Nightmare ** (1942, Diana Barrymore, Brian Donlevy, Henry Daniell, Eustace Wyatt, David Clyde, Gavin Muir) – Classic Movie Review 12,165

Brian Donlevy, above left.

Brian Donlevy plays an ex-gambler who helps beautiful widow Diana Barrymore and becomes involved with a murder, spies and saboteurs, in the 1942 thriller Nightmare.

Director Tim Whelan’s 1942 American Universal Pictures black and white film noir mystery thriller Nightmare stars Brian Donlevy as a hungry, down-on-his-luck American gambler called Daniel Shane, who breaks into secretary Leslie Stafford (Diana Barrymore)’s house and discovers the dead body of her murdered husband Captain Stafford (Henry Daniell) in wartime London.

Leslie then seeks Daniel’s help to dispose of the body of her husband, and Daniel consequently is drawn into a Nazi spy plot and a chase across the English countryside.

Nightmare is a patchy, none too riveting murder-spy-thriller, though it is sufficiently atmospheric and ingenious to keep you watching. But the suspense never quite builds high enough to maintain the tension of the promising opening scene of Donlevy breaking into Barrymore’s house.

Dwight Taylor’s screenplay is based on the 1932 novel Escape by Philip MacDonald.

The cast are Diana Barrymore, Brian Donlevy, Henry Daniell, Eustace Wyatt, David Clyde, Gavin Muir, Hans Conried, Arthur Shields, Stanley Logan, Ian Wolfe, John Abbott, Elspeth Dudgeon, Ivan F Simpson, Anita Sharp-Bolster, Harold De Becker, Keith Hitchcock, Arthur Gould-Porter, Lydia Bilbrook, Pax Walker, Bobbie Hale [Bobby Hale], Leonard Carey, Tiny Jones, and Dorothy Vernon.

Filming location: Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California.

Runtime: 81 minutes.

Nightmare is directed by Tim Whelan, runs 81 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Dwight Taylor, based on the novel Escape by Philip MacDonald, is shot in black and white by George Barnes, is produced by Dwight Taylor, is scored by Frank Skinner, and is designed by John B Goodman.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,165

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