. Duncan Maclain (Edward Arnold) as a detective who is visually challenged leaves no doubt that he will indeed solve the a murder and uncover a Nazi plot. The only real mystery is how he will go about doing it. There is little question in this film that the Nazi spy ring is more of a threat to America than is the murder; in fact, the film could probably do well simply confronting the Nazi threat. The message is clear. If someone who cannot see can aid in the war effort, so can others. So much the better if one had Friday (his dog) to help in the attempt. In a word, Americans in 1942 were beginning to understand what the British had already learned, that, sooner or later, everyone would be needed for the war effort.

I decided to watch this film out of curiosity, because the cast included Edward Arnold, Donna Reed, Reginald Denny, Steven Geray, and Mantan Moreland -- and it was difficult to imagine what sort of film could include that diverse cast. Of course there are murders and it is a crime drama, but was rewarded far beyond my expectations, for this is a real gem of a feature, operating on many levels, all of them great.

Edward Arnold is very convincing as a blind detective who practices jiu-jitsu, Donna Reed is given a surprisingly selfish and treacherous role to play, Mantan Moreland is his usual great comedic self, and there are villains galore -- but the two actors who most impressed me were the charming and sincere Ann Harding, and Friday the dog, about whom more later.

The directing is excellent, albeit set-bound, with a particularly inventive shoot-out in a pitch-black basement. The plot is tight, the script is fascinating, and the acting is excellent. The casting was unusual for the number of stage-trained British actors it featured, and they all had a ripping good time, giving the whole affair a bit of the fun of an Ealing comedy -- which will doubtless annoy both film noir purists and gritty-grim crime movie buffs, but charmed me no end.

Outstanding was Stanley Ridges as an over-educated butler who bursts into a rapturously dramatic line reading from "Samson Agonistes" by Milton, which apparently cracked up Edward Arnold to the point that he could not quite keep a straight face. Additionally, the beloved Reginald Denny gives us all a lesson in baritone elocution, but the screenwriter delights us with some not-so-subtle in-joke references to Denny's heroic WW I fighter plane record, his days as a Hollywood stunt pilot, and his essential work for the US military -- even as the film was in production! -- developing radio-operated target drone planes.

Now, on to Friday the dog. IMDb's biography does not tell us this, but according to his biography at the American Kennel Club's National Purebred Dog Day site, he was the son of Flash, a German Shepherd cinema dog who starred in "His Master's Voice" (1925), "The Flaming Signal" (1933), and "Call the Mesquiteers" (1938). Flash had the shorter ears and paler saddle of the "modern" German Shepherd, while Friday had the longer ears, a longer muzzle, and darker saddle seen in the original Rin Tin Tin.

Like all of the "Rinty" type dogs in the movies, Friday was trained in schutzhund or protection work, and could feign an attack on command. But he went far, far beyond that basic stunt. Throughout the film we see him leaping over shrubs, sailing over garden hurdles, opening doors with his mouth, fetching named objects, plunging out of windows and off of roofs to hard landings, and hair-raisingly scaling tall brick walls by leaping up, hooking his front feet on top and hoisting his body up with a scrabble of hind legs. He runs long distances unguided, escapes a cellar through clever direction, and walks in harness as a seeing eye dog to boot. He is an incredible agility stunt dog with a pleasingly emotive expression, perhaps the finest all-around dog actor i have seen next to Higgins, who was trained by Frank Inn and starred in the "Petticoat Junction" TV series (1964 - 1970), "Mooch Goes to Hollywood" (1971), and "Benji" (1974).

