This is one of those films that gets lost in the shuffle when it comes to scary thriller films. It needs a re-look by everyone.I'll say right off that I'm a huge Rosalind Russell fan but she was sorta bland in this one. She's a lot better in her screwball comedies. She has a co-headliner in this and he should be cause...he's the star.Robert Montgomery is just super creepy in this. He plays the perfect sociopath in this fine little thriller. You wouldn't think with him in this it would come off as eery and scary as it does but he plays the villain so well it was a pleasure to watch. What makes him so good is that during the film you know he's bad but he doesn't come off that way. It's in a sorta roundabout way with sly inferences here and there. Wait until the end though. Evil finally rears its ugly head.This film is well worth a look in horror/thriller circles. I think it gets overlooked because of its age. Even for 1937 though, it's damn effective if your gonna watch this on a cold/dark Saturday night. Give it a try and be amazed on how well it works.

Dame May Witty is a bad-tempered wheelchair-bound old woman. She's attended by her niece, Rosalind Russell, a sullen and repressed woman who keeps her eager suitor, Alan Marshal, at arm's length. He's a lawyer in the city, while Witty and Russell live in a woodland cottage. There are two women who serve as day maids. Nota bene: That's four women alone in an isolated house, with two of them gone by nightfall. Always a great set-up for a slasher movie.Then Robert Montgomery shows up. He's more of a caricature than a character. He looks cocky. A cigarette dangles from his lips and he keeps his thumbs hooked in his trouser pockets. He wears this weird topper, a flat hat wider than his head, like a woolen dinner plate.But, man, is he bewitching. He's always cheerful, as quick and perceptive about people as a particularly savvy shrink. He has an Irish accent. He's candid and forthright about himself and what he sees in others. He's loaded with this fey charm and it's easy for him to worm his way into the brutal old lady's graces so that, after some initial protests, she happily hires him as something between a personal attendant and a son.It isn't as though Robert Montgomery didn't have problems, though. Chief among them are the facts, which emerge only point by point during the story, that he's a blatant liar and a sneaky murderer who totes the head of his latest victim around in a hatbox with him.The play was written in 1934. A bit more than thirty years earlier Queen Victoria was on the throne. Victorian England was notorious for its repression of everything that could possibly be defined as "improper", meaning mostly sex and violence but also bad manners and a careless regard for class distinctions. Furniture legs were covered with little draperies. A chicken's "breasts and thighs" became "white and dark meat." It's the kind of atmosphere in which evil could pop unexpectedly, like a pierced carbuncle, an atmosphere that could produce Stevenson's "Doctor Jeykll and Mr. Hyde" or an Alfred Hitchcock.The play's author, Emlyn Williams, was born in 1905 and some of these values are carried over into his plot. Montgomery's character, Danny, smilingly admits that he's always "acting", as if eyes were staring at him. Every once in a while, though he doesn't tell Russell or anyone else, the zit pops and he dismembers somebody.Montgomery does a fine job with Danny. He always appears gawky. His movements are sudden and jerky, and his speech comes in bursts. Eventually, along with Russell, the viewer realizes that Danny is not merely acting but overacting. He races around singing and whistling and flattering the grouchy matron. He pushes her wheelchair too quickly. Everything he does is in fits and spasms.Russell's part is pretty complicated. She has to begin as a buttoned-up spinster who resents the lower-class Danny, but then becomes interested in him, half repelled and half attracted sexually, so much so that she saves his bacon when the police begin to suspect him of a local murder.Danny is the sort of guy who, if he didn't exist, would not be necessary to invent, but he does accomplish some good unwittingly. He opens up Rosalind Russell's passions and causes to her act out her desires.The movie is a little slow. It's not the action-filled mystery with cheap effects that we've become used to. The pace picks up towards the end. And it's not without weakness. The cynical and tough old lady finds herself alone in the house at night and instantly turns into a quivering mass of Jello. There's been no indication that this transmogrification from brick wall into vulnerability was coming -- or was even possible.But, that aside, it's a neatly drawn picture of aborted predation, of character and the evolution of character.

A marvelous suspenseful, tension-filled, atmospheric thriller with absolutely NO "blood and guts," and I thank God for that. This film is intelligent in every respect and requires the viewer to watch with his/her brain switched "ON." "Night Must Fall" is the epitome of an intelligent horror film.The first time I saw this film I was initially and completely mesmerized by Robert Montgomery's performance. I had not seen him act in any film other than gay '30's farces (with some serious roles thrown into the mix) or WW II films. I always enjoyed his films, but after seeing "Night Must Fall" I began to pay attention to his acting in other films and developed a greater appreciation for his skill as an actor.Rosalind Russell is a talented, gorgeous actor/wit/comedienne, and is able to fully-utilize her skill in her role. What can I say about Dame May Witty, other than I wish I could travel back in time to see her on the stage in London in her prime. The two other women characters in the home, the cook and the girlfriend/servant, are small but vital roles that each actor plays to perfection. Additionally, this was that unusual and rare film that was adapted from a stage play BUT was not merely shot as a play. Unless you paid attention to the credits, you would not realize this was a stage play. Not so easy to adapt a stage play to film, keep the dialog flowing properly, turning the play into a film that is meant to be seen as a film.This film is perfectly written, directed and acted. The lighting and cinematography are superb. The set designs, costumes, etc...............all nonpareil.

At least not by today's standards. ROSALIND RUSSELL plays a low-key role in this tepid "thriller" based on a stage play and showing its stage origins from beginning to end.ROBERT MONTGOMERY is the nominal star with the central role of a deceptive serial killer who charms his way into a household run by crotchety DAME MAY WHITTY, superb as a wheelchair bound old woman. The expert performances make up for the obvious weaknesses of script and direction. The film has a reputation that is not as well sustained when viewed today. So much of the dialogue has a stagey, artificial quality and is too flowery to be real. However, there is a good deal of suspense in wondering how it will all turn out.Not quite the thriller it could have been.