The Devil Strikes at Night

Director Robert Siodmak, who was born in America but moved with his family to Germany as an infant, returned in 1940 to the U.S., where he made his Hollywood mark with a series of moody pictures (Phantom Lady, The Suspect, The Spiral Staircase, Criss Cross) that helped to define film noir. Not so well known are the films he made after his return to Germany following the war, including this Oscar-nominated (for Best Foreign Film) 1957 effort based on a real-life 1944 case about a prolific serial killer tracked down by a dedicated police inspector who is thwarted in his efforts by truth-burying Nazi officials unwilling to admit that such atrocities could have gone unnoticed for so long in Hitler's Reich. The Devil Strikes at Night is an interesting complement to both Fritz Lang's M and Anatole Litvak's The Night of the Generals, and it's an intriguing film in its own right--obviously made on a modest budget yet effectively suspenseful, even though a romantic subplot is an unnecessary intrusion. The black-and-white cinematography with its canny use of light and shadow recall Siodmak's Hollywood thrillers, and there's extra creepiness in watching a German cast recreate the atmosphere of the war years so soon after the downfall of the fascist regime. Although extra-less, the full screen (presented in its original aspect ratio) transfer is solid. Recommended. (F. Swietek)