The resemblance between Friday and Higgins is more than a matter of acting style, by the way. In "Eyes in the Night," Friday performs a particularly difficult stunt, clambering up a wall, ascending a rising series of narrow ledges, turning to the right, and entering a window -- a stunt that is almost step for step the same as one later performed by Higgins in "Benji." It is pretty obvious to me that Friday was trained by Frank Inn during his days with Rudd and Frank Weatherwax, where he also helped train Pal, the star of "Lassie" and its sequels (1943 - 1954). The major difference between the two versions of the ledge-and-window stunt is that Friday ascends to the window, finds it closed, backs around and runs at it a second time, crashing through the glass and tearing a lace curtain inward behind him. When this spectacular stunt was reprised in "Benji," with the much smaller Higgins, the window was left slightly open, and Higgins wiggled inside, because it would have been unbelievable to have a tiny pooch break through the glass the way that Friday did. Although the duplication of this stunt, 32 years later, is all the proof i need that Friday was trained by Frank Inn, there is another similarity between the two dogs worth noting: both Friday and Higgins could sneeze on command, a rather unusual trick, and one of Inn's signature pieces of business.

I was so impressed with Friday that i am off to look for the sequel, "Hidden Eyes" (1945), starring Edward Arnold and Friday.

I rated this movie a solid 10 out of 10. Friday is so amazing that my husband and i re-ran his scenes several times, agape with awe over his power and balletic grace. What a wonderful dog!

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.

Fred Zinnemann, at the start of his directing career, did a couple of good B-films for MGM and he began with EYES IN THE NIGHT. It's a minor B-melodrama with cheerful, resourceful EDWARD ARNOLD as a man who uses his intelligence and keen wit to trap a killer.

It's a brisk, no nonsense film with a supporting cast that includes lovely young DONNA REED in a prominent supporting role as a woman whose life is in danger. When she seeks Arnold's help, the suspense builds until the blind detective must confront the killer in a tense basement scene that has him knocking out a light bulb so that he and the killer are on the same level playing ground.

It passes the time but is nothing to seek out, noteworthy only for being a good step forward in the career of Fred Zinnemann who was to go on to major directing chores in the future. His KID GLOVE KILLER and GRAND CENTRAL MURDER were other good Bs that he did for MGM.

Sure, it's pat and simplistic in places and the plot's a little daffy, but it has three major things going for it: an amazing dog named Friday, a delightful performance from veteran Edward Arnold and fine direction by Fred Zinnemann. It could've easily been filler, but Zinnemann has too much respect for his craft and the material to allow that to happen.

As others have pointed out, that dog really is something and nearly steals the show but Arnold is every bit as good. He is particularly amusing in his role within a role where he pretends to be an eccentric, ill-tempered uncle in order to foil the bad guys' dastardly scheme. (And that scheme is a big time McGuffin, no more than an obviously slight excuse to get all the conflicting characters under one roof.) Arnold's Cat & Mouse games with main villains Katherine Emery (resembling Mercedes McCambridge both in looks and delivery) and over-educated "butler" Stanley Ridges are tense and clever.

Zinnemann really shines in one ingenious scene set in a pitch dark basement. Arnold, playing a super smart blind sleuth growls "In the dark! In my kingdom now!" and proceeds to outwit a trigger happy thug. Not unlike the Coen brothers' "Blood Simple" 45 years later, the only light is provided by a number of randomly fired gunshots. Not surprisingly, this technique is effectively taut and unnerving. If you weren't aware who the director was at that point, it's the sort of thing that makes you go running to your film guide thinking "Whoa. Who directed this?"

This movie was the first of what never materialized as a B-movie detective series starring Edward Arnold as a blind detective. Apparently, the public's reaction to the film was a bit lukewarm and so follow-up films were never made. During the early 1940s, such lower budget series were extremely popular and included Charlie Chan, The Saint, The Whistler, The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes and many others. Too bad this one didn't take off, as it was clearly superior to most of them. While the film wasn't exactly believable (particularly when blind Arnold beats up the bad guys), this is true of all these series films. And it did excel for several reasons. In particular, Arnold played a very likable part. He seemed pretty smart and decent,...as well as very funny and annoying when he wanted to be. In addition, perhaps the greatest sidekick in history helped elevate this series--and I am NOT talking about Allen Jenkins (though he was ONE of Arnold's sidekicks). No, I am talking about Friday the dog--who was an incredibly cool and gifted seeing eye dog in the film. In many ways his stunts were reminiscent of Lassie or Rin Tin Tin, but Friday also was involved in some funny scenes as well. Who would have thought that a dog (other than Asta) could be comic relief as well as man's best friend?! Finally, while she wasn't all that important a character, Donna Reed has a great moment near the end where she gets to deck the leader of the Nazi gang holding them hostage. It's awfully exciting to see the nice and proper Ms. Reed pack such a punch!

