SO DARK THE NIGHT

SO DARK THE NIGHT- Is an obscure little film I saw recently. It was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, famous for "Gun Crazy" with a title like that you know it's a riot. "So dark the night" is really different, the story is based in France where famous detective Henri Cassin played by Steven Geray
takes a vacation in a small village.
The moment he arrived in a chauffeured fancy car, a young peasant girl Nanette Michaud falls in love with Henri with dollar signs in her eyes. However she's already engaged to a thug named Leon Achard, who loves her so much that he's willing to kill her than to have her end up with some other man.
Henri was reluctant to the Nanette's advances at first but by day # 2 he finds himself totally in love with her despite of their age difference and the fact that she was promised to marry Leon since childhood.
So as you can see when Nanette's dead body was discovered by the town hunchback, everyone was in an uproar, all the evidence points to Leon. But when Leon was also found dead by the hunchback, detective Henri Cassin is baffled by this mysterious case. He is torn to solve to murder of the woman he once loved and trying to calm down a frightened village.
The movie take on a darker and stranger tone as the mystery becomes more and more bizarre, where l you find the characters take on a whole different personality. It keeps you guessing and begging for more scenes featuring the hunchback too!
Whenever a story takes place in a small European village, I expect Frankenstein or the wolfman to show up any minute.
It is quite a gem and you find yourself laughing and curious at the same time.