The Night of the Following Day *** (1969, Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, Rita Moreno, Pamela Franklin) – Classic Movie Review 5871

Co-writer/ director Hubert Cornfield’s intelligent, character-driven 1969 crime movie is brisk, complex and involving. Unfairly, it ignominiously went out as the lesser half of a double bill. Although it is an American film, it is shot in Technicolor in France, around Le Touquet.

And though this intriguing item is a forgotten Marlon Brando movie, it is a not at all a bad, if basic, abduction thriller, with a tip-top cast to support it. It is a typically eccentric choice for a later Brando movie.

Pamela Franklin is okay as the rich girl heiress kidnapped for a ransom in a chauffeur-driven Rolls and being held hostage in a remote beach house on the coast of France. But it is Marlon Brando, looking lean, fit and young in a neat wig, who gives it a lot of dramatic and acting weight as Bud, the leader of the kidnapping gang. Richard Boone and Rita Moreno also star as Leer and drug-taking Vi – and they are considerable assets too.

Cornfield’s handling and pacing are occasionally ropey but the French locations are handy to bring compensating atmosphere in Willy Kurant’s eye-catching Technicolor cinematography.

Cornfield and Robert Phippeny’s screenplay is based on the novel by Lionel White, and it is quite tough toned at times.

It features Jess Hahn, Gérard Buhr, Al Lettieri, Jacques Marin and Hugues Wanner.

There are three versions: the original cut movie on video, the restored print and a TV version with added scenes.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5871

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com