As some of the other reviews point out, this is an exploitation flick of sorts, with captive women prisoners and stereotypical German and Japanese antagonists. The production values are generally low with some clunky direction, and the film was obviously filmed on a shoestring budget. But...Reviews that want to write this off as a sleazy proto-70s women-in-bondage cheapie about a "cosmic death ray" miss, I think, several points. First, the film's apparent mulligan, the death ray, is not the point of the film. Is it real? Does it work? Do we ever get to see it? Maybe, maybe and no. It is a total red herring and, obviously intentionally, has virtually nothing to do with the plot. Historical note: In the final days of the war, the German Armaments Minister Albert Speer actually named Robert Ley (the rather foolish head of the Nazi Labor Front) as "Commissioner for Death Rays." Ley took it seriously but it was a joke to Speer, who mentioned it in his book "Inside the Third Reich."The negative reviews that disliked the set-up to this film, in which a group of attractive women are forced to be "charming" to their German and Japanese captors, miss the point. Any supposed salaciousness in the film's premise are outweighed by the film's concentration on showing the women as intelligent protagonists who work together, even if their motives are at cross-purposes, for reasons of survival and solidarity. Overall the film does feel like it was written very much within the style of wartime propaganda films, even though it was released in 1948. All this said, the film is more layered and has more interesting characterization than some of the other reviews here might lead one to believe.

****SPOILERS*** Off the wall and unintentionally funny post WWII movie involving a number of Nazi higher ups who escaped from their homeland after it was defeated by the allied forces to Japan to start up a new world war for the fatherland, Nazi Germany, that in fact at the time August 1945 no longer existed! The film also has a women liberation story line or point of view in how women, of all races creeds and colors, was brutally mistreated by the Nazis and their Japanese allies in and out of captivity.It seems that the escaped Nazis had developed a super cosmic ray gun 1,000 times more powerful then the atomic bomb that at the time was being dropped on Japanese cities Hiroshima & Nagasaki that they planned to use to defeat the allies in a new world war that they were planning to start. This at a time that their allies the Japanese ware days away from surrendering unconditionally to the allied forces! At the same time were shown in no uncertain terms that the treacherous Nazis were planning to double cross their allies the Japanese by keeping their super secret cosmic ray gun from them in order to win, the new world war that they plan to start, all by themselves and have no one else, like the Japanese,to share the glory and riches with them!Mindless and totally idiotic movie that has the Nazis look far more insane then any Hollywood movie made about them, like "Hitler Dead or Alive", during the height of WWII.The Nazis as well as their Japanses "allies" are so oblivious of whats going on in the world in them losing the war and their nations being completely devastated by round the clock areal bombardments that its hard to take their actions, in them thinking that their winning the war, seriously even if you wanted to. There's of course the beautiful American nurse Claie Adams, Virginia Christine, who's one of the imprisoned women by the Nazis who's being forced to put out, if you know what I mean, to their and the Japanses military in the Shanghai officers club who was actually planted there as a spy as well as saboteur and assassin. That's to knock of top German and Japanese scientists who are involved in the cosmic ray gun project in preventing it from getting off the ground.***SPOILERS*** And get ready for this in that it's Clair's husband who's working for US military intelligence who infiltrated the Nazi Japanese ring as German Major Von Archeim, William Henry,who despite his very prominent and obvious American accent the Nazis and Japanese have no idea of his true identity! There's also Chinese/American actor Richard Loo again playing a Japanese villain Col. Noyama who looks like,in knowing how ridicules the movie is, he's trying to keep a straight face in all the scenes he's in. And last but not least there's Chinese/American actor Benson Fong playing a real Chinses national delivery boy Chang who smuggles explosives into the Nazi officers club to be used to blow the place to bits by the time the the film is finally and mercifully put to an end. That's before it causes anybody still watching it ending up laughing themselves to death!

"Women in the Night" begins by saying it is "based on case histories from the files of the United Nations Information Offices." It also promised to depict the heroism's and courage of the women of the countries occupied by the Nazis and Japanese during WW II. It takes place over a period of 36 hours, or 90 minutes that seems like 36 hours, in a German Officers' Club in Shanghai. It seems that these Nazis have developed a cosmic death ray that is 100 times more deadly than the Atomic bomb. But they evidently overlooked telling Hitler and the boys in Berlin about it, and Adolph and his henchmen are now history. But the Japanese want the secret to ensure they won't face the same fate as the Germans. The war in Europe is over but this group of Germans are not only hanging on in Shanghai, they have the funds to manage the upkeep of a club that would rival a Vegas night spot, or will in the future when Vegas begins to flower. Anyway, the Japanese guys want this secret real bad, and the Germans tell them to come on over to the Club and they will give it to them. But the German commandant of the Club has no intentions of demonstrating the "weapon" and has some distracting-diversion tactic planned for the Japanese honchos, and he has the club Maitre'd-slash-torture chamber guy bring in a group of captive women, and his instructions to them is to get out there and "entertain" the Japanese guys, and the way he says "entertain" it is real clear that he means total "entertainment". What his plans are when the Japanese recover from being "entertained" aren't real clear and aren't cleared up later either because one of his officers, (William Henry, the only male in the cast that isn't Asian or speaks with a German accent) is actually an American O.S.S. officer-slash-spy. And one of the "entertainers" is his wife (Tala Birell),a Shanghai version of Mata Hari. Then the plot gets kind of outlandish.

By today's standards, this film is an amazingly racist anti-Nazi and anti-Japanese film--the sort of jingoistic stuff they made during the war as propaganda. So, despite it having a release date of 1948, I strongly suspect it was actually made in 1945--just as the war ended. And, because it was no longer as timely, it was shelved and re-tooled--giving it a bizarro plot that was quite confusing.The film begins with a rather intense and preachy intro about how the Nazis and Japanese brutalized women during the war (such as the Korean 'comfort women'). While this is quite true, the film creates a silly fictionalized piece that frankly was very stupid. A bunch of women (representing, naturally, the various allied countries--though what were they doing in China?!) were kidnapped by the Nazis after the European war ended (this was never addressed in the film--but it's set in August, 1945--and the Nazis surrendered in May, 1945!!). The second atomic bomb has been dropped on Nagasaki and it's only a couple days until the war is over--yet these Nazis want to somehow pimp out these women to the Japanese in order to help them create a NEW Nazi regime(???)! And to do this, the Germans have some secret for a new 'cosmic ray'!!! As for the Germans, they are hilarious. They are way over the top in their stereotypical behaviors and some of them look and sound about as German as the Frito Bandito! One of them, it just so happens, is really an agent for the Americans (really--who would have suspected this guy with a California accent?!) and one of these women turns out to be his old wife!!! What are the odds?! Not surprisingly, the ladies' accents also come and go--showing that these 'actresses' really needed a lot more coaching--or talent! The Japanese, though seemingly more civilized (and consistent with accents), down deep are all just a bunch of mad slobbering rapists----just like their German allies. But again, you must remind yourself that there WAS no Nazi Germany at this time and none of this made any sense! The bottom line is that this is a stupid film thanks to a dreadful script--filled with about as much subtlety as a brick upside your skull! Had it come out during the war, at least it would have had some propaganda value. But, it is a terrible film--one that is so bad that you might enjoy it just for its comedy value! It reminds me of the expression "it's so bad that it's good"! If you like this sort of trash, also try "The First Yank in Tokyo"--a very lurid and silly film to say the least.