I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Memory is a funny thing. For some odd reason, I remember first seeing Nightfall on our local PBS station, WYES. They used to have a late night movie show, which as we say in New Orleans: Ain’t dere no more.

We’re still on location with this week’s movie. Nightfall is set in mountainous wilds of Wyoming and the urban wilds of Los Angeles. The story is told in flashbacks. How noir is that? An artist  played by Aldo Ray and his doctor friend played by Frank Albertson are on a hunting trip in Wyoming. They have an unfortunate encounter with two thugs played by Brian Keith and Rudy Bond who just pulled a heist then wrecked their car.

The doctor doctors the criminals and is repaid by being murdered. The artist escapes and returns to LA under a cloud of suspicion. Then he meets Anne Bancroft before she played Annie Sullivan and Mrs. Robinson. Obviously, his luck had changed albeit briefly.

The featured image is of the film’s MacGuffin: A bagful of money secreted by Aldo Ray somewhere near Jackson Hole. Ray spends most of the movie being chased by the cool calculating Brian Keith and his trigger-happy sociopathic sidekick, Rudy Bond. Bond is a scary dude unaware that his partner will later play cuddly but gruff Uncle Bill on TV’s Family Affair.

Speaking of TV stars, James Gregory of Barney Miller fame plays an insurance investigator who tracks Ray and helps him out after following him to Wyoming. Here’s a calm moment before the thrilling ending:

The acting in Nightfall is top-notch anchored by solid performances by Aldo Ray and Brian Keith. Anne Bancroft is slinky and seductive and Rudy Bond comes off a proto-MAGA goon. It’s easy to imagine him taking a dump in the Speaker’s office. James Gregory’s wife is played by Marlon’s big sister Jocelyn Brando who played a lot of wives in the Fifties but never opposite her brother, I’m relieved to report.

Nightfall has some plot elements in common with two better known films noir, The Killers and Out Of The Past. Nightfall was directed by Jacques Tourneur who helmed the latter classic. Bernard Guffey shot the movie, the winter scenes in Wyoming are particularly good and I’m particular about such things.

The script is top-notch. It was written by Sterling Silliphant and based on a novel by David Goodis, originally called The Dark Chase.

Grading Time: I give Nightfall 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B+. It’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Time for poster mania or is that poster-palooza?

We begin with side-by-side long sheets. The second one is in both French and German so we’ll call it European:

You say ja, I say oui. Let’s call the whole thing off.

Next up, the wordiest quad I’ve ever seen:

All this running around has made me thirsty. Let’s all go to the lobby before the movie starts:

Thirst quenched. Let’s case the lobby cards, which can usually be found in cases in the lobby. Does that make me a card? Discuss amongst yourselves.

We begin with a bloody good shot of Aldo Ray and Anne Bancroft:

Those Wyoming winter pictures chilled me to the bone. Let’s board the trailer to warm up.

As usual, the last word goes to Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley intro and outro: