Deadline at Dawn

Harold Clurman's 1946 American film follows a sailor on leave waking after a drunken night with a bag of money. A woman has been found dead; the young man remembers nothing and has to be back on his ship by morning. A dance-hall hostess decides to help him. Clifford Odets wrote the screenplay and the language gives it away: the characters speak far more literary than a film noir leads you to expect, and that strangeness is the film's identity. Clurman came from the theatre and this was his only film. Susan Hayward is strong. The story moves in real time across the night. The resolution is weak. Who it's for: viewers interested in film noir and American cinema of the forties. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a soundly built mystery, or put off by ornate dialogue.