How Long Is “The Big Night”?

Nineteen-year-old John Barrymore Jr. made an impressive starring debut in The Big Night. Barrymore plays George La Main, a young man whose father, ex-boxer Andy La Main (Preston S. Foster), is inexplicably beaten up by sportswriter Al Judge (Howard St. John). Journeying farther and farther into the nether regions of his city's "night world," George tries to find out why his dad was roughed up. Along the way, he makes the acquaintance of a variety of "fringies," played by such able performers as Howard Chamberlain, Philip Bourneuf, Joan Lorring, and, in her last film, Dorothy (Citizen Kane) Comingore. The Big Night was co-adapted by director Joseph Losey and screenwriter Stanley Ellin from Ellin's "dark" novel Dreadful Summit.