Imagine my surprise then when I read the plot description of 1941's All Through the Night which read 'A criminal gang turns patriotic to track down a Nazi gang.' Released in 1941 even before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, I figured this would be an interesting, potentially very dark propaganda attempt to show an American audience how evil Germany, Hitler, and the Nazis were. I really figured on that much when I saw Humphrey Bogart was the star. Propaganda? Yes, but so much more and so much weirder. It's got a propaganda message mixed with a mystery thriller but plenty of action and laughs thrown in too. Confused much? I was.
While the rest of the world is wrapped up in WWII, a gang in New York City run by Gloves Donahue (Bogart) goes about their daily business without too much concern of what's happening in Europe. The dapper gangsters have their hands in everything, the suave Gloves at their head. One day, Gloves' mother (Jane Darwell) calls her son in to investigate a disappearance which is quickly revealed as a murder. Gloves and his boys look into it, following the only clue they have, a beautiful woman, Leda (Kaaren Verne), who showed up in the wrong place at the wrong time. What have they stumbled into exactly? The victim was a seemingly innocent baker, but they quickly find out there's much more to it. Gloves and his crew are quickly tangling with a cutthroat crew of German agents doing their best to sabotage America and its interests.
Call this pretty eerie, but according to the IMDB 'All Through the Night' was released in theaters for the first time on December 2, 1941, exactly five days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. That certainly adds a darker dimension to a story that is oddly enough attempts to be funny and scare the audience into thinking one way. I get it. I really do. Many Americans wanted nothing to do with WWII in any way, staying isolated by an ocean on either side from fighting in Europe or the Pacific. Others obviously wanted our country to get involved, and as a byproduct, we see efforts like this that are certainly trying to influence your feelings on the subject. The idea is there, but there is something just plain odd, just unexplainable about this movie.
The pacing, the tone, the comedy, the action. It's just all too much here in director Vincent Sherman's movie. We've got Bogie and his gang running around NYC in the middle of the night stumbling across a German spy ring, a Fifth column group, while also tangling with cops who think Gloves is a murderer, and a bar owner and his goons who want to fight it out with Bogie and Co. Just too much time is spent going for laughs with a story that 1. Doesn't need laughs and 2. Suffers because the humor is slapstick and physical humor. Maybe this all would have worked with a tweak here and there. Portray the Nazis as cartoonishly stupid idiots and possibly it clicks. As presented here, they're cold-blooded, conniving murderers who will kill anyone who gets in their way. The combination of Gloves and his fast-talking "tough" guys and these brutally cold German agents never gels.
What makes this worse is that there is a lot of talent involved in this can't make up it's mind story. Bogie is great, playing his usual tough guy but given a chance to show off his comedic chops. He's funny because he plays it straight, throwing one-liners with split second timing. His gang includes William Demarest, a very young-looking Jackie Gleason, and Frank McHugh, along with Phil Silvers as a bespectacled waiter with a mouth. A year later Bogart would work again with co-star Conrad Veidt in a little film called Casablanca -- maybe you've heard of it -- who here plays the evil German leader who's agents include Peter Lorre and Judith Anderson. The gang gets to ham it up in that fast-talking style of the 1940s where everyone yells and screams wearing their very high-waisted pants and classy hats and suits. The Germans get to be over the top evil, Veidt's main baddie even willing to blow himself and his little dog up to help the war effort.
While the comedy fell short for me on just about every front, one scene came through and delivered, one where I genuinely thought it was funny. Posing as German agents to see what these crooks are up to, Gloves and Demarest's Sunshine are forced to "report" on their activities. With absolutely nothing to report, they pull off this gimmick with gibberish and yelling, ending each statement with 'Heil!' which causes all the other agents in the room to stand with a rousing 'Heil Hitler!' In the process, they buy themselves some time to escape. Smart humor? No, not in the least, but it was funny...at times. Overall though, the movie can't figure out what it is and takes too long not deciding. A worthwhile flick for Bogart fans, but not much else.
All Through the Night <---TCM trailer (1941): **/****
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