The Big Night

Joseph Losey’s last American film tells the story of a teenager trying to become a man in one night, foreshadowing Rebel Without a Cause—although the hero here must confront an adult world. Okay, so John Drew Barrymore is no James Dean. But even so, this film does feature the final screen role of Dorothy Comingore, who was redbaited, made a scapegoat by the Hearst press after playing Susan Alexander in Citizen Kane, and, as a result, lost everything. Fellow blacklistees Ring Lardner, Jr. and Hugo Butler also worked on the script, adapted by Stanley Ellin from his own novel, Dreadful Summit.