Director: MARK ROBSON. Screenplay: Robert Buckner. Based on the novel "Lights Out" by Bayard Kendrick. Photography: William Daniels. Film editor: Russell Schoengarth. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun, Nathan Juran. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman and John Austin. Music: Frank Skinner. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Hair styles: Joan St. Oegger. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Assistant director: John Sherwood. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey, Corson Jowett. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Robert Buckner.
U.S. release: January 1952. U.K. release: 21 April 1951 (sic). A Universal picture. 96 minutes.
U.K. release title: "Lights Out".
SYNOPSIS: Larry Nevins, a blinded World War 2 veteran, is discharged from hospital, returns home, and attempts to adjust to civilian life.
COMMENT: A semi-documentary, largely filmed on location at the General Hospital, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, has as its theme, the rehabilitation of the blind.
That theme is hardly a box-office prospect, although screenwriter- producer Robert (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Night and Day) Buckner has in-advisedly attempted to inject such values via episodes of romantic melodrama that simply don't belong in the proceedings at all.
Unfortunately, this is not the only problem that militates against an art-house circuit release. Another black mark so far as sophisticated audiences are concerned, can be chalked up to the movie's lack of artistry. True, Arthur Kennedy delivers one of the finest performances of his career, but in other respects, Mark Robson's direction lacks not only both fire and thunder, but dare we say it, Inspiration?
U.S. release: January 1952. U.K. release: 21 April 1951 (sic). A Universal picture. 96 minutes.
U.K. release title: "Lights Out".
SYNOPSIS: Larry Nevins, a blinded World War 2 veteran, is discharged from hospital, returns home, and attempts to adjust to civilian life.
COMMENT: A semi-documentary, largely filmed on location at the General Hospital, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, has as its theme, the rehabilitation of the blind.
That theme is hardly a box-office prospect, although screenwriter- producer Robert (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Night and Day) Buckner has in-advisedly attempted to inject such values via episodes of romantic melodrama that simply don't belong in the proceedings at all.
Unfortunately, this is not the only problem that militates against an art-house circuit release. Another black mark so far as sophisticated audiences are concerned, can be chalked up to the movie's lack of artistry. True, Arthur Kennedy delivers one of the finest performances of his career, but in other respects, Mark Robson's direction lacks not only both fire and thunder, but dare we say it, Inspiration?