A relentlessly harrowing drama that anticipates Sidney Lumet's 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead' (2007) by nearly seventy years.
I once saw a silent film that I correctly guessed was going to turn out to be a bad dream since the hero's plight had escalated so far out of control that was the only way it could possibly be resolved; and resorting to making it All a Dream has ruined quite a few fine films in its time (as well as coming as a great relief when I've woken up a few times)!
'On the Night of the Fire' is such a film. As Ralph Richardson's situation grew more and more desperate in this Tyneside (not that you'd know it from the accents) 'Crime and Punishment' the more convinced I became that it was all going to end with him waking up to discover that it had all just been a nightmare.
Or was it?
I once saw a silent film that I correctly guessed was going to turn out to be a bad dream since the hero's plight had escalated so far out of control that was the only way it could possibly be resolved; and resorting to making it All a Dream has ruined quite a few fine films in its time (as well as coming as a great relief when I've woken up a few times)!
'On the Night of the Fire' is such a film. As Ralph Richardson's situation grew more and more desperate in this Tyneside (not that you'd know it from the accents) 'Crime and Punishment' the more convinced I became that it was all going to end with him waking up to discover that it had all just been a nightmare.
Or was it?