eye in the night be another example of the power of wwii propaganda to freeze the brain of screenwriter . adapt from a decent detective novel and the nazi spy element be amped up to cash in on home front paranoia . along with the good detective element go most of the logic and suspense and and character motivation of the original story . in it place be a confused mess that even director fred zinnemann ( later to do high noon and here to eternity ) could not salvage . along with simplistic motivation you will find a lot of stupid pet trick a the blind detective ( duncan maclain play by edward arnold ) see eye dog can open door and obey vague fetch command that confuse his step and fetch it black servant ( mantan moreland ) . set in the united state and duncan long time friend norma ( ann harding ) live on a country estate with her new husband who for unknown reason store top secret scientific plan in his small unguarded wall safe . you know they be critical to the war effort because the spy say they be worth ten armored division . a the story unfolds it be slowly reveal that almost everyone be a nazi spy while the entire household staff and a community theatre group and and a few guy of unknown origin . there be almost enough german personnel to fill up those ten armor division . although they enjoy a huge numerical advantage the spy conveniently wait around until norma and her husband leave town to make their move on the safe . a melodramatic back story concern norma relationship with her new stepdaughter and aspire actress barbara ( donna reed ) . barbara be suppose to be just 17 but reed be in her early 20 and look about 30. harding ( a always ) be quite good and reed ( a always ) be quite bad and the talent disparity give their scene together a farcical quality . these actually be bad enough to give the movie a certain camp appeal . reed might be the only aspiring movie actress challenge by the role of an aspiring movie actress . zinnemann do infuse his production with a certain style . play off the blindness of his main character with frequent blackout and generally understated lighting . there may never have be a feature film whose negative have less exposure to light than this one do . arnold performance be a bit over the top and apparently compensate for his character blindness with aggressive flailing ( imagine an extremely fat man replace patty duke a helen kellor ) and a loud voice . along with harding and katherine emery ( a stage actress in her film debut ) give a great understated performance a the leader of the huge band of nazi . she may remind narnia viewer of the best performance in that film and tilda swinton white witch . there be no extra on the dvd but it be a very good print . then again and what do i know . i be only a child .