Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Night of the Following Day – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

The Night of the Following Day is one of those titles that takes a bit of thought, but it eventually works itself out.

The film has always been a bit of an oddity to me, as while it has some superb players in lead roles, it not only never seems to come together ends in an extremely odd fashion.

There's Marlon Brando (the chauffeur), who seemed to be on a career downtrend with one means of acting training. Richard Boone is Leer, the bad dude, and Rita Moreno, is the occasionally drug-addled accomplice, in what might be a kidnapping drama.

The McGuffin is played by one of my favorite actors of the period, Pamela Franklin, who was first seen on the screen in The Innocents in 1961, followed by Our Mother's House, and really hit her stride in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, as one of Maggie Smith's "girls."

For those who might have missed Jean Brodie, it should be considered essential viewing.

I've not seen this film in aeons, and I still don't quite know what to make of it, especially Mr. Brando doing his best "Stella!" imitation in one sequence. Whether the problem is the screenplay, derived from a novel, or the director, Hubert Cornfield, I have no idea.

As a disc, it's quite nice, courtesy of Kino and Universal.

Film grain, color and densities are all in place, except of a number of dupes - many in the beach sequence near the conclusion - and it all works.

I'd recommend as an oddity, but don't want to receive hate mail from those who might not see its positive points.

Image – 4.5

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Upgrade from DVD – Yes

RAH

 

[Robin9]

I won't send you any hate mail because I'm not going to buy this disc. I saw the film when it first came out and I just didn't like it.

 

[haineshisway]

I saw this while living in NY in 1969 and just found it so weird that I actually loved it. Saw it three times. Loved Pamela Franklin, Brando was clearly making his lines up and not well, and Boone, as always, was chilling. I have the French Blu on this and since nothing was said about a new transfer or in Kino-speak "restoration" can anyone say if this is that transfer? It's not bad - I looked at it after this was announced. One real plus for the film is the Stanley Myers score, which is great. One wishes that the hilarious Universal TV version were included. It was one of several where they shot additional footage with other actors, explaining everything. I think with this film it was two officers in a French precinct discussing everything. I think all those funky TV versions they did - don't know how many there were - should be included on discs. Clearly, they have them

 

[Charles Smith]

Never saw it, but given that pair of comments, I’m in.

 

[lark144]

I saw this while living in NY in 1969 and just found it so weird that I actually loved it. Saw it three times. Loved Pamela Franklin, Brando was clearly making his lines up and not well, and Boone, as always, was chilling. I have the French Blu on this and since nothing was said about a new transfer or in Kino-speak "restoration" can anyone say if this is that transfer? It's not bad - I looked at it after this was announced. One real plus for the film is the Stanley Myers score, which is great. One wishes that the hilarious Universal TV version were included. It was one of several where they shot additional footage with other actors, explaining everything. I think with this film it was two officers in a French precinct discussing everything. I think all those funky TV versions they did - don't know how many there were - should be included on discs. Clearly, they have them

Bruce, I first saw this at the Albermarle in Brooklyn. You may have been working there at the time. Back in those days, I tried to see everything. And yeah, I found it so strange and disconcerting and and yet strangely compelling that I watched it again. And came back the next day. It's one of those film maudit masterpieces. Nothing holds together. The performances are all over the map. Everyone is kind of doing their own thing. The only actor who appears to have read the script is Pamela Franklin, who does wonderful, beautifully crafted character work. I also recall Willy Kurant's (Godard's "Masculine Feminine", Jerzy Skolimowski's "Le Depart") cinematography is incredibly atmospheric and dense. The colors were so saturated it reminded me of those De Kooning paintings from the late 1950's where he would paint one color--especially yellow and blue--on a canvas over and over until it became so thick it shimmered. It's a film noir on acid. Brando is doing bits and pieces of his performances from other films, which I at first thought was irritating, but then..it's as if all the charcaters have different movies in their heads which they're acting out and Brando goes everyone one better by not just being in a different film but continually changing the channel. Though I doubt if this was initially intentional, it kind of works in a weird way, as the film is about a haphazard crime partnership that goes horribly wrong because of the personalities involved. The film's style also changes in tandem with the acting styles, so maybe the director saw what was going on with Brando and tried to reflect that stylistically. I don't know. But those scenes at the beach--visually and stylistically--are amazing. That overcast sky and those waves. It evokes water as void in those early Roman Polanski films, "Knife in the Water" & "Cul-De-Sac". It's like everything goes back to zero, all that violence and confusion cancels each other out, so you're left with a serene nothingness, which really was the experience of living through the late 1960's. I don't know if I need to own it, but I'll never forget it. And yes, the Stanley Meyers score is great.

 

[haineshisway]

Bruce, I first saw this at the Albermarle in Brooklyn. You may have been working there at the time. Back in those days, I tried to see everything. And yeah, I found it so strange and disconcerting and and yet strangely compelling that I watched it again. And came back the next day. It's one of those film maudit masterpieces. Nothing holds together. The performances are all over the map. Everyone is kind of doing their own thing. The only actor who appears to have read the script is Pamela Franklin, who does wonderful, beautifully crafted character work. I also recall Willy Kurant's (Godard's "Masculine Feminine", Jerzy Skolimowski's "Le Depart") cinematography is incredibly atmospheric and dense. The colors were so saturated it reminded me of those De Kooning paintings from the late 1950's where he would paint one color--especially yellow and blue--on a canvas over and over until it became so thick it shimmered. It's a film noir on acid. Brando is doing bits and pieces of his performances from other films, which I at first thought was irritating, but then..it's as if all the charcaters have different movies in their heads which they're acting out and Brando goes everyone one better by not just being in a different film but continually changing the channel. Though I doubt if this was initially intentional, it kind of works in a weird way, as the film is about a haphazard crime partnership that goes horribly wrong because of the personalities involved. The film's style also changes in tandem with the acting styles, so maybe the director saw what was going on with Brando and tried to reflect that stylistically. I don't know. But those scenes at the beach--visually and stylistically--are amazing. That overcast sky and those waves. It evokes water as void in those early Roman Polanski films, "Knife in the Water" & "Cul-De-Sac". It's like everything goes back to zero, all that violence and confusion cancels each other out, so you're left with a serene nothingness, which really was the experience of living through the late 1960's. I don't know if I need to own it, but I'll never forget it. And yes, the Stanley Meyers score is great.

a) beautifully written. b) I think I was working there at the time - I know I worked there for the entire run of Once Upon a Time in the West and I think Hieronymous Merkin. Then I went off to do summer stock in New Jersey and that was that. Ships that pass in the night - or, as the Sherman Brothers put it, It's a small world, after all.

 

[willyTass]

I saw this many years ago

it was extraordinary. Extraordinary that anyone could understand what Brando was saying

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Supposedly Brando was so unhappy with director Cornfeld that he demanded that Boone direct the final few scenes of the film.