With the new "Dallas" series up and running on TNT to high ratings (No surprise it was the No. 1 cable show last night), I'm devoting the summer to reviewing many movies and TV appearances of these regular and recurring players of the original series here on IMDb in chronological order. So it is that I'm starting in 1942 when young adult Donna Reed-who became Miss Ellie No. 2 during the 1984-85 season when originator Barbara Bel Geddes had to temporarily leave for health reasons-was starting out as a contract player at M-G-M where the original "Dallas" was partially shot for interiors. In contrast to her usually wholesome roles like that of It's a Wonderful Life-though her Mary Hatch wasn't above making her mother think George Bailey was, well you know-here she plays a teen girl who's dating a much older man that was once a lover of her stepmother (Ann Harding). Since both her character and that of Harding's play actresses, it's a particular pleasure when Ms. Reed acts condescending to Ms. Harding as they both seem to talk as if they're rehearsing for some play. Anyway, the real star is Edward Arnold as the blind detective Duncan Maclain who's not above creating some scenes himself as he tries to both solve a murder and uncover a Nazi scheme with the able assist of his dog Friday. Directed by eventual master filmmaker Fred Zinnemann, he provides enough atmosphere that makes this movie rise a little above its B-movie roots. There's also some amusements from sidekicks Allen Jenkins and Mantan Moreland with the latter just two years away from being Charlie Chan's regular manservant Birmingham Brown. Really, all I'll say now is Eyes in the Night is worth a look.

I do like a nice b-movie once in a while. Some of these pictures are just wonderful, not so much for the "so-bad-its-good" principle, but simply because of the sheer innocent earnestness with which they tackle their daffy subject matter. In this case, the premise of "blind detective and seeing-eye dog fight crime on the streets of New York and uncover a nazi spy ring" sounds too good to pass up.

Have no doubts, this is an extremely silly picture. It's not just the lightweight story. The dialogue is daft, and characters have the most bizarre and implausible motivations simply so they can be in the right place at the right time for the plot. A paraphrased example: "Let's not both catch the same plane. If something should happen who will look after our daughter?" The aforementioned detective is constantly trotting out twee little philosophies about blindness, and his other four senses are, of course, extra sharp to compensate for his disability – anything else would be against blind hero convention. And his dog is hyper-intelligent. There is even a romantic subplot involving a "cute" poodle. Silly, silly, silly.

Silly story, not so silly cast. You tend to get two kinds of player in these B-flicks – permanent B-unit fixtures whose ability was as half-arsed as everything else about the production, and genuine high-class performers who could be slumming it for any number of reasons. Eyes in the Night contains an enjoyably good amount of the latter. Ann Harding had been a popular leading lady a decade earlier, and even got a Oscar-nomination for Holiday in 1930. But roles dried up and this was her comeback feature after a five-year hiatus. She is not brilliant here, but she brings an air of sophistication that is usually absent from these pictures. It was the opposite story for Donna Reed, who would later be a high-flying Oscar-winner, but at this point was yet to make a name for herself. She does a good job, although the role doesn't really allow her to flourish. And then we have Edward Arnold, a really fascinating face from Hollywood's golden age, who is perhaps most familiar to audiences as a series of near-identical crafty businessmen in Frank Capra pictures. He turns up here because supporting players from A-features were sometimes given lead roles in B-features. He softens his curmudgeonly persona into a character you implicitly like and trust, and makes an ideal if unconventional hero.

Eyes in the Night is notable for being an early directorial assignment for Fred Zinnemann. The young director seems to be strong on ideas but poor on execution. He goes to lengths to make us accept the dog as a character, giving it plenty of close-ups. He seems to have had trouble imagining how everything will fit together in the edit though, and sometimes the angles of opposing shots look a bit confusing when put together. His main tack seems to be to saturate every shot in a feeling of claustrophobia, with visible ceilings, props in the foreground and an obsession with shadows, obligingly created by cinematographer Robert Planck. The overall impression is of a surreal nightmare world from which there are no exits, an effect used in many film noirs of this era and the horrors made at RKO. The dark atmosphere is laid on incredibly thickly, and strictly speaking this is not even a "noir", but it doesn't particularly matter because this is not a picture that gets too close to reality in the first place, and a bit of overstatement doesn't go amiss.

Eyes in the Night is cheap, cheerful... and did I mention silly? And yet it's enjoyable. I actually prefer this to any of Alfred Hitchcock's very prestigious nazi-spy thrillers, which were certainly far better made. You see, a picture's problems are relative to its scope. Big picture, big flaws. Trivial picture, trivial flaws. It doesn't matter that it is nonsense from start to finish. If you allow yourself to be drawn into its world, nonsense can be fun.

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?

A Cast of Familiars and Director Fred Zinnemann's Second Movie Makes this More Interesting than the Average Wartime B-Movie. There are Gimmicks Galore to Entertain. Edward Arnold as a Blind Detective Overacts and Gets On the Nerves Occasionally but is Helped Greatly by Some Gadgets and His Seeing Eye Dog Friday who Steals the Show.

Donna Reed is a Bitchy Stepdaughter, and Katherine Emery as a Cold Blooded Nazi Spy Also Add Some Spice to the Proceedings. There are Stylistic Flourishes and Quite a Bit of Action and Intrigue.

Just About Everybody Connected to This Movie did Better Things but as an Ensemble All Jammed Into this Entertaining Little Movie, Add Some Weight to This WWII, Audience Friendly, Piece of Fluff.

"Eyes in the Night" is another example of the power of WWII propaganda to freeze the brains of screenwriters. Adapted from a decent detective novel, the Nazi spy element was amped up to cash in on home front paranoia. Along with the better detective elements went most of the logic, suspense, and character motivation of the original story. In its place is a confused mess that even Director Fred Zinnemann (later to do "High Noon" and "Here to Eternity") could not salvage.

Along with simplistic motivation you will find a lot of stupid pet tricks as the blind detective's (Duncan Maclain played by Edward Arnold) seeing eye dog can open doors and obey vague fetch commands that confuse his step-and-fetch-it black servant (Mantan Moreland).

Set in the United States, Duncan's long-time friend Norma (Ann Harding) lives on a country estate with her new husband who for unknown reasons stores top secret scientific plans in his small unguarded wall safe. You know they are critical to the war effort because the spies say they are worth ten armored divisions. As the story unfolds it is slowly revealed that almost everyone is a Nazi spy; the entire household staff, a community theatre group, and a few guys of unknown origin. There are almost enough German personnel to fill up those ten armored divisions.

Although they enjoy a huge numerical advantage the spies conveniently wait around until Norma and her husband leave town to make their move on the safe.

A melodramatic back-story concerns Norma's relationship with her new stepdaughter and aspiring actress Barbara (Donna Reed). Barbara is supposed to be just 17 but Reed was in her early 20's and looked about 30. Harding (as always) is quite good and Reed (as always) is quite bad, the talent disparity gives their scenes together a farcical quality. These actually are bad enough to give the movie a certain camp appeal. Reed might be the only aspiring movie actress challenged by the role of an aspiring movie actress.

Zinnemann does infuse his production with a certain style. Playing off the blindness of his main character with frequent blackouts and generally understated lighting. There may never have been a feature film whose negative had less exposure to light than this one did.

Arnold's performance is a bit over the top, apparently compensating for his character's blindness with aggressive flailing (imagine an extremely fat man replacing Patty Duke as Helen Kellor) and a loud voice.

Along with Harding, Katherine Emery (a stage actress in her film debut) gives a great understated performance as the leader of the huge band of Nazi's. She may remind "Narnia" viewers of the best performance in that film, Tilda Swinton's White Witch.

There are no extras on the DVD but it is a very good print.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.