Mae Doyle (Barbara Stanwyck) surprises her fisherman brother Joe (Keith Andes) returning home to Monterey, California. Joe is dating Peggy (Marilyn Monroe). Mae claims her rich boyfriend died and his family took everything back in court. She starts dating simple fisherman Jerry D'Amato (Paul Douglas) and eventually marries him. His friend film projectionist Earl Pfeiffer (Robert Ryan) is bitter about his marriage. When his wife leaves Earl, Mae starts an affair with him escaping her tired family life with her new baby.The acting is really broad and old fashion. Stanwyck is putting her ballsy acting to use. Everybody is a little overdramatic especially Ryan. It's hard to see her with the old and bland Jerry. Stanwyck and Ryan is doing an even broader version of old fashion melodrama. Of course, one wants to see Monroe especially opposite a legend like Stanwyck. It's a rising star exploding whenever her minor role is on the screen. Fritz Lang brings out something so overwrought that it's almost a spoof. This is a fascinating movie of changing styles and the passing of the torch between two cinematic icons.

Considering this is directed by Fritz Lang and features a good cast, I was expecting something better than a one-dimensional soaper. The story is about a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who reluctantly returns to her seaside hometown to live with her brother. She also reluctantly dates and then marries fisherman Paul Douglas. She further reluctantly enters into an affair with misogynist Robert Ryan. She does pretty much everything reluctantly. She's terrible but conflicted about it. That was the style at the time.At 45, Stanwyck is a little old for the part but she does fine with it. The studio system was faltering at this time and no great movie stars of the level of Stanwyck, Davis, or Crawford had risen to take their place. So the '50s often saw middle-aged actresses playing younger roles with often mixed results. There is one rising star here and that's a young Marilyn Monroe. She looks beautiful and does well in her supporting part. The movie's highlights all center around her. The men all do good jobs but again, these are rather clichéd soap opera parts so I hesitate to throw a party for them. Douglas and Ryan both play to type and do so well. The opening credits end with "And introducing Keith Andes." Who's Keith Andes? Exactly. He plays Stanwyck's brother and Marilyn's boyfriend. He does nothing to impress or offend. All of the acting feels very stagey. When I found out this was originally a play I wasn't surprised. Lang does what he can to make a picture out of it but the script offers little help. This is not a film noir, as it is often advertised, but rather a melodrama. So noir fans prepare yourselves before watching. Overall it's a watchable soap with a hollow ending that I won't be watching again.

Tough cookie Barbara Stanwyck finds little piece of mind after returning home from the big city to the Monterrey seashore and marrying a mild-mannered fisherman. Before long, restlessness leads her into a tawdry affair with kindred spirit Robert Ryan, a hard drinking loner and one of her trusting husband's best friends. The entire cast of characters may be troubled and/or confused, but thankfully the same shortcomings don't extend behind the camera. From a stage drama that could easily have been played as shabby melodrama, Fritz Lang directed a memorable tragedy of human misconduct, crowded with unspoken passions and permeated by a climate of impending menace.

Clash By Night (1952) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Melodrama about a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) returning to her hometown after leaving years earlier but never getting the riches she wanted. Once back she eventually starts dating a poor fisherman (Paul Douglas) who she eventually marries but his friend (Robert Ryan) sees that she's unhappy and goes after her. I'm really not sure how this film was sold as a noir as there are very few to zero connections. The only thing this film does offer than could be somewhat noir is the moody atmosphere but overall this is more soap opera than anything else. With that said, for the life of me I can't understand how a screenplay like the one here would get approved by all of those involved. I would go as far as to say this is one of the dumbest and most underwritten screenplays from this era and it's a real shame that some touching up wasn't done on it because the film contains some very good performances and nice direction by Lang. I think the screenplay is a major issue from the very start of the picture because we know all of the characters are soon as we meet them. We know Douglas is too good. We know Stanwyck is no good. We know not to trust Ryan as he is just abusing Douglas. We know that Douglas is going to steal Stanwyck. When then know that Douglas is going to have a broken heart. There's not a single plot point here that will throw you for a loop because everything that happens is exactly what you expect and it all happens just as you'd think it would. I can't believe that the studio didn't spend a little more time trying to clean this thing up. As bad as the screenplay is there are still plenty of reasons to check the film out. The biggest being the performances by the entire cast who manage to keep everything moving even though they're working with lesser material. I was really impressed with Douglas who was perfect as the good-hearted man. I thought he was easy to feel sorry for and the actor really made you want to see him win no matter what else happened. Stanwyck is also very good in her snake role. She's certainly good at playing the bad girl so she walks right through the role without any trouble. Ryan is very good as well as has wonderful chemistry with both Douglas and Stanwyck. We also have a side story about Stanwyck's brother (Keith Andes) and his fiancé (Marilyn Monroe) that actually contains some better moments than the main story. Monroe also comes off pretty good here as does J. Carrol Naish in his small role. Lang's direction is pretty solid throughout as he perfectly captures the moody atmosphere.