See also The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (disambiguation).

Night Has a Thousand Eyes is a 1948

1948 in film

The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...

 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...

, starring Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...

 and directed by John Farrow

John Farrow

John Villiers Farrow, CBE was an Australian, later American, film director, producer and screenwriter. In 1957 he won the Academy Award for Best Writing / Best Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days and in 1942 he was nominated as Best Director for Wake Island.-Life and career:Farrow was...

. The screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 was written by Barré Lyndon

Barré Lyndon

Barré Lyndon was a British playwright and screenwriter. The pseudonym was presumably taken from the title character of Thackeray's novel....

 and Jonathan Latimer

Jonathan Latimer

Jonathan Wyatt Latimer was an American crime writer-Life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, he attended the Mesa Ranch School in Arizona from 1922-1925 and later studied at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1929...

. The film is based on the novel of the same name 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....

.

Plot

The film opens in San Francisco, where John Triton (Robinson) is "The Mental Wizard", a nightclub fortune teller. During a show one evening, Triton suddenly urges an audience member to rush home, cautioning that her son is in danger. As the story unfolds, Triton struggles with his newfound psychic ability, as all of his relentlessly bleak predictions prove accurate. 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...

 (of Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...

fame) plays Whitney Courtland, Triton's best friend, who becomes wealthy using tips from the now-psychic Triton.

Critical reaction

The film is generally praised for its gloomy adaptation of Woolrich's writing. Time Out Film Guide, however (in spite of praising the cinematography by John F. Seitz

John F. Seitz

John Francis Seitz, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer and inventor.He was nominated for seven Academy Awards.-Career:...

), gives the thriller a negative review:

"Aside from the fine opening sequence -- Lund's rescue of Gail Russell from the brink of suicide, and discovery of her mortal terror of the stars -- a disappointing adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's superb novel."

In his book Art of Noir, Eddie Muller

Eddie Muller

Eddie Muller is a writer based in San Francisco. He is known for writing books about movies, particularly film noir. Founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation, he is considered a noir expert and is called on to write and talk about the film genre, notably on wry commentary tracks for Fox's...

 writes: "No film more faithfully captured Woolrich's sense of doomed predestination than Night Has a Thousand Eyes."

Featured cast

Actor	Role
Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...	John Triton 'The Mental Wizard'
Gail Russell Gail Russell Gail Russell was an American film and television actress.-Career:She was born Elizabeth L. Russell to George and Gladys Russell in Chicago, Illinois, and then moved to the Los Angeles, California, area when she was a teenager. Russell's extraordinary beauty brought her to the attention of...	Jean Courtland
John Lund John Lund John Lund was an American film actor who is probably best remembered for his role in the film A Foreign Affair , directed by Billy Wilder.-Background:...	Elliott Carson
Virginia Bruce Virginia Bruce Virginia Bruce was an American actress and singer.-Career:Born Helen Virginia Briggs in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she went with her family to Los Angeles intending to enroll in the University of California when a friendly wager sent her seeking film work. She got it as an extra in Why Bring That...	Jenny Courtland
William Demarest William Demarest Carl William Demarest was an American character actor. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.-Early life and career:...	Lt. Shawn
Richard Webb Richard Webb (actor) Richard Webb was a film, television and radio actor. He was born in Bloomington, Illinois.He appeared in more than fifty films, including many westerns and films noir including Out of the Past , Night Has a Thousand Eyes , I Was a Communist for the FBI and Carson City...	Peter Vinson
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...	Whitney Courtland

Music

The film's main theme

The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (jazz standard)

"The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" is a song composed by Jerry Brainin, with lyrics by Buddy Bernier. The song was written for the 1948 film Night Has a Thousand Eyes....

 (written by Jerry Brainin and Buddy Bernier

Buddy Bernier

Henry 'Buddy' Bernier was an American lyricist, mainly active during the 1940s and 50s.Born in Watertown, New York, Bernier is perhaps best remembered for Poinciana, written with composer Nat Simon, first introduced in the 1952 film Dreamboat which subsequently became a standard covered by artists...

) has gone on to become a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 standard, having been recorded by Horace Silver

Horace Silver

Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....

, Carmen McRae

Carmen McRae

Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...

, Paul Desmond

Paul Desmond

Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...

 and John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

, among others.