Clash by Night

Fritz Lang's crimeless but super-edgy '52 Monterey-set film of Clifford Odets' triangle drama "Clash by Night" stars Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan and Marilyn Monroe. [05 Jul 2005, p.3]

What happens when you mix left-wing playwright Clifford Odets with German emigre director Fritz Lang? You get 1952's "Clash by Night," a relatively star-studded affair (including Marilyn Monroe, in an early role) about a fallen woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who brings passion and betrayal to a small fishing town. [08 Jul 2005, p.45]

Fritz Lang's 1952 romantic triangle with Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan and Marilyn Monroe. [05 Jul 2005]

This melodrama of adultery in a Monterey cannery teams a fascinating array of creative principals. [18 Oct 1991, p.3D]

The script, adapted from a Clifford Odets play, seems to have roused the realist in director Fritz Lang: the backwater atmosphere is as authentic as it is oppressive. Read full review

A very Langian picture of the dangerous undercurrents in emotional relationships, excellently acted by the three principals, interestingly counterpointed by Marilyn Monroe (in her first major role) and Keith Andes as uninhibited young lovers. Read full review

The Fritz Lang verison of a Clifford Odets melodrama about jealousy never quite comes together; the stylized Odets dialogue seems bizarrely out of place in the setting of a fishing village.

Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas and Mr. Ryan are veterans who still can handle a line of dialogue and an emotion with facility, but Mr. Odets' play never is the sum of some of its parts. It lacks conviction and distinction despite its hard-working principals. Read full review

Clifford Odets' Clash by Night, presented on Broadway over a decade earlier, reaches the screen in a rather aimless drama of lust and passion. Read full review