Deadline at Dawn
Deadline at Dawn

Movie spotlight

Deadline at Dawn

1946
Movie
83 min
English

A young Navy sailor has one night to find out why a woman was killed and he ended up with a bag of money after a drinking blackout.

Insights

IMDb6.5/10
Director: Harold YoungGenres: Film-Noir, Mystery, Crime

Plot Summary

A young man wakes up with no memory of the previous night and discovers a woman's dead body in his hotel room. He has only a few hours to piece together what happened and clear his name before the police arrive. As he retraces his steps through the city's underbelly, he encounters a cast of suspicious characters and a femme fatale.

Critical Reception

Deadline at Dawn is a lesser-known but solid entry in the film noir genre, appreciated for its suspenseful plot and atmospheric portrayal of urban decay. While not as iconic as some of its contemporaries, it offers a compelling mystery with a twist ending.

What Reviewers Say

  • Praised for its effective noir atmosphere and mounting suspense.

  • The plot is engaging, with a decent twist, though some find the pacing uneven.

  • Features memorable characters and a classic amnesia-driven mystery.

Google audience: Audience reviews are scarce, but those available generally find the film to be an entertaining, albeit somewhat predictable, example of film noir.

Fun Fact

The film was based on a serialized novel by Cornell Woolrich, a prolific author of suspense fiction whose works were frequently adapted into films during the noir era.

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My Review

TMDB Reviews

1 reviews
John Chard

John Chard

People with wax heads should keep out of the sun! Deadline at Dawn is directed by Harold Clurman and adapted to screenplay by Clifford Odets from the novel written by Cornell Woolrich. It stars Susan Hayward, Paul Lukas, Bill Williams, J...