The Wonderful World of TCM: Cry in the Night (1956)

I finally got to the interesting little picture "Cry in the Night," an effective black-and-white thriller that puts Natalie Wood in jeopardy and puts poor, old Raymond Burr in a figurative psychoanalyst's chair. It'll be on TCM Wednesday at 4:30 A.M., but I recorded it a looong time ago.

After conking her boyfriend (Richard Anderson) on the noggin, Burr snatches Natalie from a popular makeout spot (as opposed to those unpopular makeout spots--you know, they may not be where the cool kids go, but at least people don't get brained and/or abducted there) and takes her to his secret hideaway where she will presumably be his girlfriend forever.

Cynical police captain Brian Donlevy, much like his beat cops, think the boyfriend is a drunk who needs to sleep it off, but gradually they get the picture, and guess what? Natalie happens to be the daughter of overprotective, gruff, but lovable Captain Edmond O'Brien!

Chaos ensues as the force tries with desperation to find her, while Donlevy strains to hold O'Brien somewhat in check. We see some early examples of profiling, and it turns out Burr's character has mommy issues. Even O'Brien is due for a dose of armchair psychiatry in this one, and the discussions won't be unfamiliar to anyone who's seen movies from that time period that attempt to get into the heads of perverted criminals or even well-meaning dads. I don't want to say much else, but really this isn't a film based on plot twists. Everything is laid right out there, and the tension comes in the creepy Burr/Wood scenes and the plight of O'Brien and his charges.

Hey, speaking of creepy Burr/Wood scenes, I liked Bobby Osbo's outro to this one, in which he discussed the stir created by the public dalliance between the two stars. Our own Robert Osbourne is not one to tell tales out of film school during his segments, but I liked that he mentioned the public being taken aback by the fact that they were co-stars and the fact there was an age difference between the two while they were conspicuously being seen out on the town together.

Uh-huh. THAT'S what was odd about that pairing.