Raoul Walsh directed this film noir-melodrama, starring Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King and Bruce Bennett.
Grade: B-
Produced and distributed by Warner, the film is based on Maritta M. Wolff’s novel “Night Shift.”
The title is taken from the George and Ira Gershwin melodic song “The Man I Love.”
Lounge singer Petey Brown (Pupino), homesick for her family in Los Angeles, decides to leave New York to visit her two sisters and brother.
She lands a job at a Long Beach nightclub, owned by small-time-hood Nicky Toresca, where her sister Sally (Andrea King) is employed.
While evading the sleazy Toresca’s passes, Petey falls in love with down-and-out ex-jazz pianist, legendary San Thomas (Bruce Bennett, better known as Joan Crawford’s kind husband in the 1945 Mildred Pierce), who has never recovered from his divorce.
While trying to smooth over or solve the problems of her sisters, brother, Petey must wait as San decides whether to start new life with her or sign back on with a merchant steamer.
Warner purchased the rights to Maritta Wolff’s novel Night Shift in 1942 for $25,000, for Ann Sheridan and Bogart in the film adaptation. Working titles for the film were “Night Shift,” and “Why Was I Born?” the latter a 1929 song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.
Production fell behind schedule for several reasons–Lupino suffered from exhaustion–causing a delayed production, with 19 days late and $100,000 over budget.
In 1956, when the movie was distributed on TV, with several minutes were cut from the original released version in order to avoid licensing costs for the 1929 song, “Bill.”
Cast
Ida Lupino as Petey Brown
Robert Alda as Nicky Toresca
Andrea King as Sally Otis
Martha Vickers as Virginia Brown
Bruce Bennett as San Thomas
Alan Hale as Riley
Dolores Moran as Gloria O’Connor
John Ridgely as Roy Otis
Don McGuire as Johnny O’Connor
Craig Stevens as Bandleader
Tony Romano as Bamboo Club singer
William Edmunds as Uncle Tony
Jimmie Dodd as Jimmy
