I kept looking for trademark indicators that this was a Fritz Lang film (which it is), but couldn't find them. Perhaps I don't know Lang's work that well.
It seemed like a fairly conventional, even formulaic Hollywood Studio System marital drama, based on a popular Broadway play by Clifford Odets. Quick plot summary, Stanwyck returns to her home down, decides, perhaps mistakenly, to marry the good guy, but falls in a kind of love with the bad guy. To reveal how it plays out would be a Spoiler, and I don't put those in my reviews.
That being said, a great vehicle for three very, very good actors. Starting with, not the least, Robert Ryan, who was apparently in the process of divorcing Stanwyck while the film was being made. Word is they were consummate pros on set. Ryan is, in my opinion, an under-rated actor, as he was normally playing "Bad Guys" - and here it is no different, he is the villain, in a sense, and plays the part superbly. I remember him being so, so good in the great A Bad Day at Black Rock.
Next up is Paul Douglas, who plays the "Good Guy" Milquetoast whom Stanwyck decides to marry. My recollection of Douglas is mostly seeing him do very good work in mostly supporting roles, especially WW2 action films and Melodramas. He was a very good actor, and is given the opportunity to absolutely shine in "Clash" and, in my opinion, nearly steals the show. It is a tough role to play and Douglas positively eats it up.
That brings us to the actress who won a recent Twitter poll as the greatest American Actress of all time. Miss Barbara Stanwyck was just always good, if not great in every role she took on. What I love about Stanwyck is, like Gene Tierney, she exerts a proto-Feminist strength in her acting that threatens to overwhelm the restraints of the Patriarchal society in which she was making films. Here, perhaps due to Odets' sensitive character development, she is really the power center of the film, as a perhaps disgraced woman, returning to her home town trying to find a man who will marry her before it is too late.
Stanwyck' s character, against her better judgement, agrees to marry Douglas' wimpy Boat Captain, and then nearly immediately regrets it as Ryan's character is circling about her, and her marriage like a man shark. Again, I won't spoil it to say what happens, but how Stanwyck manages the nuance of a woman returning from failure in her previous marriage, to try to find love, or at least a Husband, is really masterful.
If you love this era of films and/or Stanwyck, Clash by Night is for you. And, as an added Easter Egg, you get to see Marilyn Monroe in her film debut. That is worth the price of admission, right there.
