A Cry in the Night

A Cry in the Night (1956) was directed by Frank Tuttle, who made Puritan Passions (1923), A Kiss in the Dark (1925), and This Gun For Hire (1942). Young Natalie Wood, who was lost between The Searchers and The Burning Hills, plays a headstrong girl who needs to learn her lesson after rebelling without a cause. Edmond O'Brien plays Natalie's overwrought father and overacts a storm. Brian Donlevy, the man with "the shortest arms in Hollywood," plays a no-nonsense detective. Richard Anderson, who made a career out of playing dweebs, is Natalie's concerned boyfriend. Closet case Raymond Burr, who had just finished Godzilla and was not yet Perry Mason, plays a nutjob who kidnaps Natalie. The poster for A Cry in the Night is slightly better than the movie. (And this is what passes for serious and insightful film criticism here at Starlet Showcase? Oh my!)

(Also see Cry Terror, Cry Danger, and Cry Babies.)