Deadline at Dawn
Encyclopedia
Deadline at Dawn is a 1946 film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

, the only film directed by stage director Harold Clurman
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman was a visionary American theatre director and drama critic, "one of the most influential in the United States". He was most notable as one of the three founders of the New York City's Group Theatre...

. It was written by Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...

 and based on a novella by Cornell Woolrich
Cornell Woolrich
Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....

 (as William Irish). The RKO Radio Picture was the only cinematic collaboration between Clurman and his former Group Theatre associate, screenwriter Odets. The director of photography was RKO regular Nicholas Musuraca. The musical score was by German refugee composer Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...

.

Plot

Alex Winkley (Bill Williams), a young Navy sailor, wakes up from a night of drinking in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and finds he has a wad of cash. His memory is hazy, but he knows he got it from a woman he had visited earlier in the evening, Edna Bartelli (Lola Lane).

With the help of a dance hall girl, June Goth (Susan Hayward), he attempts to return the money, only to find out that the woman from whom he got the cash is now dead. The sailor isn't sure if he's the killer or not. Alex and June, along with a philosophical cabbie (Lukas), stay up all night attempting to solve the murder mystery before the sailor has to catch a bus to the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

 in the morning. Their deadline is at dawn.

During the film, there are many false leads and red herrings, involving a blind piano player named Sleepy Parsons (Miller), and a young couple. Bartelli had been in the business of blackmailing men with whom she had had affairs, so there are many possible suspects. The woman's brother Val (Calleia), adds a touch of menace to the plot. The surprise ending resolves all issues, including the relationship between Alex and June.

Cast

  • Susan Hayward
    Susan Hayward
    Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...

     as June Goth
  • Paul Lukas
    Paul Lukas
    Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...

     as Gus Hoffman
  • Bill Williams
    Bill Williams (actor)
    Bill Williams was an American television and film actor. He is best known for his starring role in the early 1950 television show The Adventures of Kit Carson.-Career:...

     as Alex Winkley
  • Joseph Calleia
    Joseph Calleia
    Joseph Calleia was a Maltese born American singer, composer, screenwriter and actor, both on Broadway and in film...

     as Val Bartelli
  • Osa Massen
    Osa Massen
    -Background and early career:Born Aase Madsen, she began her career as a newspaper photographer before becoming an actress. Massen notably appeared as Melvyn Douglas' unfaithful wife dealing with blackmailer Joan Crawford in A Woman's Face ....

     as Helen Robinson
  • Lola Lane as Edna Bartelli
  • Jerome Cowan
    Jerome Cowan
    Jerome Palmer Cowan was an American film and television actor. At eighteen he joined a travelling stock company, shortly afterwards enlisting in the navy in World War I. After the war he returned to the stage and became a vaudeville headliner, then gained success on the New York stage...

     as Lester Brady
  • Marvin Miller
    Marvin Miller (actor)
    Marvin Elliott Miller was an American film and voice-over actor. Possessing a deep, baritone voice, he began his career in radio in St. Louis, Missouri before becoming a Hollywood actor...

     as Sleepy Parsons

Production details

The dialogue contains Odets' trademark New York wisecracks. For example, while dancing at club early in the movie, the Hayward character likens the dance hall to a post office, filled with second class matter. Edna Bartelli greets her ex-husband by saying, "Aren't you dead yet?"

There are many "slice of life" characterizations of big city people in small roles, such as a tired banana salesman, an angry building superintendent, a refugee with a skin condition who has a crush on June, and a wisecracking sidewalk pitchman.

Odets' Group Theater colleague Roman Bohnen
Roman Bohnen
Roman Bohnen was a stage and film actor.Born Roman Aloys Bohnen in St. Paul, Minnesota, Bohnen attended the University of Minnesota, where he was a cheerleader. He cheered so vigorously that it changed his voice for the rest of his life. After graduating in 1923 with a B.A., Roman served his...

appears in a bit part, as a grief-stricken man with a dying cat.
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