Strangers of the Evening

Strangers of the Evening is a convoluted tale that tries to build suspense by being vague. It might have been intersting if it had been laid out better.

Mr. McNorton, a lawyer, earns a stay at the mortuary after taking a nap while driving. Something about the death bothers the head of the mortuary and his colleagues, and they conspire to... do something they are vague about. Murder complicates their situation.

Soon a conspiracy comes to light dealing with the covering up of elements of McNorton's death, but it has gone wrong with all of the other craziness in the night. As the police investigate other people go missing and leads are vague.

Sounds like a crazy plot right? Convoluted mysteries can be great if they are cleverly written or comically amusing. This one is neither. It's tedious and slow. It's purposefully hard to follow with the promise of explaining everything once the whole picture comes into view. Unfortunately it doesn't live up to the promise in any satisfying way.

A lot of the interactions and developments don't make sense. For example, a witness to a crime in an alley is questioned. He has only vague info to offer (there's a shocker) which leads to the police fixating on him for the murder even though they have 0 evidence and 0 motive.

The acting is weak which doesn't help the already unimpressive movie-viewing experience. The end result is something that will leave you scratching your head wondering why you spent an hour watching it.

MORALITY:

Typical of these old black-and-white movies there is no sexuality, nudity, or strong language.

Violence is only by suggestion.

SPIRITUALITY:

The story isn't coherent enough to spark any spiritual discussion.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

If you really, really like these early 30's suspense flicks you might want to check out Strangers of the Evening, but don't expect much out of it.

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