Journey into the Night
About Journey into the Night
Eye doctor Eigil Börne (Olaf Fønss) takes his fiancée Hélène (Erna Morena) to a cabaret and leaves her for the dancer Lily (Gudrun Bruun-Steffensen), who has faked a hurt ankle. They marry and move to a fishing village. There he gives sight back to a blind painter (Conrad Veidt), then finds Lily with the painter and walks out. Hélène, ill from the break, will not see him. Years later the painter is blind again. Lily begs Börne to operate. He refuses unless she leaves the painter. She poisons herself to force his hand. The painter declines the operation. Börne kills himself.
Cast & crew
More about Journey into the Night
F. W. Murnau directed for Sascha Goron's Berlin company. Carl Mayer adapted Harriet Bloch's Danish scenario Der Sieger. Max Lutze was the cameraman and Heinrich Richter designed the sets. Shooting ran from August to October 1920. The negative is five acts, 1,927 meters. Progress-Film distributed it in Germany. The German title is Der Gang in die Nacht. Lichtbild-Bühne reviewed it on 18 December 1920.
Themes
Making
Mayer's script is a free reworking of Bloch's scenario, not an original story. Goron Films shot it in the last months of 1920.
Reviews
Lichtbild-Bühne of 18 December 1920 called it one of the strong dramatic films of the moment, built on the actors rather than on crowds or décor, with people who did not look posed.
Look
Max Lutze shot the fishing village and the storm that sits in the middle of the film. The sets are spare rooms, not a packed studio palace.
Music
Silent on release. Richard Siedhoff wrote a score for it in 2016–17.
Preservation
Prints survive, which makes this the earliest surviving Murnau film. The original camera negative also exists. The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung holds material.
Notes
- Clementine Plessner is in the company. The painter is not given a personal name in the credits.
- Before Börne leaves her, Hélène writes the neglect into a diary.
Scenes
- Lily fakes a sprained ankle at the cabaret and Börne stays.
- The painter, blind again, refuses the operation Börne has been begged to perform.
Influenced by
- Der Sieger (Harriet Bloch scenario)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-der-gang-in-die-nacht